Bittman4board

Just wanted to make a comment about the vote on the HESPA agreement. I believe everyone was in favor of the contract with the increases, including myself.

This contract is an increase of $385,000 over what we budgeted for this year in April and June. The request which was voted down (Only Mrs. Murray and myself voted in favor) was to reduce the expenses from other areas into the Salaries and Benefits. This would keep the existing budget plan in place. While some would say this is a risk to other areas, it should be noted, the budget draft which was presented last week was $370,000 higher on expenses from the budget draft in April. So essentially, what we were looking to do was to go back to the April expense budgets and move that increase (which still keeps us in Surplus) into the Salaries and Benefits. If we don't do this and just pass everything along: The Levy will need to make up the difference. Hence everyone's property taxes. I wasn't in favor of that. The Budget still has another round before being finalized. So in August, we will try again.

For those who want better control of property taxes, it starts with the Budget and ends with the Levy. So the best place to make changes is in the budget.

Lastly, the comparison to the HEA contract is not correct. All of the budget changes were during negotiations, so this change was already incorporated with respect to the HEA Contract and included a greater than $1MM abatement to reduce property tax impact. (So we were below the max levy to individual tax payers) In this one, it seems the new board didn't consider the budget impact. That's unfortunate. Maybe they will in August.

Huntley District 158 support staff gets new contract, but board disagrees on how to fund raises The Huntley 158 school board voted to approve a new contract with its support professional union, but it was not without some disagreement.

This is a good read of a change in “cut scores” in Wisconsin. This, I believe, is likely to happen in Illinois as well. https://www.thenorthwestern.com/story/opinion/2024/12/14/wisconsin-school-performance-standards-report-cards/76830798007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR06HchvnfaX8CwTcS50aAS_DWnYz16vStZYJ-WSHpYY7Q7UeiB9LTSxSn0_aem_ePFt4CV8MlrR5A_UUGqUjQ

Wisconsin parents deserve truth about their children's academic progress | Opinion DPI’s behind-closed-doors changes to the Forward exam are so significant that comparing scores from 2024 forward to past years is now impossible.