Waukesha's School District Faces $4 Million Deficit

The School District of Waukesha anticipates a $4 million budget deficit for the 2011-2012 school year under preliminary projections of Gov. Scott Walker’s biennial budget that was introduced last week.

With $1.1 million savings from the newly approved , that means that the district is looking at $2.8 or 2.9 million to cut from the budget for next school year, according to district officials.

Director of Business Services Lauri Clifton shared some very preliminary budget projections with the School Board’s Finance and Facilities Monday night. The budget projections are on the agenda for Wednesday night’s school board meeting.

The district’s budget projections are based on information from PMA Financial Network and the Wisconsin Department of Instruction (DPI).

The potential deficits are a result of proposed reductions in general school and categorical aids that the district receives from the state. The governor’s proposed budget also requires each school district to reduce its revenue limit per pupil to 5.5 percent for next year.

“At this point, the governor’s proposal is just that," Clifton told the committee members. "It hasn’t been passed. We do not know what the final version will look like, so all we’re able to do is give best guesses at this point."

While school board members and district staff are optimistic about being able to make those cuts for next year, the district is looking at a deficit of $11 million for 2012-13.

The 2012-13 school year “is going to be … very tough to deal with,” Superintendent Todd Gray said.

The bulk of the potential deficit is caused by the proposed 5.5 percent revenue limit per child, accounting for a $6.5 million reduction next year.

Some categorical aids potentially reduced by 10 percent here in Waukesha include pupil transportation and bilingual aids. Other categorical aids slated for reduction with the proposed budget but exact impact here in Waukesha unknown as of yet include alternative education grants, alcohol and drug resistance program grants, advanced placement grants, Head Start supplements and School Lunch Match, according to DPI.

School Board President Dan Warren said that whatever adjustments they make to deal with this budget are not just one-time fixes.

“We will be looking for some additional tools that continue to be talked about in Madison. We’re going to need those to deal with this," Warren said.

“We’ve got some challenges and at least we’re identifying (those) at this point. Once everything crystallizes in Madison, then we’ll really be able to roll up our sleeves and do some good planning, not only for the next year,” he said, emphasizing the long-term aspect of the issue.

Finance and Facilities chairman Kurt O’Bryan said that Waukesha is better able to deal with these cuts compared to other districts because it has a history of dealing with budget cuts and because of its recent success in renegotiating the teachers’ contract.

“My concern with this type of discussion, it paints a picture that we’re in a situation that’s unattractive," O'Bryan said. "But in reality our flexibility is greater than a lot of districts that are facing this problem.

“I don’t see this as being a dire situation."

O’Bryan did offer one caveat, though. School districts have to rise to the challenge of making necessary cuts.

“When the governor says he’s asking for concessions from these public employee unions, he is not asking for enough of a concession to balance what he’s going to be cutting from public schools," O'Bryan said. "He’s expecting us to use our authority to adjust our structural cost to make up that difference so we don’t have to lay off teachers. I think Waukesha is in a better position to do that.

“We’re sitting pretty, relatively speaking."