River Ridge School District meeting
Another strange twist
in River Ridge School District saga
By Ted Pennekamp
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. No, we’re not talking about the 1966 farce starring Zero Mostel, but the meeting held in the River Ridge School District Wednesday night has to be about the most bizarre in the district’s history.
First, the day before the special meeting of electors, a lawsuit is filed in Grant County Circuit Court against School District Clerk Emilie Mumm.
Next, hundreds of people show up to the meeting held at River Ridge High School. The meeting begins at 8 p.m.
Lastly, eight attendees stand up and say that they are going to boycott the meeting. Then about three fourths of the estimated 200 or 300 in attendance walk out. Robert Key, the elected chairman, runs the meeting but the remaining attendees discuss none of the agenda items and no motions are made. At 8:14 p.m., the meeting is adjourned.
“It certainly wasn’t what I expected,” said District Administrator Jeff Athey. “I anticipated a big meeting with a lot of discussion.”
The agenda included a possible tax for sites, buildings and maintenance; a tax for the school debt service fund; and a tax for the school capital expansion fund.
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services has mandated that River Ridge make a number of repairs and upgrades for code violations, which include electrical needs and fire hazards, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning concerns), Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and other health and safety issues by the start of the 2015-16 school year. If the issues are not resolved, the district could be ordered by the state to shut down buildings or parts of buildings or be fined.
At its July 15 meeting, the school board voted to approve up to a $1 million state trust fund loan and levying a tax in connection with the loan to help pay for the project. The loan would be for five years at 3 percent and would have a tax impact of $87 per year on a property worth $100,000. The loan falls within the energy exemption and raises the district’s revenue limit ability. Also on July 15, the board approved to use up to $500,000 of Fund 49 to further pay for the cost of the state mandated project. Fund 49 has $549,000 which was to be used for roof repair.
A petition had previously been filed calling for the special meeting of electors which took place Wednesday night. The school district met with its attorney Eileen Brownlee who advised that some of the proposed agenda items under state law don’t allow for any decision making authority on the part of the public. In other words, the electors can’t direct what the school board can do or cannot do regarding certain things. So, those items were taken off of the agenda. The agenda was then posted twice prior to Wednesday night’s meeting of electors.
The petition signers apparently wanted to have all of the facilities upgrades be done to the Patch Grove building and not to the Bloomington building because they want one school site.
District Administrator Athey said that fifth and sixth grades will be taught at the Bloomington site this school year and the state mandated project needs to get started soon. McKinstry Engineering/Construction of Madison has said that the project would cost $1,589,452 at the most. McKinstry’s preliminary schedule said that construction would begin on Aug. 1 providing contracts are in place with the district. On Sept. 1, it is expected that the electrical work will be 20 percent complete and the HVAC work would be 50 percent complete. According to the preliminary schedule, the final project completion date would be Aug. 1, 2016.
A performance contract for McKinstry is expected to be awarded at a school board meeting on Aug. 4.
In another strange twist regarding the facilities upgrade project, Cory A. Moravits filed a civil suit on Tuesday, July 28 against School District Clerk Emilie Mumm. A motion hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 19 in Grant County Circuit Court at 3 p.m. According to court records, the motion is “to compel the school district clerk to call a special meeting of electors to consider and transact complete agenda subjects.”
