Local administrators cautiously optimistic about education proposals

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed funding increases for rural K-12 schools drew reactions of cautious optimism from most area school district administrators this week.

Walker’s proposals include an additional $20 million in sparsity aid, full reimbursement for rural school districts in the high-cost transportation aid program, increased broadband investment for schools and more.

Bonduel School District Superintendent Patrick Rau said he is hopeful that his district will qualify for sparsity aid under Walker’s proposal. Currently, only districts with a student population of 745 or less with a population density of less than 10 students per square mile receive sparsity aid, but Walker is seeking to expand it to districts with under 1,000 students.

“Typically, we don’t qualify for sparsity aid, but there seems to be a second tier of sparsity aid that we would possibly benefit for,” Rau said, noting he needed to get more details about the program.

Rau said he welcomes the additional transportation funding, especially when it comes to summer school transportation. The state currently offered reimbursement of $4 per student living two to five miles away from school and $6 for students farther away, but Walker seeks to increase those amounts to $10 and $20, respectively.

“The rates of $6 and $4 per pupil for summer school wasn’t even close to covering our costs,” Rau said. “It’s vital to provide that transportation to rural students. That reimbursement is badly in need of an update.”

Menominee Indian School District Superintendent Wendell Waukau said he also welcomes increased transportation funding for smaller school districts like his.

“Increased transportation aid is a good thing, especially when you are busing kids from 12-20 miles, which doesn’t include the wear and tear on our buses,” Waukau wrote in an email to the Leader.

Walker’s proposals include the flexibility for districts to share services. Rau said Bonduel shares a music teacher and school psychologist with Gillett School District, which reduces local costs.

The governor also seeks to have the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation allocate $1 million over the two-year budget for fabrication laboratories. Rau said Bonduel applied for a “fab lab” grant but was turned down.

“We hope that, if we would pursue it again, we’d see how we could incorporate our art department with our tech ed department,” Rau said.

Superintendent Gary Cumberland said most of Walker’s proposals won’t affect the Shawano School District because of its larger size, but one program he hopes to utilize is the University of Wisconsin flex program, which would help teacher aides and other paraprofessionals to become teachers.

“That is something I’m interested in,” Cumberland said. “When I first came to Shawano 16-17 years ago, we’d put out an ad for an elementary teacher and get 50-100 applicants. Now, we put out an ad, and if we get 20 applicants, we’re really doing good. There’s just not a huge pool of applicants out there right now.”

Waukau also expressed support for the proposal to help retain and recruit teachers locally.

“Recruiting and retaining quality teachers is a must if want our kids to be career and college ready,” Waukau said.

Waukau praised Walker’s efforts to help improve education but hoped it wasn’t seen as a final solution to Wisconsin’s education challenges.

“It’s a positive step in the direction needed in helping our rural schools educate all our students,” Waukau said. “At the same time, I hope it is not a Band-Aid approach to the many challenges rural schools have faced for the past several years.”

Like Shawano, the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District is too large to qualify for sparsity aid, and the proposed transportation aid would be a drop in the bucket for the district’s budget.

“At most, the transportation increases will help us by $6,000 or $7,000, we estimate,” Superintendent Garrett Rogowski said.

Rogowski is waiting to see if Walker and the state Legislature will adjust the revenue limit cap for school districts. Out of 424 districts in the state, Wittenberg-Birnamwood ranks 420th in student spending because of the cap, according to Rogowski.

“We really need to see some change with that,” Rogowski said. “In the grand scheme of things, the rural schools funding proposal doesn’t do much for Wittenberg-Birnamwood.”

Cumberland also wants to see more of the proposed state education budget.

“Most of what (Walker) is proposing is good,” Cumberland said. “It’s going to be beneficial for education overall, but I guess I’m looking forward to seeing what else is out there for public education.”