Weekly meeting recap

De Pere City Council

City to share the road with Ledgeview
DE PERE — The City of De Pere and the Town of Ledgeview will share the costs to pave Ledgeview Road and Lone Oak Road between the two municipalities.

The De Pere Common Council this week authorized an intergovernmental agreement stating as much.
According to terms of the agreement, the two municipalities will share costs of the bidding.

For Ledgeview Road, De Pere will pay 21.4% of the bid price for curb repair and resurfacing of 2,035 feet of the street, while Ledgeview’s share of Ledgeview Road is 78.6% of the bid price for curb repair and street resurfacing of 7,476 feet of street.

For Lone Oak Road, De Pere will pay 39.8% of the bid price for the curb repair and street resurfacing of 1,546 feet of road, while Ledgeview will pay 60.2% of the bid price for the curb repair and street resurfacing of 2,336 feet of road.

Parking study focuses on former Shopko site
In other business, the board approved the authorization of an agreement for consulting services between the City of De Pere and Walker Consultants, Inc., of Minneapolis, to study parking and help implement recommended changes.

“The City is in need of consulting assistance for implementation of the results of the downtown parking study for parking agreement assistance, financial analysis, in addition to conducting a parking-structure needs and design analysis to foster continued private development within the city’s downtown, as well as ensure sufficient public parking,” reads Resolution 22-76 authorizing the agreement.

The city will pay Walker $34,000 for the services, which will include a focus on the former Shopko site.

In other business, the Common Council unanimously:
• Accepted a donation of $3,500 to the police department to create police training rooms from Unison Credit Union.

• Accepted $1,000 to the police department for funding of the emergency assistance voucher program from Denmark State Bank.

• Approved a new two-foot wide easement and occupancy permit in the alley between the 400 block of Main Avenue and Reid Street.

• Approved public parking in a parking lot owned by the city located at 360 Main Ave., with the exception of winter months, until the property is sold or until it’s developed.

• Approved finalizing a contract between the City of De Pere and On Site Logging of Forestville for tree removal services in right of way areas in Section E3 of the city. The contract is for 109 trees and includes stump removal.

• Approved a request by Definitely De Pere to install an art sculpture, “Falling Stairs,” on Fourth Street.

• Approved a contract for consulting services to the city by Dixon Engineering, Inc. for installation of T-Mobile wireless antenna services at the Ninth Street water tower.

• Authorized the sale and issuance of $10,120,000 in general obligation promissory notes.

• Authorized the sale and issuance of $895,000 in taxable general obligation promissory notes.

• The board voted 6-1 to purchase power cabling for a security Camera on Main. Ave. for $13,000, using funds from unassigned reserves.

Ald. Dean Raasch was the sole nay vote.

• The board voted 6-0 to purchase a truck valued at $90,320 for the building maintenance department.
Ald. Raasch abstained, saying he had difficulty deciding because he felt it was “too much truck” for the city’s purposes.

De Pere School Board

Exiting employees liked working in the district
DE PERE — Kirby Kulas, human resources director for the Unified School District of De Pere summarized for the board the results of exit interviews over the past year.

The upshot?

Even though they were leaving, employees seemed to like working in the district.

Of the 60 employees that left last year, 47 responded to exit interview surveys, for a response rate of 78%, he said.

More staff (26%) reported their main reason for leaving was to seek a position in another district, followed by family needs (19%).

17% of respondents surveyed said they were leaving because they were seeking a higher salary elsewhere, and an equal percentage were leaving due to retirement.

When it came to opinion of their jobs, Kulas said the largest downward trend was in the area of wages and compensation, with 32% saying they were dissatisfied (compared with 12% in 2020).

The second-largest downward trend was in the area of training and staff development, with 25% of respondents reporting dissatisfaction (compared with just 9% in 2020).

Most employees surveyed reported being happy with their supervisors and with the school district offices and services.

All facets of the district offices and services received an 89% satisfaction level or higher.

96% of all respondents said they felt safe at work, 94% said they felt they were treated fairly by their fellow employees, and 91% said they felt their work environment was positive and their skills were put to use effectively.

In fact, most (89%) said they liked working for the Unified School District of De Pere and that the morale where they worked was high (81%).

Overload pay
The board unanimously approved paying 14 teachers in the district overload pay to take on additional classes beyond their full time work loads.

Overload pay is an alternative way of addressing the need for more staffing rather than trying to hire multiple instructors to teach just a few hours per week.

The district expects that its student body will increase by 11 students over last year.

The overload pay means teachers will receive anywhere from an extra 4% to 8% of their base salary, depending on the amount of extra time they are being asked to put in.

It’s not a new concept; the district has done it in the past.

Compared to last year’s overload pay, this year’s adds an additional .20 FTE of additional sections, totaling $17,000.

“Percentages differ by school because the length of classes differ by school,” Human Resources Director Kirby Kulas said.

He gave the example of a music teacher at the elementary-school level, where classes are 30 minutes each.

“Each 30 minutes at the elementary level is 2% (of her salary),” Kulas said.

Teaching two extra classes means the teacher earns 4% on top of her base salary.

At the high school level, classes are 53 minutes, which calculates to 8% of a teacher’s salary.

New substitute rates
The school board increased the pay for substitute and long-term substitute teachers for the 2022-23 school year.

Rates are going from $168 to $170 per day for substitute teachers, and from $212.42 to $215 per day for long-term subs.

The pay is less than it was during the pandemic, when there was a shortage of teachers.

The difference in pay rates is due to the fact that long-term subs plan lessons and do additional duties of a regular teacher in addition to teaching, whereas short-term subs follow a lesson plan made by another teacher, Kulas said.

Another recent change is that long-term subs will receive a bonus only on Mondays and Fridays, which are traditionally the most difficult days to find a sub, Kulas said.

During a recent budget hearing, Finance Director Dawn Foeller said that last year, the district spent around $1 million on substitute teachers, due to the pandemic.

Bellevue Village Board

New daycare
The Village of Bellevue had only two items on the agenda for the August 10 meeting – one of which was a conditional use permit to allow a daycare center at 1541 Bellevue St.

The conditional use permit for the daycare center was approved unanimously by the board, with the contingency that the business must acquire all necessary permits and licenses required by the state and village before occupying the space.

The village also reserved the right to review the conditional use permit yearly or as deemed necessary.

Road improvements on Delmar Lane
Community Development Director Andrew Vissers said the proposed improvements to Delmar Lane and the connection to State Highway 29 are related to the Town & Country Storage Condos which the village has already approved.

The improvements will be funded by the developer.

Vissers said the developer is looking to improve the roadway and create a cul-de-sac.

The connection to State Highway 29 means that the project needs board support to move forward.

“They’re looking to improve the roadway from generally State Highway 29 down through Delmar Lane, and then create a cul-de-sac which will allow for the larger condo development that was approved through the Planned Development District,” he said.

“As part of the overall road improvement, the right of way is dedicated, but the connection to State Highway 29 does require the municipality that the improvements are going to be in to support that connection.”

The resolution to support the road improvements and connection to the state highway was approved unanimously.