By SARAH PARKER | County Line Editor
The Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District set its local tax levy at $2,148,771 for 2022–23, an increase of $264,439 over last year’s figure, at its annual meeting and budget hearing Monday.
But the mill rate will drop from $8.09 to $8.01. A mill rate reflects the amount of taxes a property owner pays per $1,000 of valuation. In other words, the owner of a $200,000 property would pay $1,602 in school taxes.
In recent years, the mill rate has been in a downward trend: in 2017–18, it was $10.37; 2018–19, $10.54; 2019–20, $8.66; 2020–21, $8.15; and 2021–22, $8.09.
Of this year’s levy, $1,008,771 will go toward the general fund and $1,140,000 toward debt.
N-O-W receives the highest percentage of state aid in the Scenic Bluffs Conference; those funds make up 84.5 percent. Cashton gets 81.6 percent; Bangor, 71.7 percent; Royall, 71.7 percent; La Farge, 69.8 percent; Hillsboro, 66.3 percent; New Lisbon, 50.2 percent; Wonewoc-Union Center, 50.5 percent; and Necedah, 41 percent.
Also, wages went up for N-O-W employees this year by $267,816, and, correspondingly, FICA and retirement costs increased by $47,580. Salaries and benefits make up 54 percent of N-O-W’s entire budget.
Of the total $14,772,242 expenditures to run the school district, $12,745,585 is slated to go toward the general fund; $1,422,405, to the special-education fund; and $605,252, to the food-service fund.
Like at many local rural schools, N-O-W has experienced declining enrollment, seeing a 48-student drop over the past four years.
Among local schools, N-O-W has the second-lowest local general-fund levy at $1,008,771, with La Farge’s at $927,802; Cashton’s, $1,052,017; Royall’s, $1,820,635; Hillsboro’s, $2,093,244; Wonewoc-Union Center’s, $2,227,532; New Lisbon’s, $3,592,284; and Necedah’s, $5,116,341.
District sets annual goals
The following are the district’s goals for 2022–23:
1) Collaborate with Monroe County to conduct a school safety assessment and continue to implement the School Safety Intervention Team.
2) Provide staff with training on mental health first aid.
3) Transition the N-O-W School District from a one-year teacher mentorship program to a two-year teacher mentorship program (year two of two).
4) Implement the Wisconsin DPI Model for Educator Effectiveness to meet the required six components of Educator Effectiveness following a three-year process (beginning, intermediate, and advanced practices).
5) Increase efforts to communicate with families the importance of student attendance with brochures; 5-, 10- and 15-day absence letters; referrals to Monroe County Corporation Counsel; and research options for incentives for positive attendance.
6) N-O-W Elementary and Brookwood Junior/Senior High School will continue with year three of the three-year, DPI-recommended process of implementing the 2020 English Language Arts (ELA) Standards.
7) The director of special education and the elementary building principal will collaborate to define and refine N-O-W’s response to intervention process.
8) N-O-W Elementary and Brookwood Junior/Senior High School will continue with year three of the three-year, DPI-recommended process of implementing the 2020 Physical Education (PE) Standards.
9) Work with PLCs (department teams), the instructional coach, and administration to select essential content-area standards for grades 7-12 (year one of two).
Referendum
N-O-W will continue to devise plans for an April 2023 building referendum calling for a new gymnasium, auditorium, industrial technology education additions, and other facility upgrades. An article in last week’s County Line cited $24.9 million as the amount the district could ask for via referendum without raising the mill rate. That figure has been revised to $23 million.