SHAWANO, WI- All options are on the table still when it comes to future development and improvements for the Shawano School District buildings, and that means that a school building closing is still possible in the future as well as a referendum.
The Shawano School Board learned during a workshop on Thursday that an operating referendum to fix their budget has been explored. The district is also looking at the option of a capital referendum to fix facility needs.
“The decision was made that it was not going to be feasible to close a building for the 2022-2023 school year,” District Finance Director Josh Swanson said. “It does not mean that it is not an option as we look at future district needs.”
The School Board got up to speed with information that the Facility Planning Task Force has been working on with ISG. “At any point you can always put your foot on the break and that is always an option, but certainty their are some benefits to consider that November referendum,” said Sue Peterson, a consultant with ISG of La Crosse, the group working with the district and the stakeholders group to help give the district some guidance for future needs.
Peterson said the deadline to decide if there will be a referendum would be the end of August.
The Stakeholder’s group has had a few meetings to date. During the first meeting in January, the group reviewed the facility assessment from Kraus Anderson, they discussed building capacity and toured the High School. During the February meeting, the group looked at the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and lesson on school finance as well as prioritizing projects. The last meeting in March, the group discussed the deficit, capacity of the district and potential projects.
Peterson called the situation a three pronged challenge. “You have the checkbook that is $2 million in the red, you have some capital needs and you have some unique desires of things that you want to do with your buildings to make the better and they can’t all live in isolation.”
CAPACITY
The Shawano School District is expecting to have 826 empty seats across the four buildings by the year 2026 based on projected enrollment. “We know that an additional building to heat, clean and operate and some duplication of state, it is about $ one half million dollars saved if were to take a building off line,” Peterson said.
Superintendent Randi Anderson explained how the enrollment numbers were figured.
“We took the average rolling in from our kindergarten and looked at the increase then we looked at the increase in our high school through our parochial schools and took the average of that increase, so it really is based on a lot of assumptions,” Anderson said. “We could have chosen to hire to do an assessment of our enrollment, but we chose not to do that.”
Board Member Alysia Pillsbury asked if the families that chose to move their kids to a parochial school are ever asked why that is a better choice for them to see if there is anything that can be done to prevent losing more students. Board Member Chris Gull questioned if it was even legal to ask and Anderson confirmed that it was.
REFEREMDUM
The board started weighing out the different referendum options. Superintendent Randi Anderson noted that the operating referendum would not keep taxes low, and it would only be a temporary solution to the district’s budget issues. In recent years, the tax rate has stayed pretty consistent. “Operating is for five years, and then you’ll have to go out again,’ said Anderson. “Remember that the $2 million is about right-sizing the organization, based off of the student population that we currently have.”
Peterson said the Shawano School District has a unique opportunity. “you have a window because you have some of the debt dropping off so, taking on debt will allow you to do some of these things and a yes vote will not cost the voters any more then they are already paying.” Peterson says that window will eventually close.
The other option for referendum is a capital referendum to make facility improvements over the next 10 years which is also being looked at by the taskforce.
Peterson said the options that the district are facing would be a building closure, staff and program cuts and operational referendum.
The current student count in Shawano’s public schools is 2,278, and that number is expected to drop by 2,119 in 2026 and dip below 2,000 in under 10 years.
RIGHT-SIZING THE DISTRICT
The school board was presented with the full spectrum of options for all schools. The projects were broken down into three categories, Related to Right-Sizing, Nice, Not Need and Capital Maintenance Projects. It was explained that not all right-sizing options will be necessary and the nice, not need projects are all optional. The right-sizing needs will be based on how the grades are assigned to the schools if a school were to be taken off-line.
HILLCREST
Right-Sizing: $50,000 to repurpose two music and art classrooms if 3rd and 4th grade are added to the building.
Nice, Not Need: Cafeteria Expansion ($740,000) Playground Expansion ($300,000)
Capital Maintenance Projects: (About $2.5 Million)
OLGA BRENER
Right-Sizing: CTE (Career Technology Education) Addition for Former Middle School Students ($1.8 Million)
Nice, Not Need: None
Capital Maintenance Projects: (About $4 Million)
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Right-Sizing: None
Nice, Not Need: Library Updates ($728,406), Lecture Hall Renovation ($439,185), Corridor Connection/Restrooms ($723,600), Locker Room Remodel ($251,250), CTE (Career and Technology Education Update ($1,1 Million), Courtyard Outdoor Classroom ($499,500)
Capital Maintenance Projects : (About $6.7 Million)
HIGH SCHOOL
Right-Sizing: Create a 7th/8th Grade Wing ($2.1 Million)
Nice, Not Need: CTE Upgrade ($1.4 Million), CTE Addition (1.8 Million) – If 7th and/or 8th Grade go the high school building
Capital Maintenance Projects: ($12 Million)
Additional Projects Possible For High School: Library Update ($799,740), Music Fine Arts Renovation ($2.9 Million), Auditorium Updates ($171,654), Athletics Storage ($377, 700) in Mezzanine, Locker Room Upgrade ($1.08 Million), Pool Upgrade ($677,600), Fitness Center Addition ($2.2 Million), Multi-Purpose Addition ($2.4 Million), Athletics Facility ($8.5 Million)
To do everything would be an estimated $57 Million Dollars. The projects were broken down to different options with taking a school building offline.
Option 1- Close Olga Brener / Hillcrest: PreK-4th / Middle School: 5th-8th
Estimated Student Shift : 281 students added to Hillcrest / 155 students added to Middle School.
Overall Estimated Price : $21.7 Million- Includes Hillcrest Classroom Repurposing and Capital Maintenance Projects for three remaining schools.
Option 2– Close Middle School / Hillcrest PreK-4th / Olga-Brener 5th-8th
Estimated Student Shift: 281 students added to Hillcrest / 202 students added to Olga Brener.
Overall Estimated Price: $20.7 Million- Includes Hillcrest Classroom Repurposing, CTE Addition for Olga Brener and Capital Maintenance Projects for three remaining schools.
Option 3- Close Olga Brener / Hillcrest PreK-3 / Middle School 4th-6th/ High School 7th-12th
Estimated Student Shift- 155 students added to Hillcrest / 331 students added to the High School
Overall Estimated Price: $23.7 Million- Includes Hillcrest Classroom Repurposing, 7th and 8th Grade Wing, and Capital Maintenance Projects for three remaining schools.
Peterson said with that option, the High School would become more of a Middle/High School, but the 7th and 8th grade students would still be considered a Middle School student and would likely have different schedules from the High School.
Option 4– Close Middle School/ Hillcrest PreK-3/ Olga Brener- 4th-6th / High School 7th-12th
Overall Estimated Price: $22.8 Million- Includes Hillcrest Classroom Repurposing, 7th and 8th Grade Wing, CTE Addition for Olga Brener and Capital Maintenance Projects for three remaining schools.
Option 5: Keep all buildings open and not get the half million dollars savings that the closing of a building would provide and go the route of an operational referendum.
“With these options, they are about 1 to 2 million dollars difference from each other and with all of them, you are losing a community gym space, let’s be honest,” Peterson said.
Board member Chuck Dallas said he was concerned with closing a building and adding on to accommodate for the students who are moving. “Why would I invest $2 million dollars into a wing when we already have a building?”
Mike Musloff said he felt the 7th and 8th graders would need their own gym space at the High School building due to the usage caps that the gym has already.
Dallas cautioned asking for a capital referendum if they are planning on cutting classes, staff and closing a building as it would get on the wrong side of the voters. “The dynamic we have right now is awfully hard for people to understand,” Dallas said. “When you’re down $2 million, cutting teachers and talking about taking out a building, and then asking for a large capital referendum, we’d better sharpen our skills at communicating, because otherwise, there will be a lot of effort for nothing.”
School Board President Michael Sleeper said they still need to keep the best interest of the students that they will be serving in mind. “We’re looking at about 2,000 students by the end of this decade,” Sleeper said. “That’s still 2,000 students that deserve the very best education we can provide.”
According to an activity done by the task force, athletic opportunities were a high priority. The members were asked to place color stickers on the fun things that they see as a higher priority including Fine Arts Renovations, Athletic Space, Stadium Renovations, Locker Room Renovations, Library Updates and Middle School Outdoor Space. “That’s like asking me if I want Corvette or a Porsche, you don’t have the tough things up there, these are all fun things.”
SURVEY
The talk continued on a survey that will be created and sent out sometime in April according to ISG. The survey would find out what the community feels are a priority and what they would be willing to pay for.
The board seemed to agree that they wanted to have all the options presented to the community through a survey and present options for both operational and capital referendums.
Superintendent Anderson said she wanted to make it clear that no decisions have been made yet.
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