Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
The office that coordinates 4-H Club activities and other educational efforts in Shawano County is bracing for budget cuts that could mean a smaller staff starting in 2018.
The Shawano County University of Wisconsin-Extension office is absorbing its share of a $250 million statewide cut to the University of Wisconsin System that has prompted restructuring of the UW-Extension organization.
Starting Jan. 1, the office at the Shawano County Courthouse will become part of a four-county region overseen by a regional director who also is responsible for extension outlets in Menominee, Oconto and Marinette counties.
In addition to such consolidation, state budget cuts are forcing Shawano County to either allocate more county resources for UW-Extension or trim staffing and services in the office.
County officials have tentatively decided against spending increases and instead have endorsed a strategy for reducing the number of educators while scaling back activities in family living and economic development.
Jamie Patton, who heads the UW-Extension office in Shawano County, said she and her colleagues are prepared to work more efficiently in the hope of implementing the budget reductions without significantly affecting the many services that the office provides.
“It’ll be a new system,” Patton said. “How this transition will transpire is still yet to be determined.”
The state’s decision in 2015 to slash $250 million from the UW System led to a $3.6 million budget cut for UW-Extension, prompting a restructuring for the organization whose mission is to connect local communities with the university’s research and educational resources.
Dubbed the “nExt Generation” project, the reorganization has been studied and planned slowly over the past two years, with local offices in Shawano County and elsewhere eager to learn the impact.
The Shawano County office consists of about a 12-person staff that works on agriculture, 4-H youth activities, business development, and family living and health. Using a combination of county, state and federal funding, the office spends about $380,000 a year and serves more than 30,000 people annually.
The staff has been in flux ever since department head Joe Stellato retired last August and community resource development educator Jay Moynihan died a couple of months later.
Under a plan approved last week by the county agriculture and extension committee, two positions in the office in 2018 would be trimmed from full-time to half-time: the community resource development educator and the family living educator. Community resource development is focused on economic development and tourism, while family living includes parent education, nutrition, health and volunteerism.
County Supervisor Marvin Klosterman, a member of the agriculture and extension committee, said final decisions on funding for the UW-Extension office will come later in the county’s budget approval process for 2018.
“We hate to lose any of them,” he said. “But sometimes you have to face reality.”
The county budget typically is approved by October of each year.
Another change being implemented under the restructuring is squeezing counties to pay more because the state’s contribution to fund certain UW-Extension salaries is based on a flat-fee structure rather than a percentage that had been set at 40 percent.
Effective Jan. 1, budgetary management and other administrative oversight for the county Extension office is being assigned to an area director. The regional director will assume duties previously fulfilled by staff in each individual county office.
The area director, Nancy Crevier, is a longtime UW-Extension educator from Marinette County. She will remain based in Marinette County.
Crevier said she is confident that UW-Extension will continue serving its counties well, and will remain true to its mission of being responsive to local residents’ needs.
“That is something that we stand by and will continue to stand by,” she said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Now that county officials have identified preferred staffing levels for next year, Patton said she and her colleagues will prepare a budget for the office for 2018. They will likely rely more heavily on volunteers, she said, and they might seek out new partnerships with neighboring counties or others to achieve efficiencies.
Patton said she hopes the changes trickling down from the state budget cuts will be largely unfelt by the people who rely on UW-Extension for services.
“The community members won’t see any difference,” she said. “We’re going to do our best.”