More than half of Wisconsin’s public school districts will receive more general aid for the 2014-15 school year than they did for 2013-14, according to estimates released last week by the Department of Public Instruction.
In Oconto County, three school districts—Oconto Falls, Oconto and Lena—are projected to receive more aid, while Gillett and Suring likely will lose aid.
The decrease is nothing new for Gillett, which is slated to receive $3,728,782 in general aid, which is 4 percent, or $149,127, less than the previous year. The school district received $3.7 million in aid for 2013-14, about 9 percent less than the $4.1 million received for 2012-13.
“My concern is that we cannot keep having the state aid reductions without affecting student programs and local taxes,” Gillett Superintendent Todd Carlson wrote in an email to the Times Herald.
Carlson said the state funding formula in many cases doesn’t fairly distribute funding to small, rural schools with declining enrollment, such as Gillett, and doesn’t account for costs of state mandates.
He said state funding levels are comparable to 10 to 15 years ago, while costs have increased.
School district residents at the 2013 annual meeting approved a 16 percent tax levy increase in response to the loss of state aid, but Carlson is projecting a better outlook for the 2014-15 school year.
The proposed district budget is 6.5 percent lower than 2013-14, and the tax rate is projected to decline 7 percent, according to Carlson.
The budget reduction is the result of staffing changes that include an arrangement with the Suring School District to share library and business education personnel. The district also put projects, such as parking lot improvements, on hold or reduced them in scope.
“We worked hard to have a preliminary budget that is balanced, takes into account the reduction in state aid, addresses student needs and is fiscally responsible to the local taxpayers,” Carlson said.
According to the DPI, general school aid in the state was set at $4.476 billion for 2014-15, a 2.1 percent increase compared to last school year. Actual aid payments are estimated at $4.345 billion because of statutory reductions for the Milwaukee voucher program and for independent charter schools in Milwaukee and Racine.
Of the state’s 424 school districts, 53 percent (225) will receive more general aid in 2014-15, while 47 percent of districts (197) are expected to receive less aid.
The department’s aid estimate does not include per pupil categorical aid that will be paid in March 2015. The appropriation for that aid is $127 million, which is $150 per pupil, a $75 per pupil increase over the 2013-14 per pupil amount.
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