Ad Hoc Committee

Last night the board approved a resolution to create an Ad Hoc Committee to consider grade configuration issues in the district. The scope is laid out in the resolution:

A task force appointed by the School Board President be established to discuss the issues relating to the enrollments and grade configurations of the 4K through 8th grade schools in the Monona Grove School District. An analysis and recommendation(s) will be provided to the School Board by the end of the 2008-2009 school year. The committee to be comprised of 2 School Board members, 3 administrators, 1 staff member from the Cottage Grove elementary schools, 1 staff member from the Monona elementary schools, 4 Cottage Grove citizens, and 4 Monona citizens.

John Kitslaar also announced the committee citizen membership.


The committee agenda for yesterday's meeting can be found here:

The Snow Queen...

Playtime Productions Children's Theatre fall production is coming to the MG High School auditorium Saturday, Nov. 15th at 7pm. This season's performance is an original musical adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale "The Snow Queen" and features 12 Monona Grove students in the cast and crew (pictured). You will enjoy this entertaining show and at the same time support these hard-working and talented kids in this terrific program.

The rest of the fall schedule and more information about Playtime Productions Children's Theatre Group can be found here.

Coming attractions

Next Wednesday's board agenda can be found here.

Items of Note:
VIIa&b:Approval of the Scope and Membership of the Ad Hoc "Grade Configuration" Committee.

VIIIB:Paul Brost will give a report concerning Homecoming week at the High school. Paul has repeatedly expressed frustration with continued unruly behaviours associated with this event and intends to reduce Homecoming week activities in response.

VIIIC: Approval of 4-K providers for 2009-10. I would be interested if anyone has comments about the current providers.

More on the budget flier

Kristin Yates writes:

There was another big problem with the mailer. There was a pretty significant number problem. Equalized value for property tax was stated as 1,999,308,341, and the DPI numbers ended up at $1,877,729,956. I assume this is a timing problem since these numbers were late, published the 23rd.

THE ERROR IS HUGE THOUGH. The mill rate was shown to increase only 4.5% despite the levy going up 12.86%. In reality, the mill rate goes up 12.4%. in the final numbers.

The discrepancy noted between the budget flier and the actual numbers approved at the annual meeting is correct. The difference arises from the fact that the state “Equalized Property Value” was not reported to the district until October 23rd, after the flier was mailed. The estimates that had been used for equalized value were too high, the actual increase came in at only 1.43%.

However on average this makes no difference to property taxes. How’s that? The total amount of money raised by the district from property taxes is fixed by the state school funding formula and any referenda- the district is budgeted to raise $23 million from taxes this year. On the other hand the tax paid on each property is the product of the value of the property and the mill rate. If the total increase in the property value is less, then the mill rate will increase; conversely if the total property value increases faster than the revenue limit then the mill rate will fall. We have seen the mill rates decrease in 6 of the last 10 years, and last year the increase was only 0.3%. Of course what happens to the taxes on a particular piece of property depends on the individual valuation of that property.

The lower equalized property value for the district does in the end increase the proportion of state aid to the district resulting in a smaller total increase in property taxes.

You will note from the flier that this year our state aids decreased about $1.2 million, largely due to declining enrollment in prior years. This trend will be reversed next year given our current increasing enrollment, but it does represent a significant shift toward property taxes in the district.

Its in the Mail

I have heard some complaints about the annual budget flier being delivered late in Monona, with many people not receiving it until the day of the meeting.

The budget flier was delivered to the Post Office the week of the 8th, after approval by the board. This should have allowed plenty of time for postal delivery, and indeed the flier was delivered in Cottage Grove the beginning of the week prior the meeting. However the USPS apparently mishandled those destined for Monona addresses. The district did inquire with the local Post Office when it was noticed the flier wasn't received, at which point the USPS did deliver it.

The budget flier, with its annual meeting notice, is sent out each year as a courtesy to the residents of the district. It is my understanding that most districts don't do this, relying instead on the usual meeting notices posted in newspapers, district offices and on-line.