37% of PHS students have tried vaping

PRESCOTT – The Prescott School District is working to help students with their social and emotional health, as well as to curb vaping.

The school board, at its Wednesday, Oct. 19 meeting, heard a report on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey administered to students every other year. Director of Student Services Sandy Strand said the most recent survey was administered in 2021, shortly after students were back in school full-time after the COVID pandemic.

“We know there are a lot of factors that could potentially impact the data,” she said.

The survey looks at five areas: Motor vehicle safety – seatbelt use and risky driving behaviors.

School safety – student perceptions of safety, violence and weapons and drugs at school.

School climate – Bullying and school connectedness.

Mental health and wellbeing – anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Sexual Behavior – Prevalence and prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

The district is working at each building to help students.

“What our mental health team did, and we worked with our building administrators, we took a look at those areas and determined we need to develop comprehensive goals,” said Strand.

She said that students are screened for mental health issues and suicidal thoughts or tendencies, and programs are put in place for students who need help.

The district is also working with Pierce County Public Health, the Prescott community and other county school districts on getting messaging to students about the dangers of risky behaviors.

At the Prescott High School, the nursing team is working at “enhancing student knowledge around the risks of alcohol consumption and abuse,” Strand’s presentation to the board stated, depicting a poster that shows the impact alcohol has on a teen.

“We did see our schools are pretty commensurate with all of Pierce County when it comes to our scores. We did see some elevation with our juniors and seniors,” Strand said.

The survey showed that 37 percent of students have tried vaping, and the goal is to get that number down to 30 percent. In the last 30 days, 16 percent of students reported vaping, and the goal is to get that number down to 13 percent. Strand said the district is trying to cut the number of students, also, who have tried marijuana. She said that no middle school students reported on the survey that they have used marijuana.

The district is looking at enhancing positive messages with students to cut bullying and develop character traits. Malone Elemen- tary School ouers weekly lessons on develop ing character traits. The Malone Intermediate School has biweekly social and emotional learning lessons with the school counselor and has programs to honor students. At Prescott Middle School, there are monthly lessons on developing character traits, as well as social and emotional learning lessons six-eight days each month, as well as counseling lessons.

The district is focused on making sure all students feel like they belong. School connectedness initiatives include theme days and celebrations.

“In terms of fostering that school connectedness and helping reduce bullying and those types of things, those return to learn days at the beginning of the year serve as a wonderful jumping board to building those relationships and creating that sense of belonging,” said Strand.

District budget

The school board voted to finalize the dis trict budget, which was reviewed at its August meeting and recommended for board approval at the school district’s budget hearing in September.

The general fund budget for the district for the 2022-23 school year is $17,341,301. The tax levy – the amount collected from property taxpayers to support the budget – is $9,752,610, down just under 1 percent from last year’s levy of $9,759,290.

“We are basically equal to the amount of money (from last year),” said Superinten- dent Dr. Rick Spicuzza. "It's a zero percent increase that we’re asking from our community.”

Finance coordinator Sue Gerdes said that since last month’s version of the budget, the district has received its final enrollment count (see below) and shows an increase in interest income on the $15 million in referendum funding that will be spent starting next summer that’s been invested.

“It’s still a balanced budget,” she said. The tax rate for property taxpayers also drops from $10.23 per $1,000 of valuation to $8.50, because of the increased property values in the district.

“This is impressive, and obviously we want to make sure it’s clear there are many taxing entities," said Spicuzza, noting that the overall tax bill includes city or township taxes, and levy amounts from Pierce County, Chippewa Valley Technical College and the state. “The proportion that people are paying for the schools is decreased.”

Spicuzza again urged residents to contact state lawmakers and urge them to utilize a $6 billion surplus to help school districts. He noted that the district was able to balance its budget and keep stavng and programs stable by utilizing $790,000 in federal COVID Ele mentary and Secondary School Relief funds. This is the last year schools will have that money.

"This spigot turns ou this year," he said. "With zero percent coming in, we would need roughly about $800,000 just to stay even, another $615 per child just to be able to keep the programming and salaries where they are.”

Substitute teacher pay

The school board voted unanimously to raise the amount it pays substitute teachers $30 per day, from $120 to $150 to make the district more competitive with neighboring districts.

“We are running very thin on our sub pool," said Spicuzza. "What we're running into is districts in close proximity are much higher than we are. We believe that with our small class sizes and location, if we can get to be a little more competitive, it would allow us to recruit more substitute teachers.”

Hudson pays subs $200 per day. River Falls is at $160.

Prescott long-term sub pay will stay at $160 per day.

Board member Tanya Holub asked if it would help to pay a premium rate for spe- cialized education areas or on days of the week when it's most divcult to find substi tute teachers.

“Have we considered that?” she asked. Spicuzza responded, "We can follow up on that. I hope this will be some of the solution. We’re not the only district that is struggling. Hopefully this can at least move it into the right direction of having a little deeper bench.”

Enrollment dips

The ovcial third Friday of September en rollment – used by the Department of Public Instruction to calculate state aid – shows Prescott is down 20 students.

A three-year average of district enrollment is used.

“The previous year we were funded on 1,346 students. We are now being funded on 1,326 students," Spicuzza said.

Districts are allowed to use summer school instruction time in calculating enrollment based on the amount of time students are involved in programming, and Prescott’s participation was up to pre-COVID numbers this past summer.

Two years ago, Prescott was only able to count 47 full-time equivalent students from summer school. Last year, that number was 62, and it jumped to 72 this year.

“That’s 72 students we are able to add to our overall budget," Spicuzza said.

For this year, he reported that there’s a small kindergarten class but 4K numbers are on the rise. The sophomore class is largest at 134 students.

“We’re hoping many of the new homes are going to be populating with younger kids coming in," Spicuzza said.

Board President Mike Matzek suggest ed the district consider a population study to forecast future enrollment numbers.

“We might want to consider some kind of population study to see what our numbers look like five years from now," he said.