Culver Schools Superintendent Karen Shuman says Tuesday’s referendum was a “great community effort.” Voters in the school district approved the 17-cent property tax increase by a margin of 1,370 to 1,012.
Shuman expressed her gratitude during Thursday’s school board meeting. “The people that supported us publicly in the community were from all facets: age groups, demographics, from Academy people to local farmers, to Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, all the type of gamuts,” she said. “So it was a great community effort and it was a good successful one, and we’re thankful for that.”
Shuman says the passage of the referendum will mean a more competitive pay scale for teachers, as part of the 2018-2019 collective bargaining agreement. “We are able to compensate our teachers for lost wages and compensations that they haven’t had for eight years, because of the referendum,” she explains. “So we were very thankful for the community, that we were able to make our teachers be competitive with surrounding schools.” The school board unanimously ratified the collective bargaining agreement Thursday, after the teachers approved it by a vote of 34-to-two earlier in the day.
The referendum wasn’t the only item from Tuesday’s election impacting Culver Community Schools. Julie Ritzler was officially elected to replace Bill Sonnemaker on the school board, while incumbents Jack Jones and Ryan Sieber were voted back for another term. All three were unopposed.
As for the leftover campaign signs, Shuman said FFA students are collecting them to reuse the wires.
