RIVER FALLS — The School District of River Falls received the 2026 Energy Efficiency Excellence Award from FOCUS ON ENERGY. At the July 20 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent David Bell spoke about the award that was earned through improvements to energy systems in district facilities.

“This was a core element of the referendum building projects was to add, whether it was through our HVAC systems, whether it was through our electrical systems, or in the addition at the high school or where this picture is, which is the transportation center,” Bell said. “The decisions that we made were made in consultation with FOCUS ON ENERGY to make sure that we were making wise decisions that lead to long-term savings.”

Bell shared stats from the award that included saving enough energy over the lifespan of the new equipment to power 3,087 homes for a year. The project also avoids carbon emissions equivalent to taking 5,000 cars off the road for a year.

The upgrades to the systems also lower long-term operating costs. The district made upgrades to its lighting efficiency.

“In addition to the fact this is energy saving, it’s green, it’s the right thing to do for the environment, this really saves us money, right? It saves us money,” Board Vice President Alan Tuchtenhagen said.

Financial Update

With the fiscal year ending June 30, Board Treasurer Mike Miller spoke about a few changes to account structures. One of those changes is to the $650,000 budgeted for maintenance projects each year. Those funds were put into Fund 46 this year, as the referendum projects prevented the district from using those funds this year.

“It’s a savings account that we use to pay for some more bigger deferred maintenance projects and capital improvement projects each year,” Miller said. “Because we’ve had so much activity for this last couple years doing the referendum projects, we’ve taken some funds and put those into that Fund 46.”

The district has a 10-year plan in using the maintenance project funds.

The district has a goal of setting aside 25-30% of the fund balance to help with bond rating and avoid short-term borrowing. With a 1% budget shortfall and 1% revenue overage this year, there was $900,000 in excess funds.

The district is opting to move those funds into an account to back their new self-funded insurance plan, meaning the district pays out employee claims rather than premiums. The item was discussed and approved at the March meeting.

“One of the things we’re going to try and do is create a savings account to help with some of the ups and downs and fluctuations of those premiums that we’re going to be paying or bills that we’re going to be paying,” Miller said. “We are looking to put $900,000 from our balance from last year’s budget into a savings account to offset some of the fluctuation in the insurance.”

The district was advised to put $4.5 million in the account over the next 3-5 years dedicated to the self-funded insurance.

“There’s a couple of ways [to get to $4.5 million]. Let’s say that in the first couple of years, the premiums that we’re collecting are higher than the claims that we’re paying out, then we would have a surplus of those funds,” Director of Finance and Facilities Lynette Coy said. “Another way would be to designate surplus if there is any again the following year. It could be built into the budget.”

Coy said if not enough funds are set aside, they will come out of the unassigned fund balance, which impacts other funds.

“The cost associated with moving to that fully insured model would have gobbled up a more significant portion of our budget,” Bell said.

Policy readings

The board went over the first readings of a policy revision and two new policies. The two new policies focus on communication between students and teachers as well as supervision. The plans lay out unacceptable ways for students and teachers to communicate and dive into acceptable technology use for students.

The revised policy tackles the student use of artificial intelligence.

“Essentially it says, first of all, you shouldn’t be doing it in any way that would be personally identifiable, and if they are going to use it, they have to have express permission,” Bell said. “If they don’t follow those guidelines, they would be subject to the disciplinary guidelines.”