GREEN BAY (NBC26) — At a work session meeting Monday, the Green Bay Area Public School Board discussed this years $313.5 million budget and next month's $158 million referendum.
- The Green Bay Area Public School District proposed budget is $313.5 million.
- There will be a $158 million referendum question on the November ballot, which will be spread over four years.
- The district says a referendum is needed due to decreasing state and federal funding and increases in school voucher program costs.
At a work session Monday, the GBAPS board looked at a variety of data points on student performance, including suspensions, test scores and absences.
Currently, GBAPS has an 85% graduation rate, lower than the state average, which is about 92% according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
"Clearly we have some work to do, we'll take a look and we'll share with the board that attendance data and all of that data probably quarterly, which feels to me like maybe an accurate snapshot where we can get some really good information, especially about attendance," David Johns, GBAPS associate superintendent of continuous school improvement, says.
After Johns presented the data, the Board examined this year’s budget. The district says they were able to balance their budget at $313.5 million.
GBAPS chief financial officer, Angie Roble, says the district cut staff positions and consolidated schools to save money.
“I think this budget really reflects all the difficult decisions that the district has had to make to get here," she says. "I feel confident in the ask.”
With this budget, the tax levy will increase by 1.22%, but the actual impact on property taxes depends on where you live and the equalized property value of your area.
“We did have some new construction to take on that tax base, so it will really depend on where you are within our eight taxable municipalities," Roble says.
The budget is 0.5% higher than last year and will fund teacher raises and increased costs for utilities.
It also includes $14.7 million in funding for the school choice voucher program, which gives money to private and charter schools for students who choose private education over public.
“That number continues to increase, but that’s because the per-pupil payment for school vouchers has increased drastically compared to what public schools are getting for per-pupil," Roble says.
Helping cover some of the costs in this year's budget is the final year of funding from a 2017 operational referendum.
GBAPS passed a $158 million capital improvement referendum in 2024.
There's another operational referendum on the ballot in November, when the district will ask voters for $158 million over four years.
"The fact that we're going referendum again after only going two years ago is something that we have no choice but to do, but it is the result of political decisions made in Madison," school board member Laura McCoy says.
The district says the referendum is needed because of less state and federal support, including for special education programming.
State funding was supposed to cover 45% of special education programming, but due to inflation, the district will only get 38%.
“Budgeting is really tough for public schools, and that’s why we need to go to referendum," board member Jeanette Knill says.
If the referendum doesn't pass, the district says they'll have to cut programming and staff, which will lead to increased class sizes.
"Something that is inevitable in a situation where the referendum doesn't pass is that we will be rostering far more students especially in academic core classes," Johns says.
Roble says if the referendum doesn't pass, they will go back to the voters in April.
There will be a public hearing on this years budget on Oct. 26 at 5:30 pm.
