JANESVILLE — Questions of whether or not to fund a staff position to coordinate the Bags of Hope charity program overtook the Janesville School Board’s budget discussion Tuesday night.
The board ultimately approved the position as part of its $143 million 2024 budget.
A proposal in the budget was to add the employee, which would be part-time, at a rate of $25,000 per year.
All board members shared support for the program. However, the criticism was with a “lack of vision” as to what the role the part-time employee would play. Also some had a problem with the position not being brought up until the budget discussion.
“I don’t know why we are discussing this now. I don’t know if it’s appropriate in this discussion of the budget when we haven’t talked about it beforehand,” board member Elizabeth Paull said.
The program is currently coordinated by Denise Jensen, who is the administrative assistant to Superintendent Mark Holzman and school board clerk. It will be a part of the district’s community service fund. Holzman said Jensen has been spending too much time on Bags of Hope and not enough time on duties as the administrative assistant and board clerk.
“That is likely in relation to the board or the district choosing to reduce the number of staff we had. So, when we brought this forward we thought this would be a synergistic model to move this into Fund 80, the community service fund, because Bags of Hope is a true community service. It 100% fits into this model,” Holzman said. “If we didn’t move it to community service we would have then added a half-time position in the district to remove the duties (from Jensen) that we need that person to do, and Bags of Hope is a piece of that.”
Holzman said that the position would be up to $25,000. He also said that had been discussed for two months prior.
Board member Catherine Myers voiced strong support for the position, saying the district has a vested interest in Bags of Hope.
“I don’t know what the numbers are, but there’s return on investment on kids that are fed. It is in our best interest as an educational organization to help our community,” Myers said. “I really think $25,000 in a budget this size is chump change. We’re talking about a multi-million dollar budget and we’re quibbling over $25,000.”
Overall budget
The district’s tax rate will decrease from $7.41 to $7.05, or $1,410 on a $200,000 home. The overall levy will increase from about $47 million to about $50.2 million.
There will be about $7 million for air quality upgrades at Frankin Middle School and greenhouses Parker and Craig high schools. There will also be about $2.5 million to pay down non-referendum debt.
Open enrollment has taken a dramatic shift. This year, there were 578 students who open-enrolled in, but 588 open-enrolled out.
“When I came in 2019-20, we were plus-250 students. We’ve shifted to minus-12. That’s a significant cost for us,” McCrea said, adding that some work will need to be done over the next year.
Membership, which is students who live within the district boundaries, is also down from 9,108 to 9,101, which leads to less state aid.
This year, the district’s referendum debt is at $4 million.
