Wisconsin school districts, especially rural ones, have had to ask voters to approve referendums to maintain existing education programs or replace aging infrastructure in the wake of less state and federal funding.
Tigerton School District is asking voters to approve a referendum in November to prevent the two community schools from closing altogether.
The district, which has 256 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, has been relying on its fund balance to keep budgets solvent since 2009, according to Wayne Johnson, the district’s part-time administrator. Many programs — business education, art, family consumer education and music — have had to be cut to minimize the amount of reserve funds utilized to balance the budget, Johnson said.
“We’re a small, rural school district, like half the districts in the state,” he said. “Most of them have had to pass a referendum to keep operating, and we’re one of the last ones. We’ve held out a long time.”
With the fund balance dwindling, having schools running at a deficit is no longer an option, according to Johnson, and there is nowhere else left to cut. The referendum would override the state-imposed revenue cap and allow the district to collect $1.5 million to $1.6 million in local taxes over the next five years.
If the referendum were to fail, Tigerton schools could be forced to close their doors in about three years, he said. If the school district dissolved, current students would likely be sent to one of four surrounding school districts — Bowler, Marion, Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Rosholt.
Other options besides closure include ending all art, music, agriculture and technical education classes, combining grades and eliminating all sports programs.
Johnson is confident voters will approve the referendum, however, because the district is only asking to maintain the existing tax rate and not for more taxes.
The referendum would keep property tax rates at the current level, $12.76 per $1,000 of equalized valuation, which means the owner of a $100,000 home would continue to pay $1,276 in school taxes in 2016 and 2017. The tax rate would drop to $12.63 in 2018 and $12.31 in 2020.
“We’re simply to the place where we have nothing else to cut,” he said. “It’s a decision the community needs to make. If they want to continue to have a school in the community, they’re going to have to pass the referendum.”
Nowhere left to cut for Tigerton
Besides the cut in programs, the district has been forced to eliminate funding for field trips. If teachers want to take their lessons away from school, the community must have fundraisers to cover costs, Johnson said.
Positions have also been trimmed or eliminated. The full-time librarian is down to one period per day, according to Johnson, while an administrator position was eliminated along with teacher aide and clerical positions.
The district has also resorted to purchasing other districts’ hand-me-down buses whenever one of the existing buses can no longer function. Johnson said the last bus purchased from the Iola-Scandinavia School District in 2014 already had 184,000 miles on it.
Tigerton has seen a loss of $388,000 in federal aid in the past five years, and state funds for the district have been cut by more than $728,000, Johnson said. About 45 percent of the district’s budget is dependent on state aid, while local taxes and fees make up more than half of the budget.
“We’re caught, like most school districts, where the state and federal governments have balanced their budgets by reducing the amount of money they send to the school districts. If they’d maintained their current levels of funding, we wouldn’t have had to go for a referendum,” Johnson said.
Longtime teacher loves small-town feel
Wanda Minniecheske, a middle school teacher, has been with the Tigerton School District for 27 years. Tigerton was where she started her teaching career, and her three children all went through the local school system.
“I like the small-town feel,” Minniecheske said. “I like that I know my kids, and I know their families. It helps to relate to the kids better, because you know their backgrounds.”
Minniecheske believes it would be harder for her to help students succeed if she were in a larger school district, where she’d only see students for an hour per day. Tigerton schools are unique in that the classes are small enough to offer more one-on-one attention, she said.
“I know that this one went out hunting, and this one’s dad isn’t feeling well. I think you can teach so much better because you have a relationship with the students,” Minniecheske said.
Minniecheske has also seen how the schools helped her own children’s education. All three went on to post-secondary institutions, she said, and the Tigerton schools helped her two quiet daughters come out of their shells via the forensics program.
In her time with Tigerton, Minniecheske has been dismayed to see a lack of support in the state level, not just in dollars, but in policies.
“The laws do not support public education, so it’s hard to be successful when you don’t have that support,” Minniecheske said.
While acknowledging that Tigerton runs into its share of issues, closing the doors and sending kids to other schools won’t eliminate problems, Minniecheske said.
“People don’t realize that all schools have problems and all schools have strengths,” she said. “No school district is perfect.”
Ag teacher wants to stay local
Lori Rowe has been with Tigerton schools for 14 years, mainly serving as the school’s agriculture teacher and FFA adviser. She feels the local schools are needed in Tigerton.
“This is the center hub of our community,” Rowe said. “To keep our community going, we obviously need a school here.”
Like Minniecheske, Rowe enjoys getting to know her students on a more personal basis. She enjoys working with local families and helping their children develop into young leaders.
Prior to coming to Tigerton, Rowe had worked in the Green Bay school system, and she felt the larger district was not suitable for her as an educator.
“I chose Tigerton because it was a small school, and they were looking for someone to build up the ag program again,” Rowe said. “I’ve diligently tried to build up our agriculture and FFA program.”
However, the agriculture program has not been immune from Tigerton’s cost-cutting. Rowe’s position had been part-time for two years, but she is back to full-time after agreeing to fill the high school’s health teacher position.
“We’ve had to cut a lot of programs that our kids would like to take, like business classes,” Rowe said.
Student returns home to Tigerton
Aiden Rademacher was happy to return to Tigerton High School for his sophomore year. He’d attended Tigerton schools through fourth grade, and then went through the Shawano School District for the next four years. His freshman year was in home school before his family moved back to Tigerton.
“I think what bothered me most about Shawano was that it was big, and I was used to the smaller school districts,” Rademacher said. “I think because this school is so much smaller, there’s not as many people. Here, I know quite a few people.”
Rademacher is getting involved with school organizations. He was on the committee for homecoming floats, and he was a nominee for the homecoming court. He noted that he doesn’t plan to go out for sports.
Rademacher wants to see the school’s doors stay open.
“It’s more of a hometown. I’d like to see the town still be a town, not with no schools or anything like that,” Rademacher said. “I grew up here, and I’m hoping to see it stay all together.”
Tigerton’s education is top notch, according to Johnson, the district administrator. The district has been a state School of Promise for six years running because of excellent test scores, he said, and it has been in the top 100 schools in the nation in U.S. News and World Report for three years.
“Tigerton’s a stupendous, awesome little school district. It’s kind of a secret, I think, in central Wisconsin,” Johnson said. “We’ve got great kids and great parents. They get a wonderful education.”
