Cutting positions to eliminate $1.7 million in red ink from the 2026-27 Shawano School District budget continues to draw objections from people to the Shawano School Board.
The board voted in February to cut positions to bring the district in alignment with its own student-to-staff ratios after learning that existing expenditures would leave it well in debt when the time comes in October to approve its final budget.
In the current budget, expenditures were about $1 million over revenues, but the board approved using its fund balance to compensate. However, if that trend continued, the fund balance would be depleted in fewer than five years.
The decision drew objections last month. At the April 27 school board meeting, objections continued — including from Jodi Kozlovsky, who found out her position as music teacher at Shawano Community Middle School is being eliminated after the current school year. She came to the district from Gresham two years to fill the position so that Matthew Pfantz, who had at the time been teaching music at both SCMS and Shawano Community High School, would not burn out, she said.
“I am not here to beg for my job,” Kozlovsky said. “I am here to fight for our students, for families and for our music staff. Regardless of what you decide, those are the most important people out there.”
Kozlovsky was teaching all the music classes, including choir and band, at Gresham Community School and felt she was not doing the best job teaching music with all of those responsibilities, feeling overloaded, so she took the SCMS position.
“There is talk that I got married, I went on my honeymoon, and then I came back and quit my job,” Kozlovsky said. “That’s not what happened.”
Kozlovsky said she received an unsigned letter Feb. 25 that her current job was something not required for the next school year. She received another notice March 24 saying her contract would not be renewed.
“I was told I was no longer going to be here,” Kozlovsky said.
Kozlovsky noted that the cuts include voice lessons for SCMS students, something she thought would ruin the music program. She said three students were going to the state solo-ensemble competition this year, and two had gone last year.
Kozlovsky said she planned to address the news with her students after spring break, but students had already heard from other teachers about the staff cuts and went to Kozlovsky for answers.
“I had to address it,” she said. “I’m not going to lie, and I’m not going to play stupid.”
Jennifer Schmidt, president of the Shawano Education Association, took the school board to task for voting on the non-renewal notices in closed session instead of making the vote public, even though Superintendent Kurt Krizan and other district officials have said that the district’s attorney, Geoff Lacy, has advised them that such votes can take place in closed session.
“The final vote is what matters to the community, and that should take place in open session,” Schmidt said.
She pointed to Wisconsin’s open meeting law, which lays out when a governing body can talk behind closed doors, but said that it’s not required to take those issues up behind closed doors.
“Since the non-renewals being discussed are not disciplinary dismissals or formal action against a specific employee, this matter should be discussed in open session,” Schmidt said. “The discussion of employment positions does not meet the requirements for closed session discussions.”
Schmidt accused the board of avoiding accountability with its closed sessions and not being transparent with the public.
“The community deserves to see how each board member votes,” she said. “Transparency is not optional, and in public education, it’s a responsibility. If this board stands behind its decisions, then those decisions should be made visibly, not behind closed doors.”
SCMS teacher Dan O’Connell, who has spoken during and after public forums seeking information on how to balance the 2026-27 budget, also criticized much of the board discussion taking place out of the public eye. O’Connell said decisions to cut might feel more palatable if community and staff members felt like they had a voice in the matter.
“We have never been asked to make cuts to our classroom budget,” O’Connell said. “This idea has been floated out there by many of our staff, but the conversation has always ended there. It was a team effort to pass last year’s referendum. Why is it not a team effort to address our deficit?”
The district is eliminating 2 1/2 allied arts positions, O’Connell said, which is impacting swing choir; programs that address science, technology, art, engineering and math; and jazz band. The first two programs are not being offered next year as of now, he said, while the jazz band is only being offered to the seventh grade.
The board also heard from SCMS student Alyssa Kopp, who said the classes being eliminated were among her favorites. She said the classes are important to her and other students.
“The reason behind STEAM class and voice lessons for solo-ensemble should not be taken away is because in STEAM class, it can teach students to be safe with circuits and electrical,” Kopp said. “With solo-ensemble and voice lessons, students can get more practice for their songs that they need to do for their upcoming events.”
