PRESCOTT – Prescott School Board members combed through the proposed 2025-26 budget in detail at the Sept. 10 meeting. While final numbers aren’t in yet, district residents should expect an increase in the school district portion of their tax bills, thanks to a reduction in aid from the state.

Superintendent Jim Reif said the numbers will change by the Sept. 24 annual meeting and Oct. 29 board meeting where the budget will be finalized, but he presented his best estimate as of Sept. 9.

“One of the biggest challenges to most school districts in Wisconsin, the average school district has lost 6.1% of its student body,” Reif said.

Projection for Prescott’s student body this year is 1,242 students, which means the district will get funding for the three-year average of 1,268 students, at $12,654 per pupil, for a total revenue limit of $16,045,272.

“Again, the Third Friday count is coming up here and that is the big issue,” Reif said.

In 1993, the state set the per pupil spending limits based on the previous year’s expenditures, Reif noted. For example, the Gibraltar School District in far northeastern Door County gets $24,657 per pupil as of last year. Washburn School District received $28,818 last year per pupil. Hudson received $12,673 per pupil and Prescott received $11,399 per student last year.

Based on the state’s funding model, “a Washburn student is worth almost more than 2.5 times what a Prescott student is worth,” Reif said.

Many surrounding school districts, such as River Falls, Osceola and Baldwin-Woodville are at the state minimum, while Prescott is second from the bottom in the state, receiving $74 more per student than the lowest funded district.

Yet despite the financial inequity, Prescott is the highest academic performing district in the Middle Border Conference and outperforms Hudson and River Falls on the WI Forward Exam.

“We’re in the top 10% of the state in Wisconsin and top 9% in student growth,” Reif said.

In 2009, the state decided to “decouple aid and revenue limits from inflation,” Reif added.

“They used to be tied into inflation,” Reif said. “As inflation went up, our ability to raise funds went up.”

If this hadn’t been done and the funds kept up with inflation, Prescott would have had an additional $4.25 million to spend since 2009.

“If we had the $4.2 million extra or the extra money that Hudson has, we probably would not have been going to referendums,” Reif said.

In 2015, Wisconsin fell below the national average of per pupil spending, which was $16,526 per pupil, and continues to fall, according to data Reif presented. In 2023, Wisconsin was at an average of $14,882 spent per pupil.

“That gap continues to grow,” Reif acknowledged. “We used to be a higher spending state, now we’re a lower spending state nationwide. If you ask why that matters, it really matters in Prescott because we are a mile and a half away from Hastings, where Minnesota is one of higher spending states (on education).”

How does this year’s state budget affect Prescott? Reif explained there is one pot of money for the entire state as far as general aid. When other districts pass referenda (such as Racine and Madison that just passed huge ones), it impacts state aid to all districts.

“For the first time in 20+ years, the state did not add any money to the general aid,” Reif explained. “I will note the state has an almost $5 billion surplus sitting down in Madison. And here’s the kicker and board I apologize, I don’t know what to do about it except be transparent, honest with the numbers.”

Last year, Prescott received $8,777,597 in general aid from the state. As of Sept. 9, that number had decreased to $7,813, 280 in general aid for the 2025-26 school year, a reduction of 11% (or $964,317.)

“If the state doesn’t give us this money and we’re going to keep all our programs and we’re going to keep everything running, our only option is to tax the local taxpayers,” Reif said. “So as our property values go up and our students (enrollment numbers) go down, yes we’ve hit that point where that flip comes and this is that flip of about a million dollars…”

According to WPR, “Wisconsin’s public schools are funded primarily through a combination of local property taxes and state support in the form of general school aids. That means if school districts are given additional revenue limit authority, it’s funded by the state or by increasing the local tax levy, according to a January 2023 report by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.”

So while Gov. Tony Evers in 2023 gave school districts the ability to collect an extra $325 per student annually for the next 400 years, that increase is in spending authority, not necessarily funds from the state. This year the state legislature did not increase state-matching funds, passing $412,000 onto Prescott School District taxpayers.

“All the newspaper reports of $1.4 billion for the students of Wisconsin are true, but all that money comes on local taxpayers,” Reif said. “That $325 wouldn’t even have kept us up with inflation.”

In 2023-24, inflation would have had that number at $390, while in 2024-25, that number would have been $404, a 1-3% increase of the district’s base revenue limits.

“So, we’re already $3,380 behind students and we’re now even farther behind inflation-wise,” Reif summarized.

As of Sept. 9, Reif and his team are predicting the mil rate to be 8.15, an increase of 38 cents per $1,000 property valuation, which equates to a $133 increase per year on the school district’s portion of a resident’s tax bill on a $350,000 property.

Finance Director Cara Klatt said the proposed budget for 2025-26, according to the latest numbers, is $12,531,682, a 9.08% increase over the 2024-25 budget of $11,488,711. This includes $8,490,04 for the operating fund, $390,125 in the non-referendum debt fund, $3,426,553 in the referendum debt fund, and $225,000 in the community service fund, while the property tax chargebacks are unknown.

Board President Mike Matzek made sure to clarify why there is a $1 million difference between the two budgets.

“That’s primarily because the state funding dropped about $900,000-plus, right?” he asked Reif, who confirmed that is the case. “Our expenditures didn’t go up that much; this is just the state aid dropped, so we have to levy this much more to the local taxpayers.”

Reif confirmed the state cut Prescott’s aid by $964,000 this year. He also reminded the board that the Department of Public Instruction requires districts to calculate their tax levies using actualized property values, while cities and townships use assessed property values.

According to the DPI, “Assessed valuation is property value as determined by the local municipal assessor on January 1 in any given year. Equalized valuation results when the Department of Revenue (DOR) applies an adjustment factor to the assessed value. The adjustment factor incorporates, among other elements, actual property sales in the municipality during the past year and is meant to ensure each type of property has comparable value regardless of local assessment practices.”

This means that each property, by township, will see a different tax impact. The district estimates that Clifton’s will increase by 2.9%, Diamond Bluff’s by 12.4% and Oak Grove’s by 9.1%, while Trimbelle’s will decrease by 1.7% and the city’s by .5%.

The board will discuss the budget in more detail at the Sept. 24 annual meeting, which all electors are encouraged to attend. It starts at 6 p.m. in the PHS Library.

CTE addition

The board discussed the potential of adding a Career Technology Education wood processing lab/pole shed to the district property. Bray Architects, which completed the high school addition a few years ago, detailed a possible plan for free.

Reif and Buildings & Grounds Supervisor Mike Hoikka showed the board where a potential pole shed could be erected near the current practice fields. This location wouldn’t interfere with a possible future football stadium at the northeast corner of the property.

“Just for the record, it’s the brown box down by the parking lot that we’re talking about,” said Matzek. “Nobody has to get freaked out about, we’re not putting in a football field right now or anything like that.”

Reif agreed, saying the purpose of the plan is so the district doesn’t build the woods pole shed in the way of any possible potential future plans and have to move it 10 years down the road.

“There are no plans to build a football stadium,” Reif said. “There’s not plans for anything like that.”

Hoikka met with Xcel Energy last week to discuss electric installation and infrastructure needed for such a project. The purpose of the plan and meeting with Xcel is long-term planning for potential uses for the space, Vice President Tanya Holub said.

“We have a tech department that is just growing beyond our space, which is really a good problem for us to have,” Holub said. “They came to us again with some ideas, suggestions, ways to keep improving, ways to grow.”

The building would hopefully be 40x60, which would allow for room to expand and include the shop, classroom space and storage; $100,000 was earmarked in last year’s budget for this reason. Hoikka said he’ll keep the board apprised of his interactions with Xcel.

Other business

• Prescott High School received the Broccoli Seedling School Award through the Wisconsin Farm-to-School Recognition Program, recognizing the district’s commitment to supporting farm-to-school efforts, such as sourcing local food, offering agricultural education and growing school gardens.
• The first Cardinal Champion of the Year is Shana Clauson. “Over the past three years she has taken on a leadership role in the special education department at the high school,” Reif said. “She has worked diligently to ensure our students have the support they need. Shana takes the lead on creating instructional assistance schedules each fall and works collaboratively with both special education colleagues and general education teachers to ensure proper support is in place. She is fiercely determined and drive to always put her students first.” She has also taken a lead with the Inclusivity Club and planned prom the past two years.
• The board approved the 2025-26 staff handbook as presented at the Aug. 10 meeting, including no violence on shirts and bumping up overnight bus driver pay to $18.67 per hour (while driving), plus a $60 stipend for staying overnight.
• The board voted to put out a Request for Proposals for legal services for Prescott School District. This hasn’t been looked at in several years.
• The board approved a second reading of updated or new Neola School Board policies, discussed at the Aug. 10 meeting.
• The board approved a job posting for the buildings and grounds director position. Mike Hoikka has submitted his plans to retire in a year. The ideal candidate could start in January.
• Teaching & Learning Director Michael Kosmalski spoke about the year-long Act 20 structured literacy training to be completed by March 2026.
• City Administrator Mike Wolf spoke to the board about potentially extending Jewell Street by 100 feet, which leads to school district property.
• The board will discuss the possibility of building consolidation at the October meeting.
• The regular October school board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 29. The budget numbers must be finalized by Oct. 30 per state statute.