Wisconsin Heights approves budget, taxes drop

The Wisconsin Heights School District approved the 2019-20 budget at the annual meeting on Oct. 28. Taxpayers will see the District portion of their tax bill drop from $11.16 per $100,000 of equalized value to $10.84, a 2.8 percent drop. The District’s overall budget is best understood a breaking down into three parts: Fund 10, the general budget; Fund 27, the special education budget; and Fund 50, the food service budget. For next year, Fund 10 will total $11.7 million dollars, Fund 27 will be $2.3 million dollars, and Fund 50 will be $363,000 dollars. For Fund 10, $6.4 million goes towards salary and benefits. Supplies make up $3 million, and transportation comes in at $611,000. Buildings and grounds costs $487,000, with $592,000 going towards capital projects. For Fund 27, special education, $1.9 million is spent on salary and benefits, with $376,000 on supplies. Food service, Fund 50, totals $112,000 for salary and benefits, and $250,000 for supplies. Athletics, all told, costs $329,000. $11,000 is spent on paper, and nearly $13,000 on the copy machine. The tax levy--the portion of the budget that is funded by taxes, is $8.2 million. The remaining budget--16.6 percent--is state aid. State aid has remained mostly flat since 2014, at about $1.5 million. Since 2002, the equalized value of the property in the District has increased from $402 million to $758 million. The tax levy is applied to equalized value--property owners pay a rate based on the value of their house. Since 2002 the mill rate has dropped from $10.94 to $10.84, although the levy--the total amount of the budget residents pay for--has increased by 4 percent. As the total levy has increased, so has equalized value, keeping the mill rate roughly the same. At the Oct. 14 meeting, Black Earth Elementary Principal Scott Moore talked about the possibility of reconfiguring the pre-K program. Moore noted that families were having difficulty enrolling children because they had no option for care before or after the daily program. The result is that families were open enrolling in other districts. Research shows that these years are critical to a child’s learning development, especially language skills. Moore said, “Children that participate in high-quality preschool programs have better health, social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes than those who do not.” He said low-income families and children at risk for academic failure average a starting point for kindergarten 12-14 months behind their peers. Research also shows those in high-quality preschool programs are less likely to need special education services. Moore said students in high-quality pre-K programs are more likely to graduate from high school, go to college, and succeed in their careers. The proposal is to offer two options: All day, every day pre-K. The current programing, half day classes. The only staffing increase required would be the addition of one full-time equivalent teacher and one full-time equivalent for an assistant. The District is releasing a survey to residents and will make a decision to move forward in December or January 2020.