July 2023

MIDDLETON–Recommendations from the first-ever comprehensive assessment of the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District (MCPASD) athletic facilities included changing playing fields at the high school and Kromery Middle School to artificial turf.

John Kneer, of the Rettler Corporation, told the Board of Education Monday that the converting the high school’s existing baseball and practice fields to a full synthetic surface would increase its utilization by opening it to physical education, adaptive physical education and other uses.

“It’s a huge facility. Baseball facilities are four to four and a half acres. They take up a lot of room. This happens to be right out the door from the high school and has the potential to cater to the other needs of the district,” Kneer said.

CROSS PLAINS–Taking a “first stab” at creating a village employee compensation plan that offers a competitive starting wage and a progressive wage scale received an initial airing Monday before the village board.

Like other employers, the village has found competing for new hires increasingly expensive as job seekers know it’s a sellers’ market these days. Even job candidates without work experience ask for pay at the top of the scale and the maximum amount of vacation.

That also increases the financial pressure on the village to keep its continuing employees who don’t want their wages eclipsed by the newly hired.

The proposed pay plan increases base wages by 30 percent from year two to year 18 of an employee’s tenure, which Village President Jay Lengfeld called, “very generous.”

“It seems like a longevity increase, which most are half of that,” he said.