Politics & Government

School Officials Prepared to Deal With Likely Cuts

Superintendent predicts Walker's budget plan won't have a significant impact on district.

While school officials around Wisconsin are lamenting the cuts in state aid included in Gov. Scott Walker's budget, Port Washington-Saukville  Superintendent Michael Weber said the district is pretty well prepared for what lies ahead.

"We've been pretty sound financially and that ... has helped a lot as we’ve begun to sort out the budget," he said.

Walker's budget, unveiled Tuesday, would cut $834 billion in state aid to local school districts over two years. It also would reduce the revenue limit — the  amount that the district can collect in state aid and property taxes — by 5.5 percent.

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The budget also would cuts $96 million in county and municipal aid by 2012, and puts a freeze on levy increases unless a community sees an increase in its tax base due to new construction. Then, it would be allowed to increase taxes by that percentage.

But even being prepared for loss doesn't mean things can easily stay the same, a fact that Weber recognizes.

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"Everywhere across the state, education will have a different look to it next year, and … I don’t know what that look will be," he said.

However, he said, the fiscal responsibility the district has practiced over the years will likely mean less change in here than in other districts.

Local teachers have already seen a little less damage than elsewhere, as the district did not distribute a single layoff notice last week after the Wisconsin Association of School Boards advised all districts to do so.

"We are not going to do any mass layoffs at this time," Weber said, citing two specific reasons — the current contract with the teachers gives the district 30 days prior to last day of the semester to issue the notices and because 13 staff members are retiring this year.

The hope would be that necessary staffing reductions would be covered by the retirements, he said, but that won't be known until more budget details emerge.

"If for some reason we need to reduce staff, we have the resources to do that on May 10," he said. "But that's still an 'if.' "

The school district's union contracts expire on June 30, and Weber said the administration is not hurrying through more contracts because of Walker's bill.

"(The bill is) obviously going to have an impact," he said. "But, no, we're not catering to that."


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