GREEN BAY SCHOOL BOARD
Reduced student assessments
At a special board meeting, Monday, Jan. 24, the Green Bay School Board took steps to ease up on student assessment to help alleviate stress on teachers.
The board voted 5-2 (with Eric Vanden Heuvel and Brenda Warren voting ‘“no”) to suspend some assessments tests to help ease teacher stress, effective Feb. 15.
In December, the district sent out a survey asking staff members what it could do to better support them as they continue to navigate teaching in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the requests was an ask for fewer assessments.
“I think they need to not have to test so much,” Board Member Nancy Welch said. “They have to use their time for the teaching that needs to go on.”
Board President Eric Vanden Heuvel said the issue of assessments is much more complex.
“Through wanting to find a way to ease teachers, there’s a rhetoric that’s sort of been developed,” Vanden Heuvel said. “Again, it ebbs and flows with each individual person, but that assessments are bad and initiatives are bad and professional development is bad, and it’s not. Those are essential things for us to do what we want to do.”
The vote suspends all non-state or federal-mandated non-coursework assessments for the rest of the school year starting Feb. 15.
Superintendent Steve Murley – who warned the board that pausing or dropping other assessments could also come with monetary consequences – will present the board Feb. 14 with a list of non-mandated assessments that theoretically could be stopped.
The motion also included a staff directive to put together a task force to write a proposal to present to the board that would reduce district-required assessments by at least 25% in 2022-23.
COVID-19 protocols
The board updated its policy on students and staff isolations – reducing it from 10 days to five, which is in line with new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines
HOWARD VILLAGE BOARD
Bids sought for pavilion project
The Village Board agreed Monday, Jan. 24, to move forward with plans to develop the Village Center’s public space, east of the Howard Commons apartment complex.
Village Administrator Paul Evert said the project calls for a 6,750-square-foot activities building on the west of the site, adjacent to an open-air pavilion with 17,520 square feet in the center, where a beer garden and splash pad will also be located, and an open-air amphitheater with a lawn area and a stage off to the east.
“It’s only 3 acres of space, so it’s heavily appropriated, as you can imagine,” Evert said.
The board approved bidding out the Village Center pavilion and public space project, which is now estimated to cost $16.7 million.
The board last May approved a naming rights agreement with Dan Schmidt to name the pavilion after his parents, Arnold and Gloria Schmidt, the founders of Bay Industries.
In exchange for naming rights, Dan Schmidt agreed to contribute $4.875 million, with annual payments of $325,000 over 15 years.
Evert said bids could be awarded in March, with construction starting in May and completion in June 2023.
“There might be odd things, like suddenly we can’t get our roofing material – we’ve got to tarp it up,” he said. “They’re almost expecting to have to do that, so that’s really one of the big delays right now is roofing material. That wouldn’t really (extend) the finish date, but it wouldn’t be the normal order you want to build it in.”
Village Center work
The board awarded the Village Center second addition roadway construction project to MCC, Inc., the low bidder of seven companies, for $1,313,041, and the utility construction contract to Feaker & Sons, the low bidder of 11 companies, for $937,084, contingent upon attorney review of the contracts.
Director of Engineering Mike Kaster said the work includes installing 2,400 feet of sanitary sewer, 3,300 feet of water main, 3,200 feet of storm sewer and 3,500 feet of urban roadway and sidewalk to complete roadways within the Village Center.
Evert said the board will be asked in February to approve borrowing money to finance the roadway and utility contracts, as well as the pavilion project.
70-unit apartment project approved
A planned development district (PDD) to allow for the construction of five 14-unit apartment buildings near the intersection of Sherwood Street (County FF) and Shawano Avenue (County C) received final approval Monday, Jan. 24, by the Village Board.
The board’s motion includes a condition added by the Plan Commission to have the trash and recycling enclosure match the building materials.
Lexington Homes requested the PDD for the 13.33-acre site at 3802 Shawano Ave. to construct what it calls townhouse/coach house-style residential dwellings with individual private entries, attached garages, etc., ranging from approximately 1,000 square feet to more than 1,500 square feet.
Michelle Stimpson of Lexington Homes said “the need is there for this community, and we know that without a doubt, based on our own market studies.”
Stimpson said there is “an ever-increasing population that does not want home ownership anymore.”
SEYMOUR SCHOOL BOARD
Open enrollment seats
The School Board unanimously approved the open enrollment recommendation presented Tuesday, Jan. 25, by Superintendent Laurie Asher.
It calls for every grade to be open to unlimited open enrollment in students.
“We are not recommending, at this time, that you would close any grades or any schools,” Asher said. “If you remember last year, I recommended that we did not do any intradistrict open enrollment to Black Creek in a couple of grades, because if we would have added some new students, we probably would have had to add new staff, which is additional funding. This year, when looking at Black Creek’s numbers, it was really those older years, or older grades that we allow, or recommend bigger class sizes, so, really if you are looking at the classes sizes, we should not, even if we have Seymour students going to Black Creek, and some additional open enrollments, we shouldn’t have to hire additional staff to cover that.”
She said there is significantly less space for special education open enrollment in students.
“We are saying for special education, we are recommending no spaces available for special education students, other than three speech and language spaces,” Asher said.
COVID-19 update
Asher gave the board a quick update on the district’s current state in relation to COVID-19 positive cases.
She said from Sept. 1 through Jan. 24 there have been 419 positive COVID cases, compared to 130 during that same time period in 2020-21.
“As of (Tuesday, Jan. 25), we have three positive, active cases for staff and 40 for students,” Asher said.
She said she continues to track active cases daily, as well as tracking trend data on Mondays and Thursdays.
“We always talk about peaks, or we ask our local health department and hospitals, when are we going to peak – if you take a look at our numbers, it does look like our peak was around Dec. 13 to Jan. 17,” Asher said. “But it does look like in the last week we have been declining.”
She said the district has run out of rapid COVID tests, as of Jan. 13, and it is unclear when it will have access to more.
“(During our peak times) we were giving out 30 rapids a day,” she said.
Asher said the district is still administering PCR tests of about 8-10 a day.
DE PERE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS
Bait and Tackle at Voyageur Park
Fishers in De Pere will again have access to bait 24/7 this spring and summer.
The De Pere Board of Park Commissioners approved the renewal of Swamp Donkey’s permit Jan. 20, to operate a bait and tackle vending machine at Voyageur Park.
Swamp Donkey Bait & Tackle, LLC, stationed its bait machine at Voyageur Park from April to October last year.
The owner, Rob Korth, said he wants to get an earlier start on things this year.
“On average, the water becomes fishable for open water on or around the first week of March,” Korth said in a letter to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry. “Last year, I missed out on March, which tends to be the busiest month for traffic.”
Korth’s permit last year was approved by park commissioners with the stipulation the board would re-evaluate this year.
The board at that time expressed concerns about litter, vandalism and energy usage.
“It was there, it was clean, it was taken care of, and it fit a need,” Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Marty Kosobucki said.
The bait machine accepts cash and credit, and dispenses live bait, such as minnows and nightcrawlers, terminal bait, some tackle items, hard baits and scissors and/or pliers.
No-mow grass
A discussion could soon be in front of the board regarding the possibility of planting no-mow grass, which is a blend of slow-growing fescue grasses, in some city greenspaces.
Commissioner Ryan Jennings suggested the idea as a solution for the large amount of mowing needed in the summer.
Kosobucki said in the past, on a typical mowing day, employees work nine hours a day, and when seasonal workers are not on duty, employees end up working overtime just to get the mowing done.
The Common Council recently approved replacing a 16-year-old, 11-foot mower, at a cost of more than $100,000.
However, it isn’t slated for delivery until 2023.
Kosobucki said the Sustainability Commission is looking at a similar topic: no mow areas created as naturalized or conservancy-type areas that can be allowed to grow naturally.
He said park commissioners should wait until that commission has researched it before delving into it themselves.
“Once they come up with something, then we will bring it to the park board so you can look at it, and then make a suggestion from there,” he said.
SUAMICO VILLAGE BOARD
Donations designated for Calavera Springs Park
A motion to place $1,775 received from donations and fundraising efforts into the Calavera Springs Park Master Plan was approved Jan. 17 by the Suamico Village Board.
Village President Sky Van Rossum said last year staff raised the money for Suamico Parks and Recreation by partnering with local businesses and selling T-Shirts.
The funds included:
• A $750 donation from Mortenson & Eisle
• $690 from parks T-Shirts
• $150 from Coins for the Community with North Shore Bank
• $185 from a silent quilt auction with Primitive Gatherings
BROWN COUNTY BOARD
911 tower replacement
Brown County Supervisors approved a plan Jan. 19 to build a new 911 tower near the jail to replace the one atop the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Cofrin Library, which is set to be razed when a new library is built in its place.
The board voted unanimously to use $2.2 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to cover the costs of the new tower.
The tower is one of seven in Brown County’s 911 system.
Executive director of health and human services
Streckenbach introduced Jeremy Kral as the new executive director of Health and Human Services at the Jan. 19 meeting.
Kral begins in an interim status Feb. 1, with the board appointment taking place Feb. 16.
Kral will take over for Erik Pritzl, who was recently named Oconto County administrator.
SEYMOUR CITY COUNCIL
Noise ordinance modified
The City Council made a few modifications to its noise ordinance at its Monday, Jan. 24, meeting.
City Administrator Sean Hutchison said the city’s planning commission spent a couple of months reviewing the city’s current noise level requirements in the industrial zoning code.
What the commission ended up approving, he said, was having one set of noise guidelines for the city to follow.
“Before, areas in the industrial park actually had a lower noise tolerance than those in residential areas,” Hutchinson said. “So, it made sense to not be arbitrary, where it comes to current or new businesses coming into the city.”
A requirement for businesses in an industrial-zoned area less than 1,000 feet away from a residential area, that manufacturing activities must be fully enclosed, was also approved.
“Fully-enclosed means something that fully encapsulates the noise that comes from that manufacturing activity,” Hutchison said. “Instead of being in a building, there could be some kind of, for lack of a better term, a bandshell or shelter that actually absorbs the noise and prevents it from going into other zoned areas.”
ASHWAUBENON VILLAGE BOARD
Pedestrian accommodation changes approved
Changes to the village code related to providing pedestrian accommodations within new subdivisions were approved Tuesday, Jan. 25, by the Village Board.
Community Development Director Aaron Schuette said the changes apply to new subdivision preliminary plats and do not affect plats previously approved, such as Highland Ridge Estates.
“The intent of that is to provide better direction to staff, as well as developers, on the front end of the project as far as what types of pedestrian accommodations are required, and then from that point giving the Village Board the flexibility to make any adjustments moving forward,” he said.
Before any preliminary plat is approved, Schuette said it has to come before the board for final approval, when board members at that point may discuss amenities or utilities required for the subdivision.
The amended code defines “pedestrian accommodations” as “sidewalks, paved path(s) running parallel to street(s), off-street trails, mid-block crossings, public access easements between parcels, public rights-of-way between parcels, or a combination thereof.”
Schuette said the “default” requirement calls for sidewalks on both sides of a street, which the board may vary as it sees fit.
He said the amended code requires pedestrian accommodations upfront, though the board, with input from the Plan Commission, will have the discretion to not require them for various reasons.
Hy-Vee license
In other action, the board approved a Class A Beer/Class A Liquor license for Hy-Vee, a grocery store coming to the former Shopko building at the Bay Park Square.
The license is for the entire store, excluding the bar/food hall/patio area, which was already approved for a Class B Beer/Class B Liquor license.
The store’s wine and spirits department will have an exterior entrance at 2401 Oneida St.
Hy-Vee is being granted a suspension of the requirement to use its beer/liquor licenses within 90 days of their issuance with the 125,000-square-foot building being renovated to house the store.
“Hy-Vee, although they will not be opening and operating their store before the end of this licensing period (on June 30), needed to have some assurances that the licenses would be available to them, so that they could proceed with their due diligence and demolition preparation work,” Village Manager Joel Gregozeski said.
Community Excellence
The board presented the Cornerstone Community Center and its manager, Don Chilson, with the Village of Ashwaubenon’s 2021 Community Excellence Award.
“The Cornerstone Community Center was the runaway winner, really, and Don Chilson has managed that since 2000,” Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Rex Mehlberg said.
Mehlberg said Chilson and his staff stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic to bring in multiple hockey tournaments, which included teams from other states where COVID protocols didn’t allow them to host tournaments.
“The Cornerstone Community Center took necessary precautions to run safe and efficient tournaments, following local COVID protocol,” he said.
Mehlberg those tournaments greatly assisted the local economy and financially benefited Ashwaubenon businesses.
HOWARD PLAN COMMISSION
Site plans to build gymnasium additions at Forest Glen Elementary School and Bay View Middle School were approved Jan. 17 by the village’s Plan Commission.
The projects are part of the Howard-Suamico School District’s $98 million referendum approved by voters last April.
Bob Vajgrt, a senior project manager with Eppstein Uhen Architects, the district’s consultant, said the existing gyms at both schools are being repurposed with new gymnasiums being built.
“The theme for this building (at Forest Glen) is layers of life, so we’re using kind of the forest as a theme,” Vajgrt said. “So we’re using the materials to kind of represent that as well.”
Relative to the site plan, Vajgrt said the entrances to the building are being simplified, along with separating bus parking and where parents pick up and drop off students.
Vajgrt said the project at Bay View is intended to give the building its own identity with the canopies resembling masts of a sailboat.
“We’re doing some safety upgrades, if you will, within the existing building and creating a better circulation pattern,” he said.
Community Development Director Dave Wiese said village staff had no issues with either site plan for the gym additions.
“The consultant (the district uses) has done work in the village before,” he said. “They’ve done other projects, and they actually meet all the criteria usually that we’re looking for.”
Bergstrom Mazda site plan approved
The Plan Commission also approved a site plan for constructing a new 26,000-square-foot Bergstrom Mazda at 301 N. Taylor St. Jan. 17.
“Now with the new building coming in, it’s going to be a great addition to the village,” Wiese said.
He said the new building will make use of the common entrance and driveways of the existing dealership to share access off Taylor Street.
Kelly French of Gries Architectural Group said the front of the building will face Interstate 41.
Public Works Director Geoff Farr said water service there crosses two properties, which is not allowed, so either a new water lateral would have to be run from Taylor Street or the two properties would have to be combined for a building permit to be issued.
The commission’s motion approving the site plan is contingent upon a storm water management plan being approved by the village’s Engineering Department and resolving the water service matter.
DE PERE SCHOOL BOARD
Open enrollment to begin soon
The De Pere School Board approved room for 20 new non-resident students in 4K, 15 in kindergarten, 25 in grade nine and 25 in grade 10 at its Jan. 17 meeting.
Pupil Services Director Jerry Nicholson said there are no open seats for grades 1-8, 11, 12 or in special education.
Nicholson said siblings of new non-resident students accepted during the open enrollment period are automatically accepted, as are current students who move outside the district, but still wish to attend school in De Pere.
Open enrollment for new non-resident students begins Feb. 7 and runs through April 29.
Interactive screens to be replaced
The board gave the OK for the technology department to spend $75,737 on interactive panels for 25 elementary school classrooms at Dickinson and Heritage.
The panels are 75-inch interactive touch screens, and represent the second phase in an effort to outfit all classrooms at the two schools with new interactive panels to replace the old projectors and smart screens.
“They say the new interactive panels will last 50,000 hours, or seven to 10 years, depending on how much you use them,” Jerry Campbell, network specialist for the district, said. “We think these will save money over time.”
Press Times Editor Heather Graves, Staff Writers Kevin Boneske and Josh Staloch and Correspondent Lee Reinsch contributed to these briefs.