School district makes case on facility needs

The Shawano School District is facing declining enrollment, which means declining revenues, at a time when it is also having to catch up on deferred maintenance and expand facilities that are decades old.

District officials made their case Jan. 11 to a group of community members at Shawano City Hall, showing how enrollment could dip below 2,000 students in the next few years, but there are also maintenance needs that could cost the district in excess of $26 million. Also, plans to improve fine arts and athletic facilities at Shawano Community High School are looking to be revived by the district, coming with their own price tag.

“We still have some significant needs on both the fine arts and the athletic sides of the house that need to be addressed,” Superintendent Randi Anderson said at the town hall meeting.

A community survey is expected to go out later this month, with plans to present strategies and priorities around the end of March. Those plans could include ambitious fundraisers, or they could include a future referendum to take care of the needs.

“It is imperative that a school district be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers. That is a number one priority as we continue to move forward,” Anderson said. “Just as you have a plan as a homeowner that says, ‘You know, my home is 1o-15 years old. I probably need to look at shingle replacement, right?’ and you have a conversation about how you’re going to budget that. It’s a significant cost. The same thing for the school district, we need to have a long-range facility plan.”

The Shawano School District has lost more than 200 students in enrollment in the last few years, in some cases due to fewer students enrolling due to fewer births from families in the area, but also due to school voucher programs helping more families get education through private schools. According to Anderson, the enrollment numbers dropping at Shawano Community Middle School could impact Shawano Community High School in the next four years, dropping total numbers of graduates.

Total enrollment is expected to continue to drop in the next 10 years, with the numbers projected to dip below 2,000 in half that time.

The district got a jolt on how deferred maintenance could cost it down the road in 2021 when the middle school’s wastewater system had to be overhauled because water was starting to damage its basements and foundations, according to Josh Swanson, the district’s finance director. The district can no longer wait for things to break down to take action, he said.

“We can’t be waiting for water in the basement to fix the sump pump, or we can’t wait for water to leak from the roof to fix that,” Swanson said.

There are an estimated $26 million in maintenance projects expected in the next 10 years, much of that going to SCHS, which was built 25 years ago and has a lot of amenities reaching their end of life, according to Swanson. However, the district’s annual maintenance budget is $2 million, and that includes a lot of the basics like cleaning schools, removing snow from parking lots and sidewalks, and mowing grass.

District officials touted how amazing a lot of the high school programs are, but the facilities that have been housing these programs are starting to crumble and run out of space, even as the number of students drops.

Among some of the athletic improvements at SCHS are fixes at the football fields, including the bleachers, which are no longer compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to activities director Joel Wondra. Also, the scoreboard is failing, at times during games, and an outdated press box and facelift plans for the concession stand and restrooms are also needs the high school faces.

The weight room is outdated and can no longer accommodate the number of athletes who use the facility. Equipment is being stored in hallways. The wrestling program has experienced growth, but the room where wrestlers practice is now too small for everyone to practice at once.

Over on the fine arts side, storage is also an issue, with items being stored in hallways and practice rooms. A scene shop where flats and other scene equipment used to be built now houses costumes because there is no other place to store them, and now scene building has to take place elsewhere in the school, which is inconvenient, according to the school’s band director, Christopher Kent.

Kent pointed out that the fine arts and athletics not only help to tap into student talents, but they create memories that last a lifetime.

“Whether it’s athletics or it’s one of the fine arts, it doesn’t matter. They’re life-changing for many of the students that we encounter,” Kent said.

The big question the district is grappling with is how to fund maintenance needs and future facility improvements when the loss of a single student cuts $10,000 in state funding from the school. Anderson and her colleagues with the district are hoping that the community survey will provide the solution.

“We really need to hear from the community in the next three months,” Anderson said. “We have a lot of opportunity.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com