PRESCOTT – News of the Prescott High School girls golf team taking home a State Runner-Up trophy topped off the PSD school board meeting on Oct. 16, 2024. This was the first year the team competed in Division 1.

“Making the jump to Division 1 this year,” said Coach Chad Salay. “It could have been demoralizing for a team that's had so much success and having to go up against these huge schools from all over the state, some of the biggest schools in the state, and these guys just never wavered.”

The coach further praised the team for their performance at state.

“It came down to the last nine holes again for the third straight year where we kind of pulled away in the last stretch, and just again, a testament to the champion mentality of all these guys that never give up.”

Also getting recognition and praise was the new student leadership group combining the Student Council and the National Honor Society, plus innovative programs included a broadcast media class and a new coffee shop. Updates were given on the tech ed program’s sawmill and kiln. Students are involved in all aspects of the manufacturing process, decision making and calculating efficiency. The operation has already shown significant cost savings and revenue generation of $19,334.

On the business portion, the board approved a resolution to open a credit line at First National Bank not to exceed $1 million at a 4.5% interest rate if the November referendum doesn’t pass. Also due to the uncertainty of the passing of the referendum, two budgets were presented and approved, with different levies associated, based on current revenue. The first budget totaling $11,080,711 faces a $63,000 state aid reduction and $54,000 in private school voucher costs. The second budget includes a $1.2 million operating levy to be used to maintain staff compensation, educational programs and extracurricular activities.

Mike Kosmalski, Director of Teaching and Learning, presented the district’s test scores, showing strong performance in both ELA and math. Test scores for 2023 revealed PSD was #1 in the Middle Border Conference districts in achievement and students’ growth; in the top 15% in the state for student growth; and in the top 10% in the state in academics.

Board member Tanya Holub noted that math scores have shown growth in the past couple years. Kosmalski agreed: “A couple years ago, it didn't look quite look like that; part of it's been a curricular adoption of math Desmos, middle school level, high school has a new curriculum as well. We've been building that ‘thinking’ in along the way, and not just as a district. We're looking at K12, at how do we deepen that thinking? Like we said, we're bringing it into other areas. The math score isn't just the math teachers, it's all the other areas where we're also doing math. In elementary sometimes we do that when we're standing in line for lunch and we're skip counting or I should say, factors learning our factors.”

President Mike Matzek commented, “I can't express how much… this is just great. It's great news, and this is exactly what we're here for. I mean, great, great teachers, and it's showing in the classrooms, and you guys just do such a fantastic job. I'm blown away by all these scores. And I know it, it's not all about test scores. It's certainly not, you know, it's a metric, he's using to compare against other districts. The kids learning and growing, and you guys just do such a fantastic job.”

The operating levy and community impact was the final agenda item. The board emphasized the importance of local taxpayer support to maintain current programs and avoid deeper cuts. The financial impact to property owners if the referendum passes would be an additional property tax of .55 per month, or $6.60 annually for property value of $100,00; $1.65 monthly or $19.80 annually for property value of $300,000 or $2.75 monthly or $33 annually for property value of $500,000. (Chart #2 shows some of the funding challenges of the districts and how districts are not equally funded.)

In closing, the board reiterated the importance of supporting the operating levy. Matzek made the final statement regarding the referendum.

“We're all local taxpayers,” he began. “My property taxes were reassessed last year, we all felt the same hit, and I watched my property value increase quite significantly. But for better or worse, we're all living in the same community and feeling the same pain when it comes to the economy and property taxes and all that stuff. So, we understand and as a board, we really try to be cognizant of, you know, what do we really need? And we just came back to that 1.2 number over and over again. We tried to get it under that, but it just didn't fit with our standards. I truly think that in April, when it failed, when the mill rate would have jumped quite a bit higher than what the mill rate is here for whatever reasons. I know we have higher property value, but it's spread across more houses and more value. So, the mill rate does help, and I'm hoping the community understands that, and is willing to help support this. The bottom line is and Pat hit it earlier, the state has made this a decision for communities, whether you could call the school funding system broken, you could call it a number of different things, but the bottom line is, the state has put us in a position, whether it's by design, maybe it is by design to have the local communities decide whether or not they want to fund public schools. And in Prescott, we have seen what we get from the state, three quarters of a percent a year for almost a decade. We can't sustain that. We can't cut ourselves to excellence. We can't continue down this path and continue to be number one in just about every major category, and then other categories that we are excelling in like the tech ed program, that was amazing. If we're going to continue that academic excellence that we've been able to see from our buildings and from our teachers and from our administration, from our kids, we need community support, and that's the bottom line. It's going to come down to the community to make this decision, what type of school district we want to be, and I'm hopeful this time around. If you have any questions or have any gripes about anything, you can reach out to any one of us, and we're more than willing to take a phone call.”

During the last public comment period, two community members spoke up, one for and one against the referendum. The gentleman with the opposing view commented he thought it was kind of ridiculous to ask the community to fund more since they were told “no” once, although he admitted it was a relatively small dollar amount; he questioned when the board would be back asking for more.