Appleton Area School District begins budget deliberations

APPLETON, Wis. (WISS) -The Appleton Area School District has begun work on the budget for the 2025/2026 school year.

On the heels of a $13 million budget shortfall in the 2024/2025 year, a referendum may be on the docket.

At the Appleton Area School District (AASD) Board of Education meeting on Monday night, Holly Burr, Executive Director of Finance for AASD, explained state and federal funding methods, vouchers, and a range of financial details that could lead to a possible change in the tax levy for the next school year. This mill rate, she says, may go down due to increased construction and property tax valuations.

She called out that legislators in Wisconsin voted to allow school districts to increase the revenue limits by $325 per student for the next school year. However, they did not fund the increase. The additional monies will have to come from the taxpayers.

“The state did not put in any extra money. So they put in zero extra dollars,” Burr told the school board. “They said, ‘Okay, your revenue limit can go up by $325 per member, but we’re not giving you any extra money to do it. That’s coming from your taxpayers.’”

School Board Member Oliver Zornow lamented that, because state school funding is not keeping pace with inflation, students today are receiving a lower quality of education than those in the past.

“The system is so broken. It is ridiculous in this way, I think we need to start thinking about what are the ways we have here in our district to solve this for our kids? Because they’re not solving it in Madison. They’re not going to do that…Every legislator I’ve talked to is pretty defeated on the whole idea,” Zornow said. 

Burr told the board that talking to state legislators and impressing upon them that something has to be done is the only way local districts will ever see more funding.

“ Do not give up. We have to continue to fight,” said Burr. “If we give up, then they’ll (state legislators) say, ‘Oh, yep, education is fine. Let’s move on to something else.’”

Superintendent Greg Hartjes told the school board that he wants to have a balanced budget for 2025/26 and future budgets. To that end, a referendum may be needed.

“How do we rectify this $13 million deficit by next year? And certainly, cutting expenses is not a viable option, because that would mean that we are cutting services to students. And so we’re looking at the possibility of a referendum,” Hartjes said.

In the coming weeks, the AASD will mail a survey to all residents to gauge the support for a referendum. Hartjes stated that a decision on whether to include a referendum on the ballot would be made in January. 

The AASD will receive notification of the amount of state aid it will receive for the 2025/26 school year on Oct. 15, 2025. After that the final budget will be presented for approval by the board.