Thursday, November 1, 2018 • Vol. 54, No. 24 • Verona, WI • Hometown USA • ConnectVerona.com • $1.25
City of Verona
Taxes would rise 3 percent Modest growth, focus on reducing debt limit budget options
Plumbing & Glass Service, Inc. Call Joyce & Ken Buczak Today! S ho
Since 1968!
p Local!
MP#6973
New Home Plumbing Remodeling & Repair Well Pumps • Water Heaters Water Softeners Power Sewer • Drain Cleaning Glass & Screen Repair Mirrors Cut To Size
845-7755
www.plumbingandglass.com
adno=15436
Verona Press The
Verona Area School District
Inside Budget publication Page 13
JIM FEROLIE Verona Press editor
this year to again have an assessed value of $272,000. City taxes are about 30 percent of the total property tax bill. With construction at Epic slowing, the city’s tax base doubling in the past decade and debt a big concern among elected officials, this year’s budget is tighter than it’s been since 2014, when the city was working to staff the fire station it was building for its newly reformed fire department. The proposal published in this week’s Verona Press
Turn to Budget/Page 14
Verona Area School District
Aug. 23 start in calendar plan Public invited to give input on changes Nov. 5
If You Go
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Verona Area School District officials are happy with the proposed 2019-20 calendar that would start school on Aug. 23. But they’ll need Mother Nature to cooperate to have it end May 29 as planned. The calendar discussed Monday by the Verona Area school board would start summer 2020 early to allow more time for construction on the K-Wing as it’s renovated to house K-5 charter school students beginning that fall. But even with
What: School calendar meeting When: 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5 Where: District administration building, 700 N. Main St. Info: verona.k12.wi.us adding five minutes at the end of every day, there is only one “snow day” built in for the high school, which requires 1,137 hours of instruction by state law. “We could have no snow,” superintendent Dean Gorrell. “We could have five days of snow days.”
Turn to Calendar/Page 8 The
Verona Press
Photo by Scott Girard
Glacier Edge Elementary School students Kendall Koch, left, and Kendal Person carry the boxes of socks upstairs to put them in cars that would take them to Badger Prairie Needs Network.
‘Like a billion socks’ GE’s ‘Socktober’ collects 2,000 pairs to donate to BPNN
SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Second-grader Kendal Person looked on as teacher Carina Miller poured out a dozen boxes of socks onto their Glacier Edge Elementary School classroom’s rug. “That looks like a billion socks,
and wow,” Person said, smiling wide. It wasn’t quite a billion, but it was enough that the first- and second-grade classroom and their peers around the school had met their goal: 2,000 pairs of socks. All were donated during the month of “Socktober,” and were passed along to Badger Prairie Needs Network at a
schoolwide assembly Tuesday morning. It was Miller’s third year leading the effort, which came from a 2013 “Kid President” video that encouraged viewers to collect socks and do something for the homeless in their
Turn to Socks/Page 16
Parent survey: District doing fine, but middle schools can improve SCOTT GIRARD Unified Newspaper Group
Verona Area School District parents are about as happy with their schools as are parents at similar districts elsewhere, according to results from a spring survey. But there were clear differences among the more than 1,500 parents who responded, as both Savanna Oaks and Badger Ridge middle schools scored below comparable schools that had also used the School Perceptions survey
in a variety of categories. The survey, taken in February, is in its third year of use here. The district implemented it to begin getting feedback from parents and staff, and it has continued to use the same survey so it can measure progress from year to year. District officials shared the results of the survey with the Press in October. The school board is expected to discuss both the parent and staff surveys at an upcoming meeting. More than 80 percent of those who answered indicated they were “satisfied”
with the district and that it was “run effectively.” While both were below the comparison district scores on the 1 to 5 scale, the 4.08 average score for satisfaction with communication from the district was above the comparison score. The parent survey included questions asking respondents to rank the importance and success of the district on various subjects, such as writing and grammar, world languages, programming for English-language learners and Advanced Placement classes.
Superintendent Dean Gorrell said in a news release sent with the results that the data can help the district work toward its “Every student must succeed” mission. “We can’t say thank-you enough to all staff and families who took the time to respond to the lengthy, but crucial, survey,” Gorrell said. “What we learn from survey results will assist the district and its 11 schools on our continuous improvement process, developing goals and strategies to
Turn to Survey/Page 12
NOW HIRING AT BOTH LOCATIONS 15
adno=36705
Verona residents would get their first city tax increase in four years under the proposed 2019 budget. Though there’s plenty that could be changed in the plan the Finance committee has sent to a Nov. 19 public hearing, the 2.7 percent tax hike appears unlikely to diminish. Staff and the committee have been working for weeks to pare down department requests, cutting dozens of items as large as $100,000 and as small as $500. The result would be an increase of about $40 on an average home, estimated
613 WEST VERONA AVENUE • VERONA, WI 53593
608-845-3000 •
515 West Verona Avenue • Verona, WI 53593 608-497-4500 • hiexpressverona.com