GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Green Bay Area Public School District’s board of education met Monday night to discuss the preliminary budget for the 2023-2024 school year.
The board also continued its discussion on task force recommendations to close 12 district buildings, as the district faces a $20 million budget deficit for the 2024-2025 school year.
Last Monday’s meeting lasted nearly four hours discussing these recommendations:
Direct district administration to develop a plan for a capital referendum question and present a project list to the Board of Education by Nov. 1
Direct district administration to assess the impact of repurposing Langlade Elementary, McAuliffe Elementary and Franklin Middle to 4K-8 schools to the community, educational pathways and student safety
Direct district administration to initiate planning activities to close Wequiock Elementary School
The board met Monday night to continue its discussion on the future of the district.
In a presentation regarding the budget for the 2023-24 school year, it was noted that the challenges the district faces include uncertainty of funds, operational cost increase, declining enrollment and staffing costs.
“The past two years of inflation has negatively impacted this school district,” said GBAPSD Executive Director of Finance Sara Noah.
The district’s budget assumptions for the next school year are a 4% base wage increase, $350 per pupil increase each of the next two years, flat staffing levels, a $2 million decrease in health insurance costs and a slight decrease in membership.
“Until the budget is actually passed, we can only speculate what we will have for the next two years,” said Noah.
The overview of the structural deficit projection for 2024-2025 is anywhere from $6 million to $12 million. The projected deficit is expected to continue into future years.
The district has $37 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund dollars to be spent in the 2023-2024 school year. All ESSER funds need to be claimed by Sept. 30, 2024.
Following the presentation of the budget, discussion returned to a motion that was passed last week that would assess the impact of repurposing schools to 4K-8.
The board talked about having a third-party firm look at boundary changes and redrawing lines.
“To me, personally, it is important that we have someone outside our community do this that is not already influenced,” said GBAPSD Board of Education President Laura McCoy.
GBAPSD COO Josh Patchak explained why the district needs an outside company to do this work.
“It’s very complicated work. It requires loading hundreds of thousands of data points into a GIS software,” said Patchak. “We have not changed boundaries in the last 20 years. We don’t have boundary experts.”
The board will discuss more about boundary lines and could potentially vote at its next meeting on June 26.
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