Electors of the Wilmot Union High School District at the school’s annual meeting Thursday rejected a move to drastically reduce school board salaries, but did remove a seldom used provision that allowed board members to be reimbursed for lost income when performing board business.
At annual meetings, district residents, called electors, are able to vote on specific provisions.
Joy Corona was elected chairperson for the meeting by the electors present, close to 200 people in the Haas Auditorium at the school Thursday evening.
A motion was made to reduce board salaries to $1 per year. A voice vote on the matter was inconclusive and Corona called for the electors to split the house, with those in favor of the motion standing on one side and those opposing on the other. Head counts of each side were taken, but the specific results not shared. Corona announced the motion failed.
Then a motion was made to approve board salaries as suggested on the meeting agenda:
- President $2,800.00
- Vice President $2,500.00
- Clerk $2,700.00
- Treasurer $2,500.00
- All other members $2,500.00
- Committee members* $220.00
Those salaries are the same as were approved at the 2020 annual meeting.
A voice vote was again inconclusive and the house was split with Corona announcing the motion had passed.
Corona asked for a motion to approve an item on the agenda regarding reimbursment of expenses for board members traveling outside of the district, but omitting language that referenced “reimbursement of a school board member for actual loss of earnings when his/her duties require him/her to be absent from his/her regular employment.”
David Betz, district director of business services, said he did not remember the provision being used in the last 19 years.
A voice vote on the modified reimbursement was inconclusive, the house was split and the motion declared passed, with the modified language.
Electors also get to vote on the tax levy. The proposed 2021-2022 levy of $13,195,646 was approved by a voice vote.
The 2021-2022 levy is $127,889 or about 1 percent less than the 2020-2021 levy.
