It’s budget time in the Winneconne Community School District.  Our 2012-2013 budget priorities are:

          Maintain class sizes and opportunities for students;

          Repair/renovate the elementary school, including replacement of the boiler and plumbing;

          Infuse technology into classroom instruction; and

          Continue to find efficiencies in non-instructional areas.

Maintain class sizes and opportunities for students – Our district offers low class sizes

(20-23 in grades K-3, 24-27 in grades 4 and 5, 23-24 in the core classes at the middle school and 24 in the core classes at the high school) and a variety of options to produce well rounded students.  In 2012-2013, we will continue to provide a high level of services while maintaining our low spending status.  To avoid an operating referendum for 2012-2013, the Winneconne Community School District changed its retirement benefits for administrative and teaching staff and limited increases in wages.  We previously changed our insurance carrier and plan to reduce premiums, decreased employer contributions to insurance, and shifted retirement contributions from the employer to the employee. All of these savings helped defer an operating referendum and helped us achieve the priority to maintain class sizes and sustain current opportunities for students.

Repair/renovate the elementary school, including replacement of the boiler and plumbing – There are building needs that cannot be achieved in the regular operating budget. At its February meeting, the Board of Education approved a plan to seek a bond referendum for facilities to be presented to the electorate in November 2012.  While not firmly decided, the critical needs are replacing the 1948 elementary school boiler and plumbing; and possibly addressing other capital improvement items including roofing, adding wireless Internet, and replacing the district phone system.  The scope of the facilities referendum has not yet been decided and will be an ongoing board discussion in the months ahead.

Infuse technology into classroom instruction – Technology is taking a more important role in all of our daily activities.  We believe that preparing our students includes knowing how and when to use technology.  Numerous studies have shown that when students are engaged with technology during school: students were more organized; students owned their own learning; students were more engaged in their learning; students were more fluent with technology and its appropriate application; and learning did not stop when the class ended.  We are implementing a “bring your own device” program, but the district will still need to supply laptops for those students who are not able to supply a device and the infrastructure to support all of these devices.  The district is also supportive of the training required to make sure our teachers are using technology in the classroom in the most beneficial way.    

Continue to find efficiencies in non-instructional areas – To be sure, we are looking for efficiencies in non-instructional costs: as mentioned, healthcare has been addressed and we achieved approximately $700,000 of savings for 2012.  We also completed a recent energy audit that validated the efficiencies of our operations.  We continue to look at transportation, energy, staffing and collaborating to find financial efficiencies.

Looking forward - As we look forward, the district will update its five year financial forecast to determine the need for referendum.  There are two types of referendums that a school district may present to the public. A bond referendum is used to finance facilities improvements, like the boiler discussed above. An operating referendum seeks permission from the public to exceed the revenue limit by a set amount and is used for the everyday operation of the schools, salaries and benefits, paying the light bill, etc.

All of the savings mentioned above, including health care and retirement, were used to balance the budget for 2012-2013 and delay the need for operating referendum.  While this is encouraging for this year, as I first reported in my October column, we will face future budget deficits. We do not yet have notification from the State about State aid projections and revenue limits, so we are building on budget assumptions.  Ultimately, the compounding effect of less revenue and increasing expenses places our school district in a continuing structural deficit ranging from $300,000 in 2013-14 to $780,000 in 2015-16.

Sincerely,