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Many Plead to Save Mukwonago Programs: School District Projects $1.5 Million Budget Shortfall Over Three Years

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 03:03 CST

By Amy Hetzner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mar. 28--Mukwonago -- Speaker after speaker implored School Board members Monday to save services threatened proposed program cuts next school year and called on them to take a chance with a referendum to raise taxes.

"We do have to think about ugly words like referendum, tax increase and -- the other F word -- fund raising," said Section Elementary School parent Pam Dolata. She brought a petition with her signed parents willing to pay higher fees to maintain an athletic program at Park View Middle School.

In the School District's first and only public hearing on its 2006-'07 budget, Mukwonago High School senior Alex Delo received some of the most enthusiastic support of the evening when he promised to return from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater every year to argue against possible cuts in the music program.

"Everybody doesn't want what they came here to talk about to be cut," Delo said, gesturing back at the audience in the Mukwonago High School auditorium that reached about 200 at its peak. "And I don't think any one of you really want to cut things. So what do we have to do? We have to go out there and do a referendum."

The School Board is slated to cut about $500,000 in programs to balance the 2006-'07 budget.

School District administrators have projected budget shortfalls of about $1.5 million over the next three years. This comes as 3.5% revenue increases fall behind projected 4.7% annual increases in costs -- unless the board trims services and staff.

At the board's request, administrators drafted a list of 24 items that could be cut to reduce expenses enough to cover the shortfalls in the next three years.

They range from eliminating elementary guidance counselors and kindergarten aides, to reducing library staff and elementary reading specialists. In addition to the reduction of nearly 32 full-time staff positions, the cuts include non-personnel items, such as eliminating intramural sports at the middle school, reducing high school athletics and ending participation in an alternative high school program.

Although the board had held a forum earlier in the month to explain the reasons behind the proposed reductions, Monday's meeting was the first hearing for members of the public who wished to share their views.

For more than two hours, teachers, parents and some students filed up to microphones to argue in favor of keeping technical education and music department staff, librarians and reading specialists, middle school athletics and drama classes.

Although School Board President Paul Wysocki asked those addressing the board not just to advocate for programs but also to offer suggestions for possible savings, few offered any solutions outside of holding a referendum to raise taxes or student fee increases.

But local businessman Rick Debe suggested that district employees agree to changes in their benefit packages in return for increased taxes to support district operations. According to school district figures, health insurance consumes more than 15% of the school system's $46.5 million annual budget.

"Every side has to give. It can't be all one-sided," Debe said. "As a business leader, I'll help promote that and I'll do my very best to work as a catalyst to make sure we don't lose the best that we have, and that's our education."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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