The Shawano School Board voted 8-1 Feb. 23 on almost $1.77 million in budget cuts for the 2026-27 school year, focused mainly on staff cuts and changes and avoiding any cuts to school programs.
Superintendent Kurt Krizan said that cutting contracted services with CESA 8 and others could save $253,900, while adjusting staff numbers to the original recommended ratios would save $1.34 million. The remaining savings, $173,100, will come from operational and administrative expenses.
“These are fluid and continue to evolve as we go through,” Krizan said.
Under the operational and administrative expenses, the district plans to cut out short-term disability from its insurance benefits and plans to offer it as a voluntary option to staff. The district will also reduce the number of stipends that it offers to teachers to save money.
“This is not for clubs or anything like that,” Krizan said about the stipends. “There are some different positions that were funded by stipends.”
In terms of staff reductions, Krizan said the district has 13 teachers who are leaving for other school districts or retiring, so instead of replacing them, Shawano will try to move existing teachers into those positions.
The student-to-staff ratios for the district are 18-22 for Hillcrest Primary School, 20-24 for third grade and 25-30 for the grades after that. The district offered options to increase the ratios for the younger grades to bring the budget into balance, but Krizan said that level of cutting will not be necessary for the coming school year.
There are also two limited-term staff contracts that will be cut under the revised plan.
“We have five individuals who are considered teachers without an assignment,” Krizan said. “We have six positions that are currently without a licensed person.”
The teachers without an assignment would be helped by the district to get emergency licensure to teach the subjects they currently don’t have certification to teach, according to Krizan.
“Our goal is to talk with those individuals and let them know the situation, the positions we have,” he said.
Krizan said that the district has been using CESA 8 for much of its professional development in the past, but that will go away to cut contract services for the future. The district will also change the vendor it uses for employee mental health services to find a less-expensive option.
The district will also cut one virtual speech therapist position, because there are fewer students in the district who need the service, according to Krizan.
Board member Bobbi Lemerond was the only one to vote against the proposal, and she argued that cutting staff would inhibit the progress the district has made in improving elementary school reading and math scores.
“I think it’s just crazy,” Lemerond said. “I think the improvement is because we’ve been able to staff at those lower ratios. If we start raising these class sizes, I think we’ll just lose what we’ve gained.”
Lemerond also said she was still waiting on information regarding administrative salaries and benefits that officials said they would get her, wondering if there were other administrative expenses that could be cut to help balance the budget.
Krizan had originally announced that the district would need to cut $1.6 million to balance its budget for the next school year, and the approved cuts surpass the benchmark. When the board approved its budget for the current school year, it had to allocate $1 million from its fund balance to keep its expenses and revenues even.
Krizan said last month that if the district continued to use its fund balance to pay for expenses, it would be depleted in the next five years.
Currently, Shawano is not entertaining going to an operational referendum. Two nearby school districts, Gillett and Lena, are going that route in April.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
