APPLETON (NBC 26) — On Monday night, the Appleton Board of Education approved the Appleton Area School District’s budget for the 2025-2026 school year.
The budget totals just over $336 million and includes a $13 million structural deficit which the district attributes to inflation, rising healthcare costs and decreasing state and federal funding.
To address the deficit, district officials have implemented several strategic measures including freezing school and department budgets, leaving select staff positions unfilled, re-purposing one school facility, and relocating a charter school from leased space into a district building with available capacity. The district says these efforts prevented any increase in the structural deficit carried forward into the current fiscal year.
Board members Eggert, Sauter, Ruffolo and Kolpack voted in favor; Zornow voted against. Board members Thao and Ross were not in attendance.
