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Door County Schools to Receive Sparsity Aid Payments

Three of the five Door County school districts are among 137 small, rural school districts in the state that will receive a sparsity aid payment of $300 per student for the 2015-16 school year. The money can be used to support school district programs.

The Gibraltar Area School District, with 583 students, will receive $174,900 in sparsity aid; Sevastopol, with 571 students, will receive $171,300; Washington Island School District, with 62 students, will receive $18,600.

“The necessity of providing quality instructional and educational services to small numbers of students presents a fiscal challenge to our rural school districts,” said State Superintendent Tony Evers. “This aid supports these schools, which are so often the backbone of their community.”

Sparsity aid, originally created as part of the 2007-09 budget, was a recommendation of the State Superintendent’s Rural Schools Advisory Council. In each of the previous years, the budgeted appropriation was less than eligibility so districts received a prorated per pupil payment.

The Department of Public Instruction calculated 2015-16 school year sparsity aid using 2014-15 membership of 57,728 students in the 137 eligible districts. Student enrollment in these schools represents roughly 6.8 percent of total public school enrollment.