Wauzeka-Steuben School Budget
Wauzeka-Steuben School Board to review residents’ ideas regarding budget
By Ted Pennekamp
At a special school board meeting on Nov. 16, residents presented several ideas to the Wauzeka-Steuben School Board regarding the district’s budget deficit of $448,689.
Ideas included possibly bidding out health insurance, increasing to 12.5 percent the employee contribution to health insurance, having a referendum to increase the revenue cap limit, having an anonymous survey to see why people are leaving or not coming to the school district, researching after school programs (possibly a baby sitting apprenticeship for high school students), to possibly have additional after school programs at the Community Center, to review all contracts including administration, teachers, janitorial, etc., changing participation and registration fees, bid out the bus contract or possibly just the buses.
The board will begin examining the recommendations at its regular monthly meeting on Nov. 21, said District Administrator Robert Sailer. By the Dec. 19 regular monthly board meeting, the board will have to determine if a referendum is necessary and by how much in order to meet the legal deadlines to file so a referendum can be on the April ballot, he said.
“The board hopes to have estimates on transportation and health insurance by the December board meeting. Those are two significant costs,” Sailer said. “Both health and transportation are being reviewed and requests for proposals (RFPs) are being sent out. However, for the district to sell its fleet (of buses), the cost savings will have to be substantial. Once a district sells its fleet, it is almost impossible to ever go back to operating and maintaining our own bus service.”
At current rates, increasing the employee contribution for health insurance to 12.5 percent would save the district $34,558.76, said Sailer. The employee contribution is currently 9 percent.
Regarding possibly increasing after school programming, Sailer said, “It would increase the attractiveness of our district to families. One thing we hear from people who open-enroll out of the district is they would like more opportunities for their children after school. For every child in the district who attends Wauzeka we receive about $8,600. This is true for every district in the state. For every child that open-enrolls out of the district, we have to pay approximately $6,000 to the school the child attends. By increasing the enrollment by even a few families will increase revenue and benefit all students.”
Declining enrollment has been a concern for several area school districts. A chart presented at a recent Wauzeka-Steuben School Board meeting predicts that Wauzeka-Steuben’s enrollment will continue to decline. Enrollment for 2016-2017 is expected to be 287. By 2020-2021, the enrollment is projected to be 245. In 2024-2025, it is projected to be 213. In 2028-2029, it is projected to be 195.
Increasing registration fees and implementing participation fees is another idea. Currently, there are no participation fees.
“Based upon this year’s registration numbers and what is being talked about, a realignment of registration fees would be approximately $8,500 total,” Sailer said. “Participation fees are more difficult to approximate because the general amount was not discussed thoroughly, just the idea of implementing them, but I would estimate about $5,000 in revenues.”
In recent years, a few hundred school districts in Wisconsin have faced similar budget issues. To create a balanced budget moving forward, Wauzeka-Steuben officials have said that the district will need to evolve and adapt.
“This is a manageable problem that needs to be worked through,” said Sailer. “The district, outside expenditures exceeding revenues, is better than it has ever been and state scores and student climate is at an all time high.”
