Stevens Point school board news

STEVENS POINT – On Monday, Jan. 13, the Stevens Point Area school board discussed programming updates, open enrollment for the 2025-26 school year, student news and the results of the district’s 2023-24 audit.

Student affairs
Student Senate representative Kylie Haas announced a successful winter sports season thus far at SPASH. At the time of the meeting, the boys’ hockey team and the boys’ swimming team were undefeated.
Haas concluded her report with a promotion for SPASH students’ upcoming one-act play, to be performed Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m. in the SPASH auditorium.“[The students] hope to see many community faces there,” she said.
The Student Art Show will be held on Jan. 30 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Bliss Educational Services Center.

New website
Communications Director Sarah O’Donnell announced that the new district website, www.pointschools.net, launched successfully on the day before winter break. In addition, she reported an increase in traffic on both the website and on the district’s social media accounts. The District will continue to address user feedback and to resolve support requests going forward. O’Donnell also mentioned that an episode of “Monday Mornings with Mike” featuring district updates was the series’ top-viewed episode of the year.

Honors
McKinley Elementary teacher Robert King was presented with the Mandana Bliss Award, which honors “unwavering commitment and outstanding efforts… for educational excellence.” The award is named after Mandana Hale Bliss, Stevens Point’s first schoolteacher.

In addition, cross country coaches Donn Behnke and Kevin Hopp were named Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches of the Year by the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association.

School finances
Superintendent Cory Hirsbrunner announced a series of donations to area schools, including a piano to the music department and $30k to be used toward treadmills at SPASH. In addition, there is a potential offer “on the table” for a donation of up to $50k to be used toward new playground equipment at McDill Elementary School.
The results of the 2023-24 financial audit of the district, conducted by an outside audit firm per state guidelines, “went smoothly,” according to the team, who found “nothing out of the usual.” The board unanimously passed a motion to accept the report.
The board reviewed the budget evaluation process. After reviewing 48 programs and 374 positions, the district filled three positions “as is,” froze ten positions and eliminated 11. They are currently evaluating 14 programs with potential inefficiencies, which will be reviewed at the next meeting on Feb. 10 at 6 p.m.

Hirsbrunner put forward a motion to approve a $39k proposal from urban planning company MDRoffers Consulting “to conduct community growth and enrollment projections, with funding sourced from budget savings due to unfilled positions.” The study is estimated to take 4-5 months and will culminate in a detailed report with projections for every grade level at every school in the District through 2040. The motion passed, with all members present voting yay except for Dennis Raabe, who voted nay.

School staff
The board approved the personnel recommendations put forth by HR, which noted the retirement of six personnel, the resignation of one and the acquisition of a school nurse.
Several district employees will attend the State Education Convention, which will be held in Milwaukee from Jan. 22-24.

Election

Candidates for the upcoming spring school board election were announced in the order in which they will appear on the ballot: Jen Bushman (I), Miguel Campos, Jeremy Lebrick, Marne Mercer, Barb Portzen (I), Kristina Smith.

Partnership
Boys and Girls Club (BGC) of Portage County CEO Danielle Belsky gave a presentation on the ways in which the organization collaborates with the district, which includes providing kids with a safe space for kids to spend time after school, time to work on homework, snacks and enriching programs. BGC also provides mentors to struggling students and a workforce development program. The Berard Center location also offers dental care. BGC has been established in Portage County since 2002.

Enrollment
The board discussed open enrollment projections for the 2025-26 school year as reviewed by the Educational Services Committee on Jan. 6. Based upon enrollment trend data, staff workloads, student needs and projections for the coming school year, the Board unanimously passed the motion to approve unlimited general education 4K and general education non-resident seats available under open enrollment.

Due to a current limitation of available resources for the programs, which require specialized instructors who are able to provide for disabled students’ individual needs, the board also passed the motion to restrict the number of seats available under open enrollment to zero multi-categorical students (all disability areas) for early childhood programming, K-6 in-person and grades 7-12 in-person.
There will be one multi-categorical (all disability areas) seat available for the disabled and three seats available for Project SEARCH.

School policies
The board unanimously passed a resolution to revise the contents of Policies 8510 and 8511, the district’s wellness and free and reduced-price meal policies, respectively. In addition, the district will be looking into the possibility of making participation in school sports count toward students’ P.E. credits.
The board approved with amendments a series of resolutions proposed by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards that included report card standards, decoupling public and private school funding and pathways to licensure for prospective teachers.