SHAWANO, WI- Multiple topics regarding the future of the Shawano School District will be presented to the public Tuesday evening. The community event is being called the “State of the District” and will focus on issues centered around the district’s strategic plan that they have been working on for the last couple of years. School District Administration will be on hand to present and hold discussions with community members.
The strategic plan consists of four pillars…Student Success, Innovation, Relationships, and Operations.
“We would like to know what the community would like to see as well as where and how do we prioritize our work.”
The meeting will be Tuesday, January 11 at the Shawano City Hall Community Room.
The following topics will be addressed as well as a chance to get input from the community on the topics.
ENROLLMENT PROJECTIONS / BUILDING CAPACITY
Enrollment Decline is Projected To Continue, What’s Next?
Shawano School District Superintendent Randi Anderson told the School Board Execuitve Committee last month that are seeing a decline in students in the district.
“For the last five years, we have had a declining enrollment and last year we had a significant decline in enrollment due to COVID and students going to homeschool or a virtual academy.”
She says the other enrollment trend has to do with the incoming classes size of 4K and Kindergarten students being lower than the number of Seniors graduating.
“That low-class size will hit the high school starting next year,” Anderson told the committee. “Because of that, we are projecting the decline in students.
Anderson said while the numbers are not for sure, the projection is based on the trends that they have in place. “Estimated soft numbers are showing a projection decline of 50 students each year so in the next four years we are projecting a decline in enrollment of 200 students by 2026.”
The district currently has an enrollment of 2,278 students and the anticipation of enrollment in 2026 will go down to 2,026 students. Anderson said that will result in an estimated 60 percent of the building capacity being used. She says that is another thing that they need to consider when looking at the long-range picture.
“We look at this to help us look at what our costs are for our physical plans as we continue to move forward,” said Anderson.
KRAUSS ANDERSON FACILITIES ASSESSMENT REPORT
Now that the district knows the condition of the buildings, features, and equipment, What should they focus on?
In order to help prioritize upcoming projects, the district recently completed an assessment that looked at all equipment and all buildings to determine what things are going to need to be fixed or replaced now or in the near future.
“We really had no idea of what equipment we had in the district,” Shawn Mathwich, Buildings, and Grounds Director said. “Every time we had a piece put in place, another would have a malfunction so we knew we needed to have a study done to try to get in front of the problem.”
Mathwich said some of the issues they have had in the past could have been avoided with the proper planning.
“If you don’t do your preventative maintenance, you won’t keep things running.” Mathwich compared that checking and changing the oil in a car or washing a car to prevent other issues.
He said having this list tells them how old everything is and when it should be replaced. “As we replace things that are outdated, we can just keep a running tally of the equipment and the age and condition of it.”
Mathwich says the surprises and unexpected issues will still come, but he feels this is a more fiscally responsible way of handling things.
“When you get into emergency mode, it is going to cost a lot more money.”
The district is reporting about $26 million dollars in facility needs over the next ten years. “We will be creating a ten-year long-range facility plan to spread out or big-ticket items over the next ten years,” Superintendent Randi Anderson said. According to Mathwich, that number could be higher based on the rate of inflation.
“Our buildings look incredible, but they are starting to age.”
ATHLETICS
Making room for weight training and space for wrestling as a start.
The district is planning to construct two bump-outs, one on each side of the building, to allow more space. The addition for Athletics would include a small bump-out by the pool area of the building. The upper level will have a padded space for community training and wrestling. The lower area would contain weight-training equipment.
“This is needed space,” Mathwich said. “Our mezzanine area currently is not enough room for wrestling practice and not enough room for the students that we have participating in weight training.
“That bump-out would go pretty much to the street and there would be some additional parking added,” Mathwich said.
Originally, there was talk about building an addition to the high school that would serve as a location for athletics and weight training for high school programs as well as house the current Rec Center programs since the Rec Center is need of work. Those plans halted after discussions took place.
“This has been a priority for our community,” Anderson said.
FINE ARTS
More space is needed for storage and students.
Another area that is running out of room is the area for Fine Arts. Anderson said they have a strong participation level of students in Fine Arts.
“We have a lot of equipment and they need more room,” Mathwich said. “They are literally bumping into each other.”
He says there is one big eye-sore, which is the storage container that sits outside the building and they need more space for storage.
“We have a great fine arts program, but they need more space. These kids have been successful at local and state competitions and we don’t want to hold them back due to a lack of space and lack of resources.
Mathwich says the bump-out would be on the other side of the building and would include storage and a proposed orchestra pit.
FINANCIAL STATE OF THE DISTRICT
How should the district spend its third round of State money?
One ongoing discussion the Shawano School District has been having has been how to spend money that they received after COVID.
Finance Director Josh Swanson said they are looking to see where the community sees priority and to explain what the first two rounds of the money, known as ESSER Funds, has been spent.
“Round one was used for needed mitigation for safety due to COVID, the spending for round two is in progress and we are tackling some bigger projects like WI-FI and paying for some teaching positions like all-day 4K,” Swanson said. “Round three has some requirements but we will have about $2.7 million dollars for other purposes that we are looking for some direction with.”
Anderson said getting stakeholder input is a big part of looking at how to allocate the ESSER 3 funds.
The other financial discussion will be centered around the proposed additions for Fine Arts and Athletics.
“The project would be about $5 million dollars in total,” Superintendent Anderson said.
Swanson said the key is that the project would not come at the expense of taxpayers in the form of a tax increase.
“We are in a strong financial position for this,” Finance Director Josh Swanson said. “We do have expiring debt so we could possibly fund this with new debt or fundraising.”
He also said the district has been fiscally responsible in past years, which helps.
Note: We will have a follow-up to this story on Wednesday after the meeting takes place.
Comments