School board approves referendum for November ballot
District faces declining enrollment, finances in upcoming years
By Steve Van Kooten
The Prairie du Chien Board of Education considered an operating referendum for the fall ballot at their August 7 meeting.
In attendance were board members Higgins, Jr., Jim Hackett, Lacie Anthony, Nick Gilberts and Noah White. District Administrator Andy Banasik, Vicki Waller, Tomi Gebhard and Doug Morris were also in attendance for the meeting. Dustin Brewer and Lonnie Achenbach were absent during the meeting.
Banasik gave the board a referendum presentation, which presented three options for the district to consider.
“Our board has talked about reoccurring and non-reoccurring referendums,” said Banasik. “The pulse that we got from our board is that we would look at non-reoccurring and come back in four years to see where we are at as a district to see what we can do.”
A reoccurring referendum would be “easier” for the board, according to Banasik, which could allow the district to get extra money for an undefined length of time, but the board rejected the idea.
“I think we felt as a board that, as we work through this, where are we in four years? What do we want our district to look like? How is funding? Where is our enrollment? I think we are trying to be good stewards to our community. We are not spending your tax dollars just to spend,” said Banasik.
If a referendum passes this fall, Banasik said the district will start to evaluate solutions to maintain the district in the future.
“This just gives us some time to look at other ways we can save money,” Anthony said. “I think it is incumbent on us to look at some of this other stuff and ask how we can save this district without reducing staff.”
Without a referendum, Banasik said the district would see a significant decrease in their fund balance in 2025–26 because the district would need to use the majority of it to balance the operating budget. That will decrease the fund balance to approximately $300,000.
“That may sound like a big number, but it is not. It’s two percent,” said Banasik. “It’s hard to run a school with that.”
The PdC board of education’s policy is to maintain a fund balance that is approximately 20 percent of the school’s budget. The fund balance is money the district retains to address unplanned expenses — it could be anything from a failed water heater to a larger-than-expected heating bill due to a cold winter.
If a referendum does not pass, Banasik said the school would have to look at what programming and staff to downsize as the operating budget goes further into the red in the next four to five years.
“We can’t function here. You can see the domino effect take place if we kept everything the same.”
The need for an operating referendum is tied to the district’s decreasing student population. In 2021, the district had 1,011 students, but by 2025–26, the district is projected to have 891 students. By 2028–29, the district estimates that number to dip to 865.
4K classes and transfer students from Prairie Catholic have dwindled in recent years. The district initially expected 60 students to enter 4K in 2024-25; however, that number is currently in the low 40’s, and the high-end projection is 50 students.
“We never used to have numbers that low. I don’t see this district growing. It’s not just a Prairie du Chien problem; it’s a southwest Wisconsin problem, and it’s a small town problem,” said Banasik, who added that the average number of children per household in the area has drastically decreased in the last twenty years.
The decreased number of students means fewer financial resources from state and federal sources. The district did receive Esser funding between 2021–23 but did not receive money from the State of Wisconsin for individual pupils, which resulted in lost revenue. In the last two years, the state has added a revenue limit of $325 per student to the school’s revenue each year. The effect is the similar to an employee losing out on two years worth of wage increases.
It means the cost for employee benefits, the district’s insurance and other unavoidable costs are more difficult to cover, especially as costs go up. It also means transportation costs for bus routes take more out of the budget than in previous years.
According to Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, 180 of the state’s school districts had at least 10 percent of their revenue limit supplemented by a non-recurring operating referendum.
The district has already attempted to save money and cut costs over the past three years, According to Banasik.
“We have done reductions when people have left the district or retired,” he said.
In the last three years, he reported that the district saved $700,000 through “tough decisions,” like changing or consolidating staff positions. The savings come from fewer employee costs (benefits, etc.).
Banasik also presented two referendum possibilities: a flat, four-year option and a four-year step-up option.
The flat referendum would have taken effect in 2025—26, if it had passed. It would allocate $2.5 million per year to the district.
The step-up referendum gives the district $2 million the first year and add an additional $250,000 cumulatively each year for the following three years. The total will still be $10 million at the end of the four years. It will take effect during the 2025-26 school year, if it passes.
If a referendum passes, the district is not obligated to borrow all of the money; the school could borrow less if it is determined they do not need the full amount, according to Higgins, Jr.
“If we get to the point where things change and we see enrollment decline more, and, say, we’re in year three, and we can ask for $2.75 million, but we only need $2 million… then we don’t need to ask for as much,” he said.
In both options, a referendum will keep the district out of the red. The mil rate on residents’ taxes will go up in either case, but Banasik added that the district dropped the school’s tax mil rate last year from 10.66 to 6.11 because of the increase in property values in the community. Both referendums would increase the mil rate variably to between 7.0 and 8.03, which is still less than what residents were paying in 2021.
In 2023, the average mil rate for Wisconsin is 7.22, or $7.22 per $1,000 of property value. Banasik said that, in all likelihood, mil rates in most districts would increase over the next few years.
The board members present approved adding the $10 million step-up referendum (the second referendum option listed here) to the November 5 ballot. Informational meetings will be scheduled before the vote.
Discrimination policies
The board tabled several Neola policies, including a change in policy for student promotion, placement and retention in the district and non-discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities.
On the promotion policy, Morris said the district received multiple concerns from parents about the district’s “subjective” eighth grade promotion process.
“There were not clear-cut guidelines as to why a student would be excluded from the promotion ceremony,” he said.
Morris recommended the district go to a “purely objective” process: if a student fails a core-area class in the second semester, they will not be included in the ceremony, and they do not proceed to high school until they make up the course work. Students in the district are required to achieve a 60 percent or greater grade to pass a class.
If a student fails a core class in the first semester of eighth grade, Morris said the district would start the credit recovery process, and upon completion of the course work, the student could still participate in the graduation ceremony.
“So, we give them a way, but it’s not that they have to come to us and make an appeal. If you go to summer school and pass the class, you come to high school.”
He stipulated there would be exceptions for students with IEPs or in special education.
“My opinion is that we need to make it as objective as possible. If you pass, you come to high school. You fail, and we give you a way to earn it. You come to summer school, and I get to work with you there,” said Morris. Nine eighth grade students attended summer school, and seven had completed the necessary course work. The remaining two had until the first day of school to finish their work.
He added that 25 students were initially excluded from the promotion ceremony this past year. Many of those students appealed, and the decisions were reversed in several cases; however, Morris said the lack of consistency — based on opinion rather than facts — puts the district in a bad light.
On the non-discrimination policies, Higgins, Jr. said, “After discussions, I have asked that we get our school board attorney to give us some more guidance.”
Banasik said the policies were federally mandated, and the district would have to follow the policies — which passed their first reading on July 22 on a 5-2 margin — while the board sought legal advice. The policies cover students and staff at the school district. The policy took effect on Aug. 1, 2024.
“It covers all forms of sex discrimination, including pregnancy,” Banasik said. “It’s not just sex-based harassment.”
The policy requires the district to have a designated coordinator. For Prairie, Morris is the policy coordinator, and Laura Stuckey will act as a deputy. Banasik handles the appeals process.
The board will revisit the policies at a special board meeting later this month.
The next board of education meeting will be August 26.
Staff hires
Caitlin Bittner, high school special education teacher; Sara Scott, BA Kennedy teacher’s aide; Adam Campbell, girls wrestling assistant coach; Zakery Hafke, full-time custodian; Vickie Stevenson, head volleyball coach; Paige Rickleff, JV 1 volleyball coach; and Philip Giesen, freshman volleyball coach.
Resignations
Brady Munoz, assistant middle school track and field coach; Aaron Ziegler, high school custodian; Ryan Fradette, flag football coach; and Adam Campbell, middle school head wrestling coach.
Other business
• Banasik told the board that the CTE center is still in the funding stages. Gebhard confirmed that she, along with Carol Roth, are still “in process” to procure funding for the programs. Programming will start this coming school year from grades 6–12. Supplies for some middle and high school programs have arrived, which were acquired through private donations.
• The new staff orientation will take place on August 22 at 12 p.m., and other staff will return on August 27 for a welcome-back session from 8–11 a.m.
• approved the allocation of $92,000 in 2022–23 back to school supplemental aid to cover costs associated with staffing the district. Waller said, “The auditors said that, in a board meeting, just designate what you plan to use it for.” She also said the district has until 2026 to use the funds.
