Gillett schools face a budget deficit

The Gillett School Board expects to be dealing with a deficit in its 2024-25 annual budget.

During the board’s Sept. 19 meeting, Superintendent Nathan Hanson said the deficit will probably be six figures or more, depending on how much state aid the district receives.

Board Treasurer Cliff Gerbers said the situation is not unexpected.

“We knew we had to replace $380,000 worth of ESSER funds,” said Gerbers, referring to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, a one-time federal allocation intended to lessen the financial impact of the lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Last year when we budgeted, we did anticipate that. We actually had a surplus balance, and we’ve done that for a number of years. So we knew this was coming.”

Finance manager Nancy Van Elzen said the size of the deficit won’t be known until the state aid figures are released Oct. 15.

“We’re trying to fine-tune to make sure that we have accurate information on that deficit prior to bringing it to the board,” Van Elzen said. “It’s going to be a line-by-line detail review, and we do have to have to have it by next week.”

The budget has to be published twice in the district’s official newspaper — the Oconto County Times Herald — no more than eight days before and no less than one day before the district’s annual meeting, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Gillett Secondary School cafeteria.

To meet those parameters, the district needed to submit the information to the Times Herald by noon Sept. 27 to be published in the Oct. 4 and Oct. 11 papers, Van Elzen said. The board scheduled a special meeting for 5:15 p.m. Sept. 24 to finalize the preliminary budget.

Van Elzen said projected expenses are up in a number of places.

“We’ve seen an increase in our health insurance. We’ve seen an increase in our property insurance. We’ve had an increase in busing. We know most of the revenue numbers for our grants,” she said. “We have a decrease in Title I funding. I’ve talked with DPI (the state Department of Public Instruction) and that is across school districts in the state; everyone is seeing a reduction.”

It’s hard projecting a bottom line without the state aid numbers, Van Elzen said.

“They have given us a number that is an $800,000 increase over 2023-24, but until Oct. 15 we don’t know what that’s going to be,” she said. “It could be $200,000, it could be $600,000, it could be $100,000.”

Preliminary property values for the year show an increase at 16.6%, or close to $1 million increase in districtwide values, she said.

“There’s a number of moving pieces. Until that Oct. 15 date, it’s going to be a best guess on the budget,” Van Elzen said. “We had some big expenses in 2023-24, and we’re just trying to figure out where we can land in 2024-25. Not knowing our aid is pretty tough.”

wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com