Green Bay Area Public School District building. (IMAGE: Courtesy of Fox 11 WLUK)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Green Bay School District’s Chief Financial Officer Angie Roble, says putting together this year’s proposed budget was a balancing act. That’s between rising costs and a commitment to over 17,000 students.
“This year’s budget is really a reflection of the difficult but necessary work that the district has had to do,” said Roble.
After consolidations over the last few years, the district has decreased over 100 full-time employees, and overall salaries have dropped by 1.65%.
“Our efforts have been to right-align staff with our declining enrollment, so those efforts are reflected in this budget as well,” said Roble.
For taxes, the district expects the mill rate to drop from $7.41 to $7.07.
However, the budget includes a tax levy increase of 1.22%. Something Roble says is less than what property owners saw in the last budget.
“If you recall last year, our increase was over 5%. So, it is much less than what it was last year,” said Roble.
Whether your property taxes will be affected this year depends on the estimated fair market value of your home.
The Wisconsin state budget says it will reimburse 45% of special education costs this year. However, last year’s reimbursement came in under the expectation.
The district expects that to happen again, so it planned its budget accordingly.
“Rising costs across the board, across the state, special education costs are rising,” said Roble.
Already looking ahead to next year, the district talked about its four-year operational referendum request to voters.
Roble says if voters decline the referendum in November, the district will ask again in April. She added that could bring more consolidations, staff layoffs or program cuts.
“The fact that we’re going to referendum again after only going two years ago is something that we have no choice but to do,” said GBAPS Board of Education Trustee, Laura McCoy.
Green Bay’s school board will vote on the proposal Oct. 26. The community will vote on the referendum Nov. 3.
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