In an opportunity for legislative representation at the state level, the River Falls School Board selected board member Lindsey Curtis as the delegate to attend the 2024 Wisconsin Association of School Board (WASB) Delegate Assembly.

The board approved a resolution on Dec. 18 to provide Curtis direction when voting on behalf of the school district at the assembly on Jan. 17, 2024.

The assembly allows member districts to make decisions on how school boards and districts operate in the future. According to Clerk Alan Tuchtenhagen, WASB works with state legislators to make decisions on Wisconsin schools, and the resolutions selected by the representatives at the assembly are prioritized in discussions.

“It’s based on what this delegate assembly comes up with,” Tuchtenhagen said. “They will come up with a list of resolutions that, these are the priorities so that the lobbyists that we have in Madison and working with the legislature. It's a non-partisan group and boy we work with both sides because we have to down there, but this is the guiding thing.”

The 2024 list of proposed resolutions for the assembly include stipends for Wisconsin Department of Public Education cooperating teachers and including WASB in lawmaking discussions as artificial intelligence develops.

Board President Stacy Johnson Myers said Curtis and Superintendent Jamie Benson have already looked through the proposed resolutions.

“It is our responsibility then, as a board, to empower her to vote in the best interest of the River Falls School District,” Myers said. “It sounds like [the proposed resolutions] are relatively straightforward for you.”

Tuchtenhagen said he will be joining Curtis as a voter at the event, as he is the director of Region 4, which includes River Falls, at WASB.

“I’ll be up front for Region 4 and we also vote on those,” Tuchtenhagen said. “We’re a voting block of two on the delegates, so if you’ve got any thoughts about this, pass them along to both of us.”

Referendum update

Benson provided an update to the referendum vote that is expected to occur on Feb. 20, 2024. Benson said the current state of the process is getting voters the information needed to come to a decision when the time comes for both the operating and facilities questions.

“We’ve been purposefully kind of ramping that communication piece here just in the last month,” Benson said. “The goal is to help people make an informed decision in February.”

The operating referendum would ask for $1 million in additional money next year, $2 million in the 2025-26 school year and $3 million in 2026-27 and $3 million recurring beyond that.

The facilities question involves $28 million in safety, security and maintenance, a multi-purpose space at the high school and a transportation center. The final facility recommendations were selected upon completion of a community survey.

Personnel

The board approved the following personnel recommendations:

• Hiring Amy Edelman as a full-time long-term substitute Grade 5 teacher at Rocky Branch Elementary School from Jan. 2-April 1 (for Madison Morgan).
• Hiring of Daniel Lynum, Annabel Reimers, Kamryn Arceneau, Siri Bartlein and Shayna Tokheim as short-term, on-call substitutes.
• Accepting the resignation of full-time Upper Elementary teacher Mitch Burow from Montessori Elementary School effective Jan. 10, 2024.