Fox Valley public educators fear lesser funding in biennial budget

APPLETON, Wis. (WBAY) - School leaders from across the Fox Valley want state lawmakers to take another look at the biennial budget. They’re upset over the proposed funding to public schools over the next two years.

The deadline to pass the state budget is now less than a week away. Education funding has been a hot topic of discussion for weeks now, leading up to the budget committee meeting last week.

While lawmakers did increase the special education reimbursement to 35%, many educators are saying that is not nearly enough to meet the growing needs of Wisconsin’s public schools. The original budget proposed a 60% reimbursement rate.

Tuesday morning’s roundtable, put on by the Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education, featured top administrators for Appleton, Hortonville, Kimberly, Menasha, Neenah, and Oshkosh school districts. All of them cited concerns around more funding for children with special needs and students’ mental health needs.

Without the necessary funding, districts have to take money out of general funding or put up a public vote on an operational referendum to find the money.

Superintendent Matt Zimmerman with Menasha Area School District, along with others, says they’ve had to close schools to help pay operational costs. Ultimately, he says this is about the quality of education he can provide for the students he serves, and with fewer resources, that may not happen.

“And we’re now to the point where when we address the challenges it’s going to either affect local property taxpayers in the form of operational referendums or it’s going to make reductions that are really going to decrease the quality of education that we are offering in the public education sphere,” said Matt Zimmerman, Superintendent, Menasha Joint School District.

In April, Oshkosh residents voted “Yes” on a $197.8 million referendum to consolidate schools.

Executive director of business services for the Oshkosh Area School District, Drew Niehans, says while it was a win for the district, resources are still slim to none.

He says the district needs funding for interpreters as English is a second language for 7%, or over 600 students, of Oshkosh’s student body.

With over 60 different home languages spoken, some of the most popular including Spanish, Hmong, Swahili, and Mandarin, Niehans says they are in desperate need to bridge the gap between families and educators.

“We’ve got limited numbers of community members that can assist us, and then it’s really a challenge to be able to attract them and then also be able to afford getting them in, getting them paid,” says Niehans.

One of the bigger challenges has been getting interpreters to work flexible hours, as services are available outside of a regular work day.