OCONTO – As a part of the April 7 ballot, the Oconto Unified School District will be seeking a non-recurring $1.2 million per-year for five years operational referendum to maintain the current services.
Superintendent Emily Miller broke down this cost expense during the virtual open forum on Thursday, Feb. 19.
Miller explained that the district operates under a non-recurring $800,000 annual referendum, which will soon expire. In addition to filling this need, the requested $400,000 will allow the district to address new rising costs.
As an operational referendum, the requested funds will be used for day-to-day operations instead of adding anything significant to the district.
Examples of daily operational costs include: staffing and benefits; currently ongoing student programs; utilities and insurance; and transportation.
While the fund can be used for some budgeted building projects like renovations, it cannot go towards major facility projects.
Miller reiterated that the goal of this referendum is to fund the daily operations.
“We are not looking at adding new programs; we’re looking at efficiencies and making sure that we’re staying current with educational trends, but we’re not looking at adding big, new programs.”
When schools receive funding, the state sets the revenue limit, which is a hard cap on total operating funds that a district can use.
These funds primarily come from two sources — general school aid and local property taxes. The Department of Public Instruction certifies the school aid each fall, while the property taxes are levied to fund the rest.
Miller compared this to “filling the bucket,” with general aid filling a set amount of the bucket and property taxes filling it the rest of the way.
She said this measurement is important because required costs have grown faster than the Revenue Limit allows, creating a structural funding gap that requires community approval to close.
This creates a “seesaw” effect where if state aid goes down then local taxes must come up to maintain the same funding level, she continued. Miller added that the revenue limits are not tied to property values because the funding amount is set by the state, not real estate prices.
“We have been responsible year in and year out, and we don’t look to just continue to spend. We look for efficiencies along the way [and] we have operated strictly within our state revenue limits while prioritizing classrooms,” she explained.
“We have done some early paydown of debt when possible to save taxpayers interest costs. We have reduced the mill rate whenever economic conditions allow. We are being transparent,” Miller added, thanking district finance manager Janean Robenhorst for her budgeting work.
One reason this funding gap exists is because state aid decreases by over $548,000. So, while inflation rose by 3%, the state only allowed a 2.06% revenue increase, she explained.
Additionally, special education is a legally mandated service that the district spends $2.48 million on to provide, but was only reimbursed 26% by the state, leaving $1.45 million to be covered by the general fund. Other factors include rising costs for transportation, utilities and insurance.
If the operational referendum were to pass, homeowners would see a mill rate — the amount of property tax charged per $1,000 of equalized value — of $0.30 per $1,000.
For example, a home valued at $150,000 would pay an additional $4 per month in taxes for a total of $45 in additional taxes per year. For a home valued at $350,000, the additional tax impact would be $9 per month or $105 per year.
If district equalized value grows over time, the per-$1,000 impact typically trends down.
If the referendum were to fail during the April 7 election, Miller said some of the possible changes could include larger class sizes, fewer course options, cuts to extracurriculars and electives, staff and support reductions and delayed updates.
While the district has been saving funds by analyzing what roles do not need to be filled following staff retirements, Miller said that “we would be doing a significant amount of reductions in classrooms so that we would have fewer sections and we would have larger class sizes.
“We’d really have to look at our athletics and our activities to see where we could manage some of those cuts. Again, with the larger class sizes, we would be looking at reductions in staffing, which would be regular staff support roles.”
The Oconto Unified School District will continue to offer opportunities for community members to learn more about the proposed operational referendum.
In addition to the referendum webpage on the district website — which includes additional budget information, a list of frequently asked questions and a budget information video series — a board listening session will be held from 5:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. in the district office on Monday, March 16.
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