JWP school board levy set for ‘23

The JWP School Board finalized its under levy options and certified the 2023 levy at its Monday, Dec. 19 meeting. The district’s referendum market value under levy option was set at $200,000, while the net tax capacity under levy was set to $25,386.

The referendum market value is a property tax levy which is applied to the properties of the tax base. In JWP’s case, the tax base is in Janesville, so the $200,000 under levy option will be applied to all property owners. The net tax capacity is a property value used for calculating most school taxes.

District Business Manager Matt Moline explained that the $25,386 figure was a community education item. “We don’t have a large program in that area and we do have a reserve fund,” he said. “We would have enough in the reserve where we don’t have to increase the levy.”

Moline prepared two examples of how the under levy options would affect property taxes. One property, assessed at $150,000 in 2022, would see a seven percent increase in taxes, or $39. Another property, which saw a significant increase in value, could receive as low as six percent in increase to its taxes.

The total numbers for the budget suggest a 0.86% increase in the actual levy. “Doing this is going to help taxpayers as much as we can while the school can still do the things it wants to do,” Moline claimed.

“We want to try and help decrease the amount that the taxpayers are paying again this year,” Board Member Laura Seys said. “Hopefully, this will help ease their pain a little bit.”

Student Council representative Zach Groh reported his organization intends to schedule Snow Week for mid-February and planned to offer an optional movie for the students to watch the final few hours of school on Thursday before winter break.

However, Superintendent Jeremy Erler told the board that there may be a possible snow day for that day due to the potential blizzard hitting the district. “We’ve already had a couple crazy weeks of weather,” he pointed out. “It looks like we’re not going to slow down this week.”

The waves of winter weather that have hit the area in December have not made decisions to close the school easy for Erler. “If there’s a horrible part of my job, that’s it,” he admitted. “It’s such a tough decision to make.”

JWP allots a few true snow days per year. If school has to close because of weather, the district has “flex days” during which students can still do school work online. “I don’t know if we should do a flex day on Thursday,” he said. “I’m not sure how productive the students could be.”

To avoid using too many snow days at once, Erler thought about talking with the district union representatives about using a comp day in place of a true snow day. He also considered making days that the school will have to close due to weather staff development days.

Erler reported that enrollment numbers are down by eight students since the November meeting. “We had a few exchange students leave us, and other students transferred to better situations for them,” he explained. Another two students are expected to join the JWP district in January.

He also let the board know of two resignations. Jessica Keenan will step down as a co-head coach for track while Jeff Wagner will not be coaching football next season.

After approving a few policies and accepting $9,411 in donations (with many thanks), Seys presented departing school board member Tim Johnson with a plaque for his 12 years on the board.

“It’s been fun and an experience, that’s for sure,” Johnson said. “It’s not as bad as people seem to think it is. We’ve accomplished a lot  over the past 12 years because we have a great staff. I’m excited to see where Jeremy and his team go from here. He’s got the right pieces.”

Kendra Hoehn, who was not present at the meeting, will also receive a joint plaque with her and her husband’s name on it. Dan Hoehn passed away in the middle of his term, and Kendra was voted in as a board member shortly after.

Joan Olson and Kevin Born will be taking the place of Hoehn and Johnson in January.

The meeting adjourned at 6:39 p.m.