Wausau School Board considers fall referendum to help address $3.5M deficit

WAUSAU − Residents of the Wausau School District will soon have an opportunity to have their voices heard on the district’s budget.

The Wausau School Board approved a contract with the Donovan Group last week to facilitate a survey to gauge the community’s opinion on a possible fall 2024 referendum question for operations funding.

In late February, the board’s Education/Operations Committee received a budget presentation that projected a $3.5 million budget deficit for the next school year.

This number includes about $1.2 million of staff positions that were funded by three federal COVID-19 relief bills passed between 2020 and 2021, which ultimately sent about $1.49 billion to Wisconsin schools through a program commonly called ESSER Funds, or Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds.

Positions funded by these relief funds are non-renewing, and Wisconsin state statute requires advanced notice for non-renewal of non-renewing contracts, which had not happened before the April 8 meeting, according to Superintendent Keith Hilts.

Data compiled by the Institute for Reforming Government shows the Wausau School District received over $10.5 million from the ESSER program and about $2.6 million, or about 25%, went to teachers according to the conservative-leaning think tank’s analysis of how the money was spent.

Another large factor for the deficit is “skyrocketing health insurance cost,” Josh Viegut, assistant superintendent of operations, said in the February committee meeting. Board member Pat McKee, who works in insurance, says insurance costs are going up “industrywide," and the Wausau School District is not unique in this rising cost.

The district had also adopted a budget for the current school year with a $716,000 deficit. This deficit will persist into next year’s budget, plus an additional $1.5 million deficit is projected.

The district had an end-of-year fund balance of $27.9 million in 2019 and $33.27 million in 2022. Two years of deficit budgets will bring the balance to an estimated $31.57 million at the end of fiscal year 2024 at the end of September.

The fund balance as a percent of expenditures went from 26.95% in 2019 to 29.33% in 2022 to an anticipated 26.72% for 2024. Expenditures increased about $15 million from 2019 to 2024. Revenues from state sources increased from about $66 million in 2019 to nearly $79 million in 2024, while local revenue sources decreased from over $30.6 million to just over $25 million in the same time span. Federal sources of revenue over those years increased from just over $2.6 million to over $10.4 million.

Discussion of a possible operational referendum follows two years of implementing a nearly $120 million capital referendum to fund facility upgrades, which has faced some difficulties like rising construction costs and shifting School Board priorities.

A previous plan to combine the district’s two high schools was thrown out to pursue a reduction in the district’s elementary school “footprint.”

The Donovan Group intends to have the survey available to residents by May 6 and it will be open for about two weeks.

More local school news: Lunch debts in the Wausau and D.C. Everest Area school districts are over $20,000. This fundraiser aims to help.

More local school news: Wausau School District makes internal selection to serve as interim superintendent following retirement of Keith Hilts

Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA-TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Reach him at epfantz@gannett.com or connect with him on X (formerly Twitter) @ErikPfantz.

This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wausau School Board considers fall referendum to address $3.5M deficit