SHAWANO, WI- The Shawano School Board is starting to move closer to taking a school building off line, essentially closing it, and moving students to the three remaining buildings. While it is not the only option, it appears to be the less damaging.
“We have three options that we are bringing forward for discussion,” Director of Finance Josh Swanson told the members of the Shawano School Board during a Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday. The three options are program cuts, increasing class sizes or closing a school building.
Superintendent Randi Anderson said they are looking at two phases when it comes to budget decisions.
The first step is to “right-size” the staff. That would reduce the staff size to match the drop in enrollment.
“We looked at every retirement and for everyone that we don’t need to fill, we started there,” Swanson said. He said that is still not enough to cover the 2 million dollar budget deficit. He said that only clears up 1.4 million dollars leaving them with more cuts to be made.
Grams asked how many position cuts would be included with the “right-sizing,” explaining that it is still downsizing. Swanson said the “right-sizing” cuts would be 9 certified staff cuts, 3 support staff cuts and 1 administrator cut with three more administrator cuts coming next year for a total of four.
“I think we would be foolish to pretend to know what the situation would look like a year from now.”
Swanson said they are looking at extending the April 1st retirement deadline for certified staff and allow staff who may have their position cut and who are eligible for retirement to use that option instead since they are likely to not know their job status by that time. “Support staff can retire at anytime.” Swanson explained.
“We will have natural attrition and this district has a history of range of between 15 to 30, but we are bound by state statute, so if we are going to do a non-renewal, we have to have that done by April 30th,” Superintendent Randi Anderson said. “We wanted to give people the opportunity to apply elsewhere as this is a good time for people who are looking for a job to find one.”
Anderson said there are two conversations, one is the “right-sizing” which are staff reductions that need to be made due to the declining enrollment and to getting the ratios back in proportion with like-size districts, and the second conversation is looking at the rest of the budget deficit and more decisions need to be made to balance the budget.
In the meantime, the board is left with the three options to consider.
Option 1- Program Cuts
The first money saving option is to cut some of the programs that are currently being offered in the district.
“We would be looking at Allied Arts cuts for K-12,” Kurt Krizan, Director of Personalized Learning said. “We would be looking at each program that is outside of the core area and start making cuts there.”
Krizan said there would not be any changes to the core classes with that option.
Option 2- Larger Class Sizes
The second option would be to add more students to the existing class sizes and make cuts to reflect the number of classes.
“We would be looking at an additional 12 certified staff and 3 support staff cuts to get to budget, and increase the number of students in each class,” Swanson said. He said that would boil down to 8 core area teachers and additional 4 staff members to get to the 12 certified staff cuts.
“With Option 1, we would not have to cut core area teachers like we do with this option.”
Option 3- Building Closure
The third option is the most talked about, closing a building. It would be considered taking the building of the district’s choosing offline, making it not operational for educational purposes between 8:00am and 3:30pm. Eliminating the cost that comes with keeping a building open would make up the rest of the deficit.
Recommendation
The board members were informed that the the recommendation would be to close a building over the other two options that directly impact education. Krizan said it is the lesser of the three evils.
“If we are taking programs away from kids, that is a hard one for me to swallow,” Krizan said. “With option three, it would have the least impact on our students as it would allow us to keep our class sizes and keep our programs.”
Superintendent Randi Anderson said option 3 would also stick more in line with the goals that the district has been setting for the last couple of years.
“As an Administrative Team, our priority is to maintain staff and programs as that is what fits into our strategic plan and at the end of the day, whatever we can do to maintain that is our priority.”
One concern is some of the common space that the community benefits from. “We don’t want to lose gym space as we know that is used in the community,” Anderson said.
The board was presented with a few options for building closure.
The general capacity of the buildings were looked at and rough estimate showed that their would be 829 available seats in 2026, but some of those spaces are being used right now. By that time, it is estimated that the district would be operating at 60 percent capacity of the buildings.
Option 1:
Olga Brener-Closed or Offline
Hillcrest-Pre K through 4th Grade
Middle School -5th Grade through 8th Grade
This option would come with some changes to accommodate more students at Hillcrest. One concern is that the lunch room would not be big enough at Hillcrest, but some scheduling changes could allow the lunch room to function with adding the 3rd and 4th grade to Hillcrest. In addition, the playground would need to expanded at an estimated cost of $300,000 dollars and well as additional music classroom space and art class space at an estimated cost of $25,000 for each of the departments for a total of $350,000 investment into Hillcrest.
Option 1b
Olga Brener- 5th Grade through 8th Grade
Hillcrest- Pre K through 4th Grade
Middle School- Closed or Offline
With this option, that would not need the $350,000 dollar investment for Hillcrest, but there would be an additional need to create some CTE (Career & Technical Education) space for the 7th and 8th grade students who would be entering those classes.
Option 2:
Olga Brener- Closed or Offline
Hillcrest- Pre K through 3
Middle School- 4th Grade through 6th Grade
High School- 7th Grade through 12th Grade
That option would require additional classroom space at the High School. One benefit to this option would be if improvements are made to the High School through a referendum, kids will get the chance to use, enjoy and benefit from those improvements for a longer period of time.
Michael Sleeper asked about a new option, which would close the Middle School and make Olga Brener a 4th-6th grade building.
Many board members expressed concern with moving the 7th graders to the High School.
“Kids that were 7th and 8th grade learned how to smoke pot, drink beer and how to fight and they did not amount to a hill of beans to be honest with you,” Chuck Dallas said, referencing to when Bay Port made a similar move years ago.
Alysia Pillsbury said she is not sure that those things are not already happening right now.
“I am 100 percent for closing the Middle School because it is a money pit and it is the oldest building,” Mart Grams said.
Jim Davel said moving the 7th Grade to the High School would require careful planning and good communication.
“If we made that decision to move the 7th Grade to the High School, that would have to be clearly explained how that separation is designed because I think there would be a lot of concerned parents,” Jim Davel said.
Superintendent Randi Anderson pointed out that the Middle School is where a lot of the district equipment is stored and is also where the High School track, the Wellness Center and Community Education are. She also said that adding another grade or two to the High School is a game changer for the timeline.
“Moving 7th and 8th Grade up would lead to redesign at the High School, and that would push this out a year due to the limited resources for that kind of work,” Anderson said. “We can’t get the High School repurposed at this time.” She added that the board would have to look at ESSER Funds or Fund Balance to balance the budget deficit.
The board began a discussion of which building would be the best option to close.
“With all the work that we did at Olga Brener including the gym and the new playground, it is hard for me to stomach closing that one,” Pillsbury said.
Chuck Dallas pointed out that making staff cuts and closing a building is bad timing with a possible upcoming referendum in November. “We are in a bit of a quandary here, and it is one heck of a melting pot.”
Anderson said a key point to remember is that the referendum has the potential to not have an impact to the tax payers based on the financial picture.
“It is a perfect storm that is not in our favor, but with this we are in position to be able to maintain our programs and class sizes.”
Anderson recommended that the board makes a final decision at the last meeting in the month of April.
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