Welcome to the new School Board Newsletter from the Berlin Area School District! With this newsletter, we hope to increase direct communication with many of our district’s residents. While these will include some school and student-specific news, the bulk of the material will deal with recent board decisions, current and upcoming initiatives, and other items in front of the board. We will also include the occasional question(s) to help us gather feedback on topics or initiatives. Our goal is to provide transparency, explain decisions, and ensure every resident feels connected to the work we’re doing for our students and community.

These newsletters will be sent out every few months. Thank you for your interest in the happenings of our district and for your continued support of BASD.

Tax Rates and Totals from the Annual Meeting

On October 29, 2025, the district held its annual meeting. At this meeting, the electorates of the district approve a budget resolution for the school year, which includes the tax levy specific to our district. The resolution then goes to the board of education, which formally approves it. For the 2025 – 2026 school year, the voters and board approved a local tax levy for $7,713,338. The amount corresponds to a mill rate, or tax rate per $1,000 of property market value, of $6.07.

These values are all based on a calculation from the State of Wisconsin. Should the district want or need more funding, it must get it through an approved referendum. As you may recall, BASD attempted that in 2023 and 2024, but was unsuccessful. As a result, the district has cut spending, including $1 million last year, to ensure a balanced budget.

In the state’s biannual budget recently passed, state legislators did increase school funding. A portion of the increase deals with the reimbursement of special education expenses. Now, districts are reimbursed special education expenses up to a rate of 45%, an increase from 31%. The remaining 55% of those expenses must continue to come out of general funds. The other increase to school funding deals with the revenue ceiling. State legislators raised that, although this increase to school funding does not come from the state. Instead, it is derived from local property taxes. Please note, however, that even with that additional authority, BASD’s overall revenue did decrease by $1.1 million from last year.

An important distinction to make between local school district taxes and other municipal taxes is that the school district taxes on a given piece of property are based on market value, not assessed value. There have been comments or questions about the district “raising taxes” over the past several years. In reality, the board has been cutting the mill rate from the 2022 – 2023 school year, when it was $9.00. However, property values have grown so rapidly since 2020 that those cuts are often negated by the increase in property values. The district’s overall budget hasn’t grown because of those local taxes. If your tax bill has increased, it is because the fair market value of your property has grown more rapidly than others.

The district is working on a new page on its website to help residents better understand their tax documents. When that is available, we will share it here.

Continuous Improvement Plan

Each year, the district implements a continuous improvement plan to help achieve the goals outlined in the district’s strategic plan. At the September 2025 board meeting, school administrators outlined school-specific goals and action items for this school year. New this year, the board also created goals with action steps. Throughout the year, the board will receive updates at board meetings from the administration on progress of the school goals. This year’s continuous improvement plan includes the following:

District Indicators (each indicator has a goal value attached)

Attendance
Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic Absenteeism, Students with Disabilities
Extracurricular Participation
Self-Regulation (Behavior)
Self-Regulation, Students with Disabilities
Academic Proficiency
Academic Proficiency, Students with Disabilities, Language Arts
Academic Proficiency, Students with Disabilities, Math Fund Balance
Audit Findings
Staff Job Satisfaction

Clay Lamberton Elementary

By the end of the 25-26 school year, the gap between the proficiency of students with disabilities and students without disabilities on the Forward ELA assessment will decrease from 35% to 10%.
By the end of the 25-26 school year, the students meeting their stretch growth goals will increase from 25% to 46% as measured by the iReady math assessment.
By the end of the 25-26 school year, the students meeting stretch growth goals will increase from 38% to 52% as measured by the iReady reading assessment.
By the end of the 25-26 school year, the students receiving 0-1 major referrals will increase from 87% to 92%.

Berlin Middle School

By the end of the 2025-2026 school year, 100% of students at Berlin Middle School will meet their stretch growth goal as measured by iReady Reading diagnostic.
By the end of the 2025-2026 school year, 100% of students at Berlin Middle School will meet their stretch growth goal as measured by iReady Math diagnostic.
By the end of the 2025-26 school year, 100% of students with a disability will be in the average percentile (26th-74th) or above on their Reading Composite as measured by the AIMSweb benchmark assessment.
By the end of the 2025-2026 school year, 87% of students at BMS will have 0-1 majors as measured in NextPath, with a baseline of 82.9% during the 2024-2025 school year.

Berlin High School

At the end of the 2025-2026 school year, we will increase the percentage of students who are meeting/advanced across the following PreACT/ACT categories by at least 7.5%.
At the end of the 2025-2026 school year, the percentage of students who received 0-1 major referrals during the school year will be at or above 90%. (Baseline: 91.7% in 2024-2025).
At the end of the 2025-2026 school year, BHS Staff will show improvement on the following perceptual statements: “Our staff consistently handles discipline” (52% Agree, 3.13, 61st percentile), “Our school’s student discipline practices and policies are effective” (67% agree, 3.40, 73rd percentile).

Board of Education

Parent Focused: “The school board is doing what it takes to make the district successful.” – School Perceptions Survey - Goal of 80% agree in the 2026 School Perception survey.
Staff Focused: “The school board is doing what it takes to make the district successful.” – School Perceptions Survey - Goal of 80% agree in the 2026 School Perception survey.
Community Focused: “The school board is doing what it takes to make the district successful.” - Establish Method to Grade; Goal of 60% Agree.

Board Approves Sale of School District Land

In recent months, the board has engaged in discussions and decided to sell two parcels of land owned by the school district to boost our budget. The board has authorized Superintendent, Dr. Emmett Durtschi to proceed with listing these properties for sale. The BASD School Board will review all purchase offers for these properties in a closed session on December 17th. This date marks the beginning of the offer consideration process, not a deadline.

Parcel One

Asking Price: $1,200,000
Size: 79.32 acres
Location: South of Waushara Street, East of Leskey Street (Town of Berlin)
Zoning: Agriculture

Parcel Two

Asking Price: $300,000
Size: 10.75 acres
Location: East of Hunter Street (across from Walmart)
Zoning: Agriculture (currently a school forest)

Policy Updates

A main responsibility of the board of education is the approval of district policies. The following policies were updated, deliberated, and approved since August 2025:

Policy 0100 - Definitions
Policy 0144.5 - Board Member Behavior, Communications, and Code of Conduct
Policy 0166.1 - Consent Agenda
Policy 4140 - Termination and Resignation
Policy 5411 - Third Grade Promotion and Retention: At-Risk Students
Policy 5505 - Academic Honesty
Policy 7540.08 - Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Policy 8420 - School Safety and Reporting of Crime Statistics
Policy 9151 - Use of Cameras and Other Recording Devices in Locker Rooms

Board Actions and Activities

In September, all board committees met, and the monthly board meeting was held on September 24th. Items on the agendas included feedback from new staff members, a K-12 curriculum review cycle, the addition of the district’s capital improvement plan to the website, budget forecasts for this school year and the next several, and the process required if the district were to sell two of its properties. The district’s continuous improvement plan for the 2025-2026 school year, which includes goals for all schools, certain departments and teams, and the board, was also presented at the monthly meeting. Lastly, we approved changes to the superintendent’s contract and formally approved a document detailing the superintendent evaluation process used by the board each year.

In October, all board committees met, and the annual meeting and monthly meeting were held on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. Items discussed included final budget and tax numbers for 2025 – 2026, staff health assessment utilization, staff compensation feedback sessions, the annual high school class rank waiver, and the new teacher professional development plan. At the monthly meeting, the board also received an update from Principal Pariso on academic and behavioral aspects of Berlin Middle School’s continuous improvement plan.

In November, all board committees met, and the monthly meeting was held on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. Items discussed included a public relations update, a summary of findings from staff compensation meetings, a summary of the new cell phone ban signed into Wisconsin law, a review and discussion on the newly released district and school annual report cards, and a conversation about the district property currently for sale and potential capital projects. At the monthly meeting, the board also received an update from Principal Markee on academic and behavioral aspects of Clay Lamberton’s continuous improvement plan.