July
By ANASTASIA PENCHI
DE SOTO, Wis. – The De Soto Area School Board is learning more about school district referendums throughout Wisconsin as it decides whether to ask voters to approve an operational referendum this fall.
Todd Hajewski, senior vice president at Baird Public Fiance, said 82 percent of Wisconsin schools are similar to De Soto in that they also face challenges due to declining enrollment.
Hajewski gave a presentation on Wisconsin school financing and referendum options at a July 7 special meeting of the De Soto Area School Board.
Baird is a national company that helps public entities with finances. It has been the district’s financial advisor for many years, according to the district’s Business Office, and the De Soto Area School District has subscribed to Baird’s Forecasting Model throughout that time.
Of the 421 school districts in Wisconsin, Hajewski said:
- 301 (71 percent) have asked for operational referendums since 2016; and 120 (29 percent) have not.
- Of those that have gone to voters and asked for funds, 267 (63 percent) referendums were approved and 154 (37 percent) were denied.
Board President Holly Nickelatti wanted to know the “secret sauce” for the school districts that haven’t had to go to referendum. De Soto’s last three failed: $4.8 million in April 2024; $5.5 million in November 2024; and $4.2 million in April 2025.
Hajewski said some of the school districts that haven’t gone to referendum have had stable or growing enrollment. Sometimes schools gain students from other districts that have fewer needs, he said, and that can result in lowered costs.
“It’s rare,” he agreed, but he also predicted that some of those school districts that haven’t had to go to referendum in the past will need to do so in the next couple of years.
Per pupil adjustments in Wisconsin have not kept up with inflation, Hajewski added, and instead of receiving state aid of $325 per student as happens now, schools should be getting $2,574 per student.
He said the De Soto Area School District’s 2025-26 mill rate of $5.66 is the third lowest among the districts in the Cooperative Educational Service Agency # 4, which is made up of 26 school districts in west and central Wisconsin.
Of those districts, the Tomah Area School District has the lowest mill rate at $5.40; and Royall School District has the highest at $9.12.
When asked about next steps, Hajewski told the board it must be comfortable in its “assumptions,” which can include keeping a 30 percent fund balance to prevent short-term borrowing and setting aside $100,000 per year for technology.
Once the board knows its assumptions and the gap in the budget, it must decide whether to ask for all of it or make cuts first. The district’s Business Manager Cherryl Knowles noted that after the 2024 referendum failures, the board made $750,000 in cuts.
Once the dollar amount is determined and referendum details are decided (whether it’s recurring or non-recurring; and is for one year or over several years), the tax impact can be determined.
The board will also have to decide how to address increasing costs it can’t control like health insurance. If renewals keep increasing will the district pass on those costs to employees, Hajewski asked?
Nickelatti noted there is yet another outstanding challenge in the district – a recommendation to close the elementary schools in Stoddard and Retreat and relocate them to the De Soto campus to save money long-term.
“We have to fully vet the recommendation from the Stakeholder Committee,” she added.
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