School Districts Around Wisconsin Consider Consolidating or Closing Schools

Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 -- 9:01 AM

(By Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) -Wisconsin’s public schools have fewer students in the classrooms.

And, according to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, since school funding is tied to enrollment, districts across the state are considering closing and combining schools. Racine, Wausau, Superior and La Crosse are among the school districts with plans to close or consolidate schools due to declining enrollments.

"The schools are not filled up. There are fewer teachers, fewer kids and a challenge to provide a quality educational experience," said Aaron Engle, superintendent of the School District of La Crosse.

Engle said the district's elementary schools are about 70 percent full and its middle and high schools are at about 65 percent capacity. "We just don't have the need for that space anymore," Engle said. "It creates really challenging community conversations about reducing our footprint but still creating that connection to the community."

La Crosse voters rejected a $195 million school district referendum in November of last year that would have provided funds for closing two high schools and consolidating them at a new site. The plan would also have closed and relocated the district's three middle schools.

Engle said even without the money, the district has to find a sustainable path forward. Both high schools will remain open for now and one of the middle schools will close. The district has started a months-long, community-led advisory committee to look at additional changes.

Earlier this month, the district went back to voters and was able to get a $60 million operational referendum passed. "We have aging buildings and declining enrollment. We’ve lost 25 percent of our enrollment in 22 years," Engle said.

The School District of La Crosse has been working with the UW Applied Population Lab, which projects the district will have an ongoing decline of students for at least the next decade, Engle said. It’s a combination of declining birth rates and people moving, Engle said.

In rural districts, people are moving to cities. In urban districts, people move to suburbs, Engle said. Earlier this year, the Wausau Board of Education voted to close five of the district’s 13 elementary schools and merge two high schools.

The district also plans to merge its two high schools into a junior and senior high campus and reconfigure the district’s middle schools to grades 5 through 7 by fall of 2025. Wausau schools have lost around 700 students over the last two decades, going from about 8,600 students in the 2002-03 school year to 7,873 students for the current academic year.

The decline in enrollment translates into less funding from the state and a lower cap on how much the district can raise from taxpayers. With uncertain financing, school districts have increasingly relied on referendums for operations and capital projects.

In April, 69 districts asked for tax increases to borrow money for new buildings or to exceed state revenue limits. Just 55 percent passed, which is the lowest success rate for school referendums since 2010, according to Wisconsin Policy Forum.

These referendums have coincided with declining enrollment numbers. The 2020-21 school year was the seventh consecutive year that public school enrollment in the state declined, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

That year, which was the middle of the pandemic, saw the largest single-year decline in public school enrollment in at least the last 25 years, according to state data going back to 1995.

Nationwide, public schools have lost nearly 1.3 million students since the pandemic, according to the Return2Learn tracker. Enrollment figures show there is no sign of a rebound to previous levels. 

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