Meeting in special session on June 27, the Williams Bay Board of Education revoked its $172,391 contract with Milwaukee-based concrete and asphalt paving firm Stark Pavement Corp. for the repaving of its west parking lot and drive for staff at Williams Bay Middle-High School, 500 W. Geneva St. (State Hwy. 67).

The apparent low bid contract had been approved by the board back on May 13.

“Stark ... informed us that their proposal did not include parts of the project, and subsequently they cannot do the work for the quoted price,” White said in board discussions on June 27. “They left out of their bid the driveway and some of the concrete work. I am recommending that the board revoke the approved contract with Stark Paving...”

In related news, the board approved White’s recommendation that the board approve an original $220,755 bid from Wolf Paving Co., Inc. of Hartland and Sun Prairie to repave the staff parking lot and driveway.

Wolf emerged as the new low bidder after Stark Paving’s revised bid came in at $240,287. An original third bid from Muskego-based Merit Asphalt came in at $183,132, but concrete work was not included in the bid.

In response to board questioning, White said he expected work on the staff parking lot and drive to be performed in August.

School van purchase

District plans to purchase a 7-passenger school minivan at a cost not to exceed $52,908, approved on June 10, have taken a turn after new information surfaced that the district could upgrade to a more flexible 10-passenger van configuration to transport small groups of students and staff.

Having originally considered the purchase of a $52,904 7-passenger 2024 Chrysler Pacifica minivan, White reported to the board on June 27 regarding the availability of a 10-passenger van that has the same size and dimensions of a 12-passenger van but meets maximum Department of Transportation requirements that only a “driver and nine students can legally be accommodated in a vehicle which is not a school bus as defined.”

White reported to the Board of Education that the neighboring Lake Geneva School District has a 10-passenger van is use.

“We have been working with our insurance company and others to determine if we could purchase a similar vehicle...,” White said. “I believe it would be more advantageous to have a 10-passenger vehicle than a 7-passenger vehicle. Based on our research, this vehicle meets the requirements of the DOT ... My recommendation would be to go with the 10-passenger van ... I think it’s more practical for what we’re trying to do.”

Business Business Manager Jennifer Frederick added that “staff desired something bigger” than a standard 7-passenger minivan.

White said he expected the district to get around 10 years of service life out of the proposed 10-passenger van.

In board discussions, White noted that a 2024 Ram ProMaster high-roof 10-passenger van was available on the lot at Kunes Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Elkhorn for $71,900.

With the board’s encouragement, White will bring a formal proposal for the purchase of a 10-passenger van to the board’s next regular meeting on Monday, July 22.

Frederick noted that the proposed purchase would be funded out of the district’s 2023-2024 general fund balance.

Employee compensation adjustments

Based on a 2024 market analysis model aimed at keeping the Williams Bay School District competitive in retaining existing employees and attracting new ones in a highly competitive educational marketplace, the Board of Education on administration recommendation approved revised 2024-2025 certified staff contracts, revised 2024-25 support staff letters of employment, revised 2024-2045 administrator contracts and a revised 2024-2026 district administrator contract.

Compensation amounts for all district employees were previously approved by the board in April based on a 4.12% Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase. The market analysis adjustments brings all district employees within 5% of the median within their job group.

“We ran those [market analysis] numbers and found that most of our people were under the market...,” White reported during board discussions. “As we started putting that together we became more and more comfortable with using that model in the first year of the referendum and trying to catch people up ... We told the public that we were going to make sure that our employees were comparable and our wages were competitive with the schools in our region.”

Other news

In other developements at the special June 27 meeting, the Williams Bay Board of Education:

Approved the district’s updated employee handbook for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year with minor update changes.

Approved recommendations from Stevens Point-based enterprise software solutions firm Skyward to purchase two host servers at a cost of $34,617 to replace three aging 8-year-old servers and one central storage unit that are currently running the district’s virtual environment and are due to be replaced. Skyward specializes in K–12 school management and municipality management technologies, including student management, human resources, and financial management. Skyward is partnered with more than 1,900 school districts and municipalities worldwide.

Upcoming dates

Upcoming meeting dates of public interest in July include the district’s annual meeting on Monday, July 22 at 6:30 p.m., followed by the regular monthly board meeting at 7 p.m., both held in the lecture center at Williams Bay Middle-High School, 500 W. Geneva St. (State Hwy. 67), Williams Bay.