A sale of $62.9 million in bonds was approved by the Neenah Joint School District Board of Education at its April 5 meeting and completed the District’s debt issuance from the April 2020 referendum. The bonds were sold at a 2.98 percent interest rate, which is below the estimated 4.5 percent at the time of the referendum.
This was the second phase of borrowing and completes the total $161.9 million the District will need for the projects. The original plan was to use a three-phased borrowing approach, however due to the low interest rate of 2.01 percent in the first borrow, only two phases were needed. The low interest rates could potentially save District taxpayers $27 million from the original estimated interest payments.
The Board also approved a defeasance plan where funds are placed in an escrow account through Associated Bank to prefund a portion of referendum debt from 2020. The Board approved moving $3,542,520 into the account, which will result in approximately $1 million in taxpayer savings.
Also approved at the meeting was a donation from Bergstrom Automotive for $250,000 for naming rights of the automotive wing at the new high school over the next 25 years. The District also plans to create a partnership between Bergstrom and Fox Valley Technical College to place students in authentic workplace experiences.
In other action, the Board approved hires for Allison Dahlke as a Special Education teacher at the high school, Kate Dietzen as an English Learner teacher at the elementary level and Andrea Simonis as a library media educational assistant at Clayton and Spring Road. An immediate resignation was approved for Clayton educational assistant Ashley Eraas, while a resignation for April 30 was approved for Lakeview and Coolidge Instructional Library Technology Specialist Crystal Schalliol. End-of-year resignations were approved for Shattuck teachers Luke Matthias and Shannon Sanders, District nurse Catherine Wittmann, Spring Road teacher Stephanie Melzer and Horace Mann educational assistant Cassandra Buksyk.
A number of new Board policies presented by the policy committee were approved. The policies were related to a variety of topics, including Board member ethics and behavior, harassment, library access, student employment and head lice.
The Board had its first review of the proposed 2022-23 Employee Policy Manual. Many of the changes were clerical in nature and cleaned up existing policy. The main changes were allowing employees to continue receiving a $1,000 annual post-employment benefit following 30 years of service to the District and no longer providing insurance benefits in retirement for employees hired after July 1, 2022. The proposed changes allow all 12-month, building-level employees to take up to five days of vacation on days when students are present. This benefit was previously only afforded to employees with eight years of completed service. The proposed manual will be voted upon at the next meeting on April 19.
The Board also celebrated the state champion boys basketball team as players and coaches were in attendance. Sophomore Allie Ziebell, who recently became Neenah’s all-time leading scorer in girls basketball, was also recognized, along with student representative Parker De Deker, who recently won a state forensics championship in impromptu speaking.
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