Milton to hire outside lab for enrollment projections
MILTON — The Milton School District will get an outside opinion about future enrollment before finalizing plans for a referendum on a new high school.
The board approved Superintendent Bernie Nikolay's recommendation Monday to hire UW-Madison's Applied Population Laboratory to create enrollment projections.
Business Manager Dianne Meyer creates annual projections, but Nikolay believes the district needs an independent analysis if will be using the projections to decide on a referendum, he said.
The study and a professional presentation cost $3,200. It will be paid from of the district's 2008-09 contracted services budget.
The lab will use historical enrollment and housing data and population projections to create four or five projections, each making different assumptions about birth, migration and economic trends, according to literature from the lab.
The study will take four to six weeks.
Meyer uses a similar process, but the lab has an advantage because it specializes in projections and sees the trends for many school districts, Richelle Winkler, associate researcher and demographer, told The Janesville Gazette in December.
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Feb 25, 2009 at 1:27 p.m.
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nemsis: you're free to leave the country.
Feb 25, 2009 at 5:56 a.m.
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Is there an exemption for school taxes for elderly and those married couples who have no kids in school?
Feb 24, 2009 at 5:36 p.m.
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Forget the new Gym, Forget the new pool. REPAIR, not remodel, what they have.
School should be focused on academics, not sports. They don't "NEED" to
keep up with the scale of the disctict next door. Keep it to scale with Milton's district.
No room at the middle school? Sure there isn't, because they want to
add another grade level, PLUS the meccas students. Yeah, put them in with SIXTH graders,
to show them all that they don't HAVE to work thru their high school years like everyone else does.
Heck, they can still get a Milton H.s. diploma and only go to school half time, at "their own pace".
Great way to "educate" them while they are young! Wish I could find an employer that would give me
full time salary, and benefits, for working part-time "at my own pace", because all the other employees
and management "just don't understand me and my needs". Ooops! Rambling on here.
Repair what needs to be repaired. Don't go asking for support
for the bigger n better that is "just to keep up with the Jones'"
NEEDS should always be met, and usually are in this district.
WANTS are just that... WANTS.
This school district needs to re-think it's Needs VS it's Wants,
just like all the residents/taxpayers are doing these days.
Feb 24, 2009 at 4:21 p.m.
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The authorization of this study is very much representative of elected officials like Wilson Leong and others who have decided what they want to do and now are out to find the justification for doing it. Of course there are more economical and more realistic ways of dealing with increased enrollment at all grade levels. Until the citizens of our town begin to hold people like Mr. Leong and his flock to account and embrace the common sense of School Board members like Mike Pierce we will continue to have to ask the question, "what are they thinking?” I'm not sure what historic data this study could possibly use to in a meaningful way when we are charting new and frightening economic times in this country, not to mention this area specifically.
I believe in turning data into knowledge and two years ago I think that could absolutely have been done here...but with GM and it's related vendors' closings along with the other companies laying off and while everyone agrees that there is no way to tell when this recession (or maybe even depression) will end...how does the School Board have the audacity to consider asking for more tax money? I also must repeat my disgust with the superintendent’s assertion that MHS was “built in the 1960’s”. It’s true that A high school was built in the 60’s, but that school is now surrounded by 1990’s and 2000’s additions and has had major portions renovated into modern classrooms. Having been born and raised in Milton I know that my fellow citizens recognize the realities of the times and regardless of political persuasion or general feelings on a new school…I know that the people of Milton recognize that, at the very least, now is not the time to be considering a new school.
Feb 24, 2009 at 1:42 p.m.
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Attn: Milton School District. You can't figure this out from your own numbers? Or how about the economic climate? I already pay almost $4,000 in taxes for a 1400 sq. ft. home. My budget doesn't have room to grow for the school. But I can pull my kids out and move!
Feb 24, 2009 at 12:57 p.m.
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Yet another way to justify the massive building project that they want. Surely, one of the five projections will fit their argument that we absolutely need this new high school. Too bad that no one is willing to explore a scaled-back alternative.
Feb 24, 2009 at 12:50 p.m.
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Can't this enrollment be dealt with a bit more efficiency? Seems idiotic to have to pay out to get a projection for a head count that changes though out the year anyways.
Feb 24, 2009 at 12:23 p.m.
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Maybe this is a polite way of telling Dianne Meyer that she doesn't know what she is doing. The Milton School District should eliminate her position and use the money towards other needs in this district...oh, such as books for each student in core classes at the jr high and high school level's.
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