MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — Declining enrollment prompted the Manitowoc Public School District to overhaul its approach to budgeting this year, starting from scratch rather than building on the previous year's numbers.
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The district used zero-based budgeting, a process in which leaders build the budget from the ground up rather than adjusting an existing one.
"You take a look and go okay, we are starting at zero here .. with 100 million dollar budget that is a lot of digging into," Superintendent Lee Thennes said.
Thennes said the district focused on three core resources: people, money, and time.
"How do we leverage those dollars, and people, and time, to serve our families and children to reach the goals that we have?" Thennes said.
The approved budget totals just over $101 million, roughly a 4% increase from last year.
The budget comes after the district consolidated by closing two elementary schools, restructuring its middle schools, and expanding 4K offerings.
Director of Business Services Nathan Mielke said the consolidation created both savings and new costs.
"A lot of money was allocated specifically, Stangel Elementary, was an elementary, went to an alternative school and it went back to an elementary school," Mielke said.
"In a district that is dealing with declining enrollment, we always need to find efficiencies, find places we can make cuts," Mielke said.
Mielke said the district saved about $3 million in instruction costs through the elementary school consolidations. However, transportation costs increased as more families lived farther from their previous neighborhood schools.
"Last year Brant bussed about 800 students this year its over 13,000 students," Mielke said.
Taxpayers will see a 4% tax levy increase, which the district says will generate about $30 million. The district is also projecting approximately $42 million in state aid.
Thennes said the new budget is just the beginning of a longer effort to align resources with priorities.
"This budget I would say is our first step in working harder to match the people money and time to the priorities that we have," Thennes said.
The MPSD board will hold a final vote on the budget in October. The district says some changes could still be made before then as enrollment and other numbers become available.
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