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Fixing a Broken System

Marilyn Fitzgerald-White, a Southern Door community member, leads the discussion among fellow community members at the first meeting of the Fair Funding for Door County Schools group on Jan. 27 at Sevastopol School.

At the first meeting of a new grassroots organization called Fair Funding for Door County Schools, community members, school board presidents and members, and the five superintendents of Door County schools brainstormed ideas on how to bring the public into the complicated discussion of school funding formulas.

“We get little or no state aid and have to rely on our taxpayers,” said Sevastopol School Board President Sue Todey in opening the discussion, which was hosted by Sevastopol School on Jan. 27.

The problem with the current funding formula is two-fold for Door County. First, it’s a property-rich but income-poor county, and as several people pointed out at the meeting, property rich districts don’t equate to ability to pay.

The other problem is that Door County schools have traditionally spent conservatively, so when the funding formula was set for the county, it was set on already tight budgets.

“We are being penalized for running a tight ship,” said Southern Door School Board President Chuck Bretl, who went on to explain that despite a successful one-time $390,000 referendum campaign approved by Southern Door voters last November, “We still can’t breathe easy; $40,000 to $50,000 still needs to be cut in our budget.”

“Each of us are one failed referendum away from disaster,” said Gibraltar School Board President Fred Anderson.

Sevastopol School District Superintendent Linda Underwood pointed out that 20 districts get no equalization aid from the state, and three of those are in Door County.

“That is very disproportionate,” she said. “There are other places in the state that have the high property value but don’t have the ability to pay. Because we’re five districts here, it makes it very unusual.”

Bretl also pointed out that while there was a surge of hope that freshman Assemblyman Joel Kitchens, who spent 15 years on the Sturgeon Bay School Board and 13 of that as president, would help lead the charge for school funding reform, those hopes dimmed when Kitchens attended a recent school board meeting at Southern Door and was asked about school funding reform.

“He’s already making up excuses. Something’s got to be done,” Bretl said, adding that the more people on board for this, the more Kitchens and other legislators will have to recognize the inequality of the current system. Kitchens will be at Sevastopol School the evening of Feb. 16 to discuss school issues.

But all was not doom and gloom.

Southern Door School District Superintendent Patricia Vickman said it’s important for Door County to come together now on this issue because it is a year when the legislature creates the next biennial budget. She added that the Wisconsin Rural School Alliance believes the time to strike is now because there appears to be more openness about looking at the inequities of the current funding formula. State Superintendent Tony Evers has been advocating for school finance through “Fair Funding for Our Future” (http://dpi.wi.gov/budget/fairfunding).

Todey mentioned that in April a group of Door and Kewaunee residents will go to Madison for two days to buttonhole legislators on issues specific to the region during the biennial Legislative Days, and school-funding reform will be one of the issues to be addressed.

“We get the eyes and ears of people down there,” she said.

After watching a Department of Public Instruction-produced video on the broken school funding formula, the attendees were broken into small groups to brainstorm talking points and messages to help get the ideas of the need for funding reform across to John Q. Public, who might not have children in school and, therefore, might have no interest in school funding reform.

“Strong schools create strong communities,” was one idea forwarded.

Superintendent Vickman mentioned that the group also has to get the idea across that everyone is affected by the state voucher program that the Legislature continues to strengthen for the parents of children attending private schools at the expense of public school funding.

“There’s a miscommunication out there that we don’t pay for vouchers,” she said. “You are paying for them. It comes right off the top of public school funding.”

The group was charged to come up with a leadership team representing each of the five school districts, with a superintendent or board president, a community member and a local business partner. The leadership teams will meet again on Feb. 10. A larger group meeting is scheduled for Feb. 24, locations of both to be determined.

Anyone interested in getting involved in this grassroots effort should contact his or her local school district superintendent or school board president.