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Onalaska School District board meeting, Sep 28, 2026

27 min · 0 public speakers

Enrollment ▶ 18:07

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 27 min.

  1. Who spoke · first speaks at
What happened

What happened at this meeting

Onalaska school board adopts 2026⁠-⁠27 preliminary budget 17:49

  • A student and school leaders gave updates on school activities, and the board approved the consent agenda. 4:57
  • Policy Committee chair Bridget Thomas reported that the committee reviewed 19 policies that will be on the next board agenda for first reading. 16:51
  • A district staff member presented the 2026⁠-⁠27 preliminary budget, describing a $55.7 million balanced budget presented in June and new expenses tracked since then, and the board adopted the preliminary budget. 17:49
Item by item (8)
  1. Opening and agenda approval 0:40
    • The meeting opened with a roll call, the Pledge of Allegiance and a reading of the board mission statement by Mark Cassellius. 0:40
    • A speaker said no requests for public input on the agenda had been received. 1:53
    • The board approved the agenda as published. 1:53
  2. Recognitions 1:53
    • A new student board representative was introduced. 1:53
    • A staff member recognized the 2026 Wisconsin School Board Week, the week of October 5th through the 11th. 2:48
    • The staff member also recognized a board member for receiving a Level 4 award from WASB for earning over 450 points. 2:48
  3. Student update 4:42
    • A student reported on Celebration of Learning Day, when juniors and underclassmen took the pre-ACT while seniors worked on post-high school plans. 4:57
    • The speaker described 3 STEM clubs that started within the last year or this year and said they are all completely student-run. 4:57
  4. Administrative reports 7:36
    • A speaker shared themes from emails freshmen sent to parents about the transition to high school, including involvement, time management and studying for tests. 7:36
    • Another speaker reported that five fall sports were in action and that beginning-of-year STAR scores were looking really good. 10:42
    • Elementary updates covered conference preparations, Mayo Wellness Week, Fire Prevention Week and plans for students to write gratitude notes to custodians. 12:57
  5. Policy Committee report 16:51
    • Bridget Thomas said the committee went over 19 policies for first reading at the next board meeting and is not recommending one of them for adoption. 17:03
    • Bridget Thomas said topics discussed included surveillance on transportation, drones over school facilities, recording IEP meetings, curriculum development, textbook adoption and dress code. 17:03
  6. Preliminary budget adoption 17:49
    • A district staff member said a preliminary contingency of almost $600,000 had been reduced by new 4K positions and a chiller repair of about $100,000, leaving a cushion of about $300,000. 18:07
    • The staff member said enrollment, open enrollment, equalization aid and equalization values were still outstanding and that the estimated mill rate went from 8.05 to 8.03. 21:09
    • Tracy Laufenberg made the motion to approve the preliminary budget. 25:03
    • The board adopted the preliminary budget. 25:55
  7. Consent agenda 25:55
    • No requests were made to remove items from the consent agenda. 25:55
    • The board approved the consent agenda. 26:25
  8. Adjournment 26:25
    • A motion to adjourn was made and seconded. 26:25
    • The meeting was adjourned. ~26:43

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

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Video: posted by the district as “9/28/2026 SDO Board Meeting”