MILTON 鈥 The Milton School Board is expected to take action Monday on paying down about $1.5 million in debt.
In February, Baird, the district鈥檚 finance consulting company, presented a plan to the board that involved the district putting almost $4.3 million in escrow. The district has about $42.6 million remaining in debt from July 2019.
If the board approves the measure, it would be the second time it has approved paying down the debt. In 2023, the board approved defeasing some of the debt, saving $1.3 million in interest.
If approved, the district would make a payment of just less than $4 million on, or prior to Sept. 1 for 2026. Then a new debt schedule provided by Baird would kick in as of 2027. The fisrt payment, according to a Baird handout, shows a 2027 payment of about $3.8 million that includes about $1.2 million of interest. The payment without defeasance would be just under $4 million, which includes about $1.3 million of interest.
The annual interest would go down quicker after defeasing the debt. In 2027 before defeasance, interest added onto the annual payment toward the debt would be just over $1.3 million to bring the overall total to just less than $4 million. After defeasance, interest becomes $1.2 million, making the annual payment $3.8 million.
The debt would be paid off in 2038 with defeasance, but without it would be paid off in 2039.
Before defeasance, the scheduled 2038 payment would be just less than $4 million, of which would be $87,600 of interest. However, with the debt defeased the district would pay over $563,000 in 2038, of which would be about $8,300 of interest.
Without defeasance, the district would pay just over $1 million in 2039. Interest would be just shy of $14,900.
Health sciences lab
The Milton School Board on Monday will also hear a finance committee report regarding a $717,000 project that would lead to a renovation of a portion of the city鈥檚 high school for a healthcare sciences lab.
The lab would be next to the high school鈥檚 new science, technology, engineering and mathematics wing.
Construction would start this summer. The $717,000 cost of the construction cost of about $582,000 for construction costs from the low bidder, JP Cullen, and remaining dollars set aside for contingency and work on an audio/video system in a simulation lab that hasn鈥檛 been finalized. The project cost had originally been estimated at $970,000.
Director of Buildings and Grounds Stephen Schantz and Milton High School Principal Jeremy Bilhorn presented the project to the school board at a meeting in December.
The project would entail renovating three and a half classrooms. In addition to the simulation lab, there would be a four-bed lab space for the certified nursing assistant program, improved space for the emergency medical technician program, a phlebotomy lab space for a future certification program, bathroom facilities suitable for inpatient and at-home training care and flexible learning environment for future certificaiton programs
In December, board member Rick Mullen called the proposed lab 鈥渟o exciting.鈥
鈥淭alk about opportunity. It鈥檚 a great, great thing for our students to get involved in, so thanks everyone who鈥檚 making this happen,鈥 Mullen said.
Unusual hazardous area update
There will also be a transportation update, specifically on how the district will maintain an unusually hazardous transportation plan to identify hazardous conditions within a two-mile radius of school buildings. This is required by state law for districts to transport students living within their schoools when their most-direct route is deemed 鈥渦nusually hazardous.鈥 To meet the standard, districts must demonstrate through 鈥渙bjective, documented analysis that conditions materially exceed normal walking risks for similarly-aged students.
The current plan for the district was last reviewed in 2019-20, according to a memo from Director of Business Services Ross MacPherson.
The current district plan labels 鈥渧ery large sections鈥 of residential areas as 鈥渦nusually hazardous,鈥 but doesn鈥檛 provide any data to support the determinations, according to the memo.
鈥淯pdating the plan would strengthen the criteria used in derminations of eligible district transportation routes for the School District of Milton,鈥 MacPherson wrote. 鈥淩esidences within current UHT zones and a two-mile radius of their home schools should be evaluated to improve consistency of decision making and better align the district with statutory expectations and industry best practices.鈥
The district has been in discussions with Cedarburg-based Traffic Analysis & Design, Inc. to conduct an updated plan. The company would provide field traffic studies and counts, speed and gap studies, sight distance evaluations, crash history analysis, railroad crossing risk review, age-specific pedestrian risk assessment, geographic information system mapping of walking routes, objective hazard of walking routes and documentation aligned with Wisconsin practice.
Consolidated Elementary would not be evaluated as it is not walk accessible but all other district schools would be, MacPherson wrote.
There would be a preliminary field investigation and risk threshold analysis in collaboration with district staff, the city public works department, law enforcement and transportation partners. Traffic Analysis & Design would collect and coument key pedestrian risk factors for each school attendance area, including student age bands, sidewalk continuity, crossing guard and law enforcement presence, roadway lane configuration, shoulder width, railroad crossings, available traffic data and other locally-identified safety conditions.
With the information, the company would develop preliminary threshold maps tailored to Milton鈥檚 roadway and traffic environment. It would then do a walk zone analysis. It would then draft walk zone boundaries and hazardous area parcel maps. Where unusual hazards exist, the company would document specific route conditions and provide recommendations to mitigate risks.
Also on the agenda is a report on the planning of the hiring process for a new superintendent with the pending retirement of current Superintendent Rich Dahman.