MONROE - There was bad news last week for state legislators: New Wisconsin revenue numbers will not give them more to work with during the budget process, the Associated Press reported. State Republicans were anticipating additional tax revenue money would help offset cuts to public education under Gov. Scott Walker's proposed state budget.
So where does Walker's budget proposal leave Monroe schools?
"We kind of knew that even without this (budget) that this was probably going to be our last year that we could potentially operate without having to have a look at either a referendum and/or some serious, serious reductions," Ron Olson, the Monroe school district's business administrator, told the school board in February.
Walker's 2015-17 budget proposal, released Feb. 3, and its $127 million cut to public schools has turned up the urgency on this conversation, causing the Monroe school board to shelve the project to resurface the high school track and cut summer custodial positions.
Monroe also joined an ever-growing list of school districts from across the state that have crafted resolutions to send to legislators and communities about the budget's impact on schools.
With no concrete changes - yet - to the parts of the budget that relate to school funding, here's how the numbers fall:
Revenue Limit
The revenue limit restricts how much a district can raise through the combination of general school aids and property taxes, according to the Wisconsin legislature's website.
Under the proposed budget, that limit doesn't increase.
The freeze leaves Monroe with a revenue limit for the next two years that's about $368 per child less than it was five years ago, Olson said. That accounts for about a $920,000 drop from the 2010-11 revenue limit for Monroe schools.
"It's not just that this is a freeze," Olson said. "It's the reality of freezes and cuts over time, as well as over the last five years specifically, that really started adding up and compounding themselves."
Another $60,000 came out of the revenue limit since 2010-11 because of a six-student drop in the district's three-year membership.
As costs go up, a continued lack of increase in revenue will cause more problems, Olson said.
In 2010, Monroe's revenue limit was $10,318 per student, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. Now, it's $9,950, a 3.6-percent decrease.
"We had hoped" there might be some increase in the limit this year, Olson said.
Prior to the 2011-12 school year, the revenue limit used to increase by an average of almost $290 per student every year. Since its inception in 1993, the revenue limit had never increased by less than $194 per student until Walker's first biennial budget, which lowered the limit by $567 per student in 2011-12.
Increases in the last three years have been modest: $50 per student in 2012-13 and $75 the following two years.
Revenue limit growth was tied to the consumer price index (CPI) until the 2009-10 school year, Olson said in an email. Under the proposed budget, the limit doesn't increase for inflation over the next two years.
Per-pupil aid
Per-pupil aid is not to be mistaken for revenue limit numbers. As a categorical aid, it's not constrained by or included in the revenue limit.
But it's cut entirely for the first year of Walker's proposed budget.
State law sets the aid at $150 per student every year after 2013-14, according to the Wisconsin DPI.
"So not only are we getting no increase in our revenue limit, we actually are going backwards" $375,900 by losing the expected $150 per pupil, Olson said.
The aid returns in the second year of the biennial budget at $165 per pupil, for a total of about $413,000 for Monroe, "so that's good," Olson said. "It's not really increasing much but at least that's a positive."
In the school board's resolution, the board calculates a net result of a $135 per-pupil cut over the budget's two years due to changes to per-pupil aid.
Per-pupil aid was established as a separate, categorical aid in 2013, after the previous biennial budget limited school funding by holding down the revenue limit.
"This has been the game that I probably, being a skeptic or whatever, have been telling you I thought was going to get played for a while," Olson told the school board. "When they pulled those dollars out of the revenue limit a couple years ago, they really set it up so that they could play with one number and the other, and then hopefully people won't look at them in the same context."
The combined effect of the elimination of per-pupil aid and a stagnant revenue limit on the Monroe school district is almost $1 million, according to the board's resolution. That's about 3.5 percent of the district's general fund budget, Olson said in an email.
Monroe budgeted for a deficit of just over $1 million for this school year, but Olson says the actual number will probably be between $600,000 and $800,000. Olson estimates next year's deficit will be about $1.4 million, after factoring in the recent cutbacks.
"Ultimately, we either make cuts, we spend our fund balance until it's gone or we look for support to maintain where we've been," said Monroe school board president Bob Erb at a recent meeting. "Ultimately those are decisions that the community makes, but it's up to us to look at the options."
Other funding
The per-pupil aid cut and revenue limit freeze take the largest bite out of school budgets, but other parts of Walker's budget also refer to school funding.
State general aid is set to increase in 2016-17 - the second year of the budget - by $108 million across the state, but Olson says that's not money the school district would see. Without a corresponding increase in the revenue limit, the aid would decrease school taxes on property owners, but not provide schools with any additional revenue.
Some of the general aid would cover students at private schools because of the voucher program, Olson added.
"So there might be more dollars going to general aid, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those dollars are going into public education," he said.
Another $211 million - $105.6 million for each year of the budget - will go toward school levy tax credits. The credits don't impact school districts, but again help taxpayers lower their bill.
Other aid won't add much to Monroe's budget, including aid for special education, which Olson said has been frozen for "a long time," sparcity, which helps districts with fewer than 725 students, and pupil transportation.
A final version of the budget is expected to be voted on by the state Senate and Assembly next month, but it could stretch beyond that.
So where does Walker's budget proposal leave Monroe schools?
"We kind of knew that even without this (budget) that this was probably going to be our last year that we could potentially operate without having to have a look at either a referendum and/or some serious, serious reductions," Ron Olson, the Monroe school district's business administrator, told the school board in February.
Walker's 2015-17 budget proposal, released Feb. 3, and its $127 million cut to public schools has turned up the urgency on this conversation, causing the Monroe school board to shelve the project to resurface the high school track and cut summer custodial positions.
Monroe also joined an ever-growing list of school districts from across the state that have crafted resolutions to send to legislators and communities about the budget's impact on schools.
With no concrete changes - yet - to the parts of the budget that relate to school funding, here's how the numbers fall:
Revenue Limit
The revenue limit restricts how much a district can raise through the combination of general school aids and property taxes, according to the Wisconsin legislature's website.
Under the proposed budget, that limit doesn't increase.
The freeze leaves Monroe with a revenue limit for the next two years that's about $368 per child less than it was five years ago, Olson said. That accounts for about a $920,000 drop from the 2010-11 revenue limit for Monroe schools.
"It's not just that this is a freeze," Olson said. "It's the reality of freezes and cuts over time, as well as over the last five years specifically, that really started adding up and compounding themselves."
Another $60,000 came out of the revenue limit since 2010-11 because of a six-student drop in the district's three-year membership.
As costs go up, a continued lack of increase in revenue will cause more problems, Olson said.
In 2010, Monroe's revenue limit was $10,318 per student, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. Now, it's $9,950, a 3.6-percent decrease.
"We had hoped" there might be some increase in the limit this year, Olson said.
Prior to the 2011-12 school year, the revenue limit used to increase by an average of almost $290 per student every year. Since its inception in 1993, the revenue limit had never increased by less than $194 per student until Walker's first biennial budget, which lowered the limit by $567 per student in 2011-12.
Increases in the last three years have been modest: $50 per student in 2012-13 and $75 the following two years.
Revenue limit growth was tied to the consumer price index (CPI) until the 2009-10 school year, Olson said in an email. Under the proposed budget, the limit doesn't increase for inflation over the next two years.
Per-pupil aid
Per-pupil aid is not to be mistaken for revenue limit numbers. As a categorical aid, it's not constrained by or included in the revenue limit.
But it's cut entirely for the first year of Walker's proposed budget.
State law sets the aid at $150 per student every year after 2013-14, according to the Wisconsin DPI.
"So not only are we getting no increase in our revenue limit, we actually are going backwards" $375,900 by losing the expected $150 per pupil, Olson said.
The aid returns in the second year of the biennial budget at $165 per pupil, for a total of about $413,000 for Monroe, "so that's good," Olson said. "It's not really increasing much but at least that's a positive."
In the school board's resolution, the board calculates a net result of a $135 per-pupil cut over the budget's two years due to changes to per-pupil aid.
Per-pupil aid was established as a separate, categorical aid in 2013, after the previous biennial budget limited school funding by holding down the revenue limit.
"This has been the game that I probably, being a skeptic or whatever, have been telling you I thought was going to get played for a while," Olson told the school board. "When they pulled those dollars out of the revenue limit a couple years ago, they really set it up so that they could play with one number and the other, and then hopefully people won't look at them in the same context."
The combined effect of the elimination of per-pupil aid and a stagnant revenue limit on the Monroe school district is almost $1 million, according to the board's resolution. That's about 3.5 percent of the district's general fund budget, Olson said in an email.
Monroe budgeted for a deficit of just over $1 million for this school year, but Olson says the actual number will probably be between $600,000 and $800,000. Olson estimates next year's deficit will be about $1.4 million, after factoring in the recent cutbacks.
"Ultimately, we either make cuts, we spend our fund balance until it's gone or we look for support to maintain where we've been," said Monroe school board president Bob Erb at a recent meeting. "Ultimately those are decisions that the community makes, but it's up to us to look at the options."
Other funding
The per-pupil aid cut and revenue limit freeze take the largest bite out of school budgets, but other parts of Walker's budget also refer to school funding.
State general aid is set to increase in 2016-17 - the second year of the budget - by $108 million across the state, but Olson says that's not money the school district would see. Without a corresponding increase in the revenue limit, the aid would decrease school taxes on property owners, but not provide schools with any additional revenue.
Some of the general aid would cover students at private schools because of the voucher program, Olson added.
"So there might be more dollars going to general aid, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those dollars are going into public education," he said.
Another $211 million - $105.6 million for each year of the budget - will go toward school levy tax credits. The credits don't impact school districts, but again help taxpayers lower their bill.
Other aid won't add much to Monroe's budget, including aid for special education, which Olson said has been frozen for "a long time," sparcity, which helps districts with fewer than 725 students, and pupil transportation.
A final version of the budget is expected to be voted on by the state Senate and Assembly next month, but it could stretch beyond that.