During the summer months, the Shawano School District will be posting videos and articles to address school finances. District officials hope this will help those who disagree with recent cost-cutting decisions to understand why those decisions were made.
Superintendent Kurt Krizan sent out a letter May 18 to staff members and the community, noting that the community cares about the schools and the people who make up those schools, and that communication on the issues was important. Krizan wrote that a recent bill that was considered by the Wisconsin Legislature that intended to provide additional funding for special education in schools did not pass.
“Recently, we learned that one-time funding from the state budget surplus was brought forward for a vote in the state legislature,” Krizan wrote. “As of this writing, the measure did not pass. We don’t know what future actions, if any, may emerge to partially use the state’s budget surplus to provide one-time support for education. However, many complicating factors continue to contribute to the ongoing school funding challenges faced by districts across the state.”
A bipartisan $1.8 billion budget surplus plan made it through the Wisconsin Assembly on May 13 but was rejected by the Wisconsin Senate that night as three Republicans crossed the aisle and joined the Democrats in rejecting the proposal. Of the total, $600 million for special education reimbursements and general school aid was part of the deal.
Krizan wrote in an email to NEW Media that it was unclear how much the bill would have helped Shawano’s public schools.
“I can’t honestly answer this question, as we were never provided with an exact amount that we could have expected or the timeline for distribution of funds,” he wrote.
Krizan hopes that community members can learn through the videos about why districts like Shawano’s are finding it difficult to provide services, with funding from the state estimated to be $3,500 per student below the cost of inflation. The videos are providing information delivered by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials and the Wisconsin School Public Relations Association.
“To help us tell this story, we are going to rely on information that has been composed by several statewide organizations to help districts like ours explain the school funding challenge facing all Wisconsin school districts,” Krizan wrote in the letter to the community. “I am happy that our professional organizations have started supplying materials that we can all use, because budget reductions are not just here in Shawano. They are sweeping across almost every district in the state. Schools are facing major staff reductions, school closures and the elimination of programs across the board.”
New videos are expected to be posted every two or three weeks with more details on the different funding systems for schools, including the difference between operating funds and capital funds.
“Later in our series, we will post about how state aid and increasing costs impact us locally,” Krizan wrote in the community letter. “I also will be describing the difference between operating funds — those that are being strained and causing our budget reductions — compared to capital referendum funds, those that are being used right now to repair and upgrade our buildings. In later articles, we will address other factors affecting our schools.”
For those district residents who don’t utilize computers or access the internet, Krizan informed NEW Media that the district is looking at sending consolidated information out in the mail.
For information or questions on the social media campaign, contact Krizan at kkrizan@shawanoschools.org.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
