‘There’s some hope there’: Arcadia schools optimistic after state budget approval

The Arcadia School District’s leaders are optimistic that they will be able to balance the district’s budget this year now that the state’s biennial budget is approved.

Public K-12 schools in Wisconsin will receive an additional $325 in state aid per student for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years in the state budget, a bump that Arcadia officials welcomed.

“I think it turned out probably better than any of us thought it would. I was actually impressed the sides came together and did something for a change,” Arcadia School Board President Paul Servais said at the July 21 meeting.

The mill rate in Arcadia could drop between $5 and $7 from this year’s rate of $10.78 if the board does not utilize defeasance, or paying down debt early.

One negative note of the state funding formula comes as Arcadia will be penalized $21,000 due to its failed referendum last April, but the district was not penalized as harshly as some other low revenue districts in the state.

“I’m still bent out of shape about it because it makes no sense that you use the mechanism that the legislature told us to use and then they penalize you if it doesn’t work. It makes no sense to me, it irritates me,” Arcadia Superintendent Lance Bagstad said.

Individual budgets will not be official until this fall when the board approves the final budget. Still, Arcadia is in a better spot than they hoped, officials admitted, pointing to some preliminary numbers.

“There’s some hope there. Certainly, there’s more hope than there was a month ago,” Bagstad said.

Behind the numbers

Arcadia could see an overall increase of approximately $1.1 million in state aid with a $559,000 decrease in the Fund 10, 38 and 41 tax levies for a net addition of approximately $577,000 in spendable money.

Wisconsin also approved a $1.5 billion increase in general aid for schools, which serves as a tax cut, Bagstad said.

“Without any defeasance our fund 39 (referendum debt) levy, because we’ve been financially responsible the last four years and paid that debt down, will drop from over $1.1 to 1.4 million over the last several years to $567,000 if we do no other defeasance,” Bagstad said.

The district can still use defeasance and see a “significant” drop in the mill rate, Bagstad said.

Servais spoke in favor of continuing to utilize defeasance at the July meeting.

“I think we talked last spring there that we’d probably do some combination. Keep trying to do at least a little defeasance but at the same time have a significant drop that people actually see on your taxes,” Servais said.

That’s because at some point the district is going to need to conduct capital projects to improve the district again, which will cause a bump in the mill rate.

“At some point somebody’s going to have to make some decisions about what that’s going to look like. Whoever the seven elected board members at that point are and whoever is sitting in this chair at that point are going to have to make some decisions about how much they’re willing to ask the taxpayers for their taxes to go up,” Bagstad said.

Administration is also working to add a raise for Arcadia staff after a light 2023-24 school year due to a tight budget.

One pay concern comes after three nearby districts passed operational referendums this year — Arcadia is now behind those schools in starting wages to attract staff.

“They have now significantly surpassed our starting wages. So, we gained ground on them for a year, and now they jumped us significantly to the tune of anywhere between $3-4,000 for new people coming in,” Bagstad said. “So that’ll be the next challenge, along with support staff.”

School administrators freed up money, too:

• The high school decreased their operating budget by cutting materials and supplies by $29,469.

• The middle school will save $27,978

• The Elementary school will save $17,300 

• Buildings and grounds could decrease $85,700.

• Information technology could see cuts between $83,000 and $111,000.

“They were very good about having conversations with teachers saying, ‘Why do you need this? Okay, sorry, you’re not getting a new desk chair this year. Sorry, the floor carpet you had is going to have to, that rug is gonna have to work one more year.’ We kind of said if it’s needed to teach a class yes, if it’s not, we just have to pull back on it for right now,” Bagstad said.