The School District of Greenfield faces financial challenges that are largely out of our control and result from the state's school funding system. In fact, we are known for being a fiscally responsible, low-spending school district.
Wisconsin schools operate under a state-imposed revenue limit that restricts the amount of money they can receive. The result is that our district does not receive enough revenue to adequately fund programs and services.
Additionally, the needs of our students have increased significantly—especially in the areas of special education and mental health. These are expenses for state and federal mandated services for which the district receives inadequate funding. Costs for things like running our buses and heating our schools continue to increase, as do other expenses that are out of the district’s control.
Despite these challenges, district leaders and the School Board have been disciplined in making the most of every dollar invested by taxpayers and meeting our community's expectations for top-notch schools.
Wisconsin schools operate under a state-imposed revenue limit that restricts the amount of money they can receive each year, thereby capping the amount of revenue available to fund programs and services for students. Under this “one size fits all” funding mechanism, much of the responsibility for funding our schools rests on local property taxpayers.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction also indicates that it does not see the funding formula changing in the foreseeable future.
The state legislature has not provided revenue increases to keep pace with inflationary increases. There were no per-pupil funding increases in the most recent biennium budget, and only minimal increases for special education aid.
Approving an operational referendum is the only way our district can receive the funding necessary to maintain our high educational standards. We are not alone in facing this challenge, as Wisconsin school districts have brought forth more than 130 operational referendum questions over the past decade. Voters have approved about 72 percent of those questions.
Over the years, the School Board and district administration have worked extremely hard to make the most of every single dollar community members have invested in their local schools. We are known as a fiscally responsible, low-spending school district.
Our District has managed to do more with less by holding the line on certain spending while also expanding learning opportunities for students; however, it has become more and more difficult to meet the needs of our diverse group of learners as school funding has not kept pace with the increasing costs of education.
The district operates in a very lean way. However, while we continue to seek efficiencies, budget cuts would directly impact the high-quality programs and services that make the School District of Greenfield such a point of pride in our community.
It is true that the district has experienced pandemic related declining enrollment in recent years. However, the lower revenue available to the district as a result of declining enrollment has outpaced any reduced costs that come from serving fewer students. For example, a decline of ten students across grades K4-12 is a reduction of more than $100,000, but that does not equate to the reduction of a teacher who is still needed in the classroom. The district is facing financial challenges despite the fact that it has been a responsible steward of taxpayer funds.
Fund balance is the amount of money in the district’s budget between assets and liabilities. A common misconception is that fund balance is a cash account that corresponds to the district's bank balance.
In other words, it would be financially shortsighted to deplete fund balance to cover significant, ongoing, and recurring expenses.
Our district has a healthy fund balance. As a result, the district does not engage in any short-term borrowing. This saves significant money and is one of the reasons why the district is known for its financial discipline.
Yes. The Greenfield School Board approved a referendum question that will appear on the ballot on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
If approved by voters, the November 8 referendum would address the ongoing costs for the day-to-day operation of the school district. It would allow us to continue offering the high-impact programs and services our community has come to expect from our schools.
Specifically, the district would use funds for the following purposes:
- Retain and acquire quality educators and support staff
- Sustain adequate classroom sizes
- Keep pace with technological changes and needs (such as cybersecurity and internet-ready devices)
- Increase college and career-ready learning opportunities
- Maintain our facility and learning investments while keeping up with inflationary costs of contracted services (utilities, transportation, custodial supplies, etc.)
- Provide learning environments that address the individual needs of each child
- Manage unprecedented inflationary costs and services
- Continue enhanced programming and mental health supports for students
If the referendum is not approved on November 8, the district and board would immediately begin work to gather community feedback. It is likely that significant cuts to programs and services would need to be made to balance the district’s budget.
These reductions would threaten the high-quality educational experience our families and community have come to expect from the School District of Greenfield.
In the 2022-23 school year, the district’s mill rate will fall from $8.70 per $1,000 of fair market value to $8.30 per $1,000. If the voters pass the referendum, the mill rate is expected to hold steady at $8.30 per $1,000 for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, and then the following year fall to $8.12 per $1,000 and in the final year of the referendum fall again to $7.66 per $1,000 of the fair market value of a taxpayer’s home.
If approved, the referendum would provide the School District with $5 million each year for four years, beginning in the 2023-24 school year. The referendum, if approved, would expire at the end of the 2026-27 school year.
Yes. While the district’s share of the mill rate will go down if the referendum passes, it would go down even more without the passage of a referendum. The decreasing mill rate is the result of an increase in property values and the payoff of long-term High School building/renovation debt. Property wealth is growing faster than what the District will request through the tax levy. Ultimately, the impact of the referendum if passed, and if everything were held constant, would be decreased by $5 for every $100,000 of fair market value over the total four years of the referendum. Taxes would increase slightly by approximately $20 per $100,000 in year one and year two, and then fall by $5 per $100,000 in year 3 and by $40 per $100,000 in year four, offsetting the increase in the first two years.
Yes. The November 2022 referendum is a non-recurring, four-year referendum. This means that it would expire at the end of the 2026-27 school year unless voters approve another referendum in the future.
In 2007 and 2008, voters in the district voted in support of several referendum questions to renovate the high school. The district has not had a referendum in more than 14 years.
While the district received much-needed federal ESSER funds, these one-time dollars were needed to offset zero increases in sustainable revenue from the state to maintain programs which significantly impacted the amount of money available to address learning disruption due to the pandemic. The one-time funds do not provide a long-term solution for the on-going and increasing costs of educating children.
Community members will vote on the referendum question on the general election date of Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
District residents can vote at their regular polling location on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. You can find voting and registration information at https://myvote.wi.gov/.
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