Byron hires finance director, meets with levy consultant

After months of searching, the Byron School District has a finance director.
The school board on Monday night approved a contract with Shawn Elsbury, currently the finance director at the Pine Island Public Schools. He will receive a salary of $130,000 through the 2025-2026 contract year and $132,000 for the 2026-2027 contract year.
Elsbury has experience in finance, including auditing, for cities, counties, school districts and state agencies.  
The district has been without a finance director for months, relying on interim directors until a suitable candidate was found with school experience. The district has been working to get back to financial stability after earlier budget errors were discovered.
Julie Cink served as interim director from last fall until her contract ended in December. Since that time, Dan Pyan, a retired school business director has worked for the district on an interim basis. He had previously worked in Stewartville, New Prague and South Washington County School District.
At Monday night’s meeting the board also participated in a Zoom meeting with Jeff Dehler of DehlerPr. The board last month approved the hiring of DehlerPR to help in getting the word out to the public that the district needs the passage of a levy referendum this November.
Dehler reviewed the reasons for the financial challenges facing the district including a deficit budget and low fund balance. To meet those challenges, the board approved budget reductions of $1.5 million in administration and support staff and attrition for the 2024-2024 budget year and $1.6 million in additional cuts to teachers and Middle School sports for the 2025-2026 school year.
The cuts were necessitated by a variety of causes including state revenue increasing not keeping pace with inflation, costs rising at a rate greater than the average inflation rate, additional expenses from new state mandates, Covid revenue was no long available and district salaries being under-budged by $1.5 million.
Although the district now has a balanced budget it still faces challenges including being the third lowest school district in state funding, no enrollment growth anticipated and there is currently no voter approved levy.
DehlerPR’s role in the levy, Dehler said, will be to help the district communicate with voters to determine the exact amount of the levy and then to explain what the needs are and why a levy is necessary.
Initial actions starting in May, he said, will be to engage with the community and getting as much information as possible, including conducting a survey of residents in June. The information will be reported to the board as they discuss the details of the ballot question which will be determined in July or early August. In August there will be a roll out of the referendum communications which will include two district mailings, participation in events, identifying Yes voters and Get Our the (early) vote and Get Out the Vote campaigns.
During summer traditional media, social media, community events, even community bulletin boards will be used to get the message to the public.
Dehler said school board members will be involved serving as the community “eyes and ears,” sharing the district’s message, attending open houses and presentations.
Dehler said that he sees some good news. 
Despite that there was some loss of trust in the district as a result of the financial situation, the district has been engaging with the community in recent months. People also like the Byron School District, he said, and open enrollment in the district is growing.
He also said that he has worked with incoming superintendent Nate Walbruch in what he described as “the best experience I’ve seen in relation to a school board.” The board acting as a bridge between a new superintendent who will not be familiar with the people in the community is important.