March 6, 2026
By TIM HUNDT
VIROQUA Wis. – On March 4, Viroqua Area Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Hill stood before a room of concerned parents and staff to explain a harsh reality regarding the district budget. Hill explained that falling enrollment and a financial deficit mean the district must make fairly significant cuts to staff over the next few years. The district is facing a deficit of roughly $1.2 million dollars next year and because salaries and benefits make up the vast majority of the budget the only way to make a real impact is through reducing personnel.
The discussion quickly turned to the past and how the district arrived at this point. Former Viroqua Middle School Principal John Schneider questioned the projections that led to a massive building referendum just a few years ago. Schneider pointed out that the community was asked to fund classroom additions based on projected growth but now faces a massive deficit due to falling enrollment.
“I am confused that four years ago that was the main impetus of the purpose of that and now we are sitting here three and a half years later looking at over a million dollars in deficit,” said Schneider. “Somewhere, somebody needs to speak to the general population about why.”
Hill responded by detailing the history of enrollment trends and how previous projections missed the mark. He explained that when the district passed an $20 million dollar capital referendum in 2021 the classes from kindergarten through high school were large. The incoming 4K class was the first significantly smaller group but officials assumed the numbers would bounce back in a historical pattern of alternating large and small classes.
Hill explained that last years graduating class had 99 seniors but was replaced by only 45 students in 4K. The trend now shows that all incoming classes are stable at right around 45 students. By the time this enrollment ripple goes all the way through the system in 2033 the district could go from 1100 students down to 750. The budget shortfall was projected at $250,000 dollars this year but jumps to $1.2 million dollars next year because state aid increases of $325 dollars per pupil lag far behind inflation.
“We did not predict it but we see it now and we have got to do something about it and we have to own it,” said Hill.
Hill acknowledged the frustration in the room and addressed his own role coming into a district already facing this financial cliff.
“I didn’t do this but I am responsible to communicate the message going forward and to be honest and transparent about why we got what we did,” said Hill. “I do feel like it is my obligation to try to get us out of here and be honest with people as we go.”
Hill was hired by the school board to serve as the new District Administrator effective July 1, 2025 and both building and operational referendums were passed prior to his arrival.
In Nov. of 2018 the district proposed a $36.82 million capital referendum for a district-wide building and improvement program, but it failed to pass. November of 2022 voters approved two capital referendum questions totaling $20.5 million. This consisted of a $17 million base plan for district-wide improvements (including secure entrances, ADA compliance, and traffic flow) and a $3.5 million expansion for the technical education department.
In Nov. of 2024 a proposed $1.3 million operational referendum failed by a narrow margin of 2,491 to 2,461. In April of 2025 voters successfully approved a non-recurring operational referendum to exceed the revenue limit by $1.3 million per year for two years.
When asked how the state voucher system was impacting the budget and driving enrollment changes, Hill clarified that while vouchers take hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the local tax levy they act as a pass through and do not directly change the revenue limit formula. If the voucher system was halted the money would only help the district if those students actually enrolled in the public schools. However he stressed that the district must actively work to win over families and compete with private options.
“Viroqua is a community of choice,” said Hill. “We have to do the work as a school district to make sure that when there are all of these choices we are the best choice.”
The conversation expanded into the rising number of home-school families. Attendees noted that Vernon County currently has 219 registered home-school students alongside 142 students at the local Waldorf school and 54 at the Kickapoo Forest School. Hill suggested the district inadvertently fueled this trend during the early days of the pandemic.
“We told parents you are going to have a computer and you are going to teach your kids at home,” said Hill. “Now here we are six years later and what parents are saying to us is you told us clear back in 2020 that we could home school our kids with a computer and a program and that is what we are doing.”
Attendees reviewed a community survey handed out at the meeting that gathered ideas from 410 respondents on how to balance the budget. Suggestions included eliminating school supply purchases and cutting athletics. A taxpayer asked about the specific costs of the athletics programs and whether those funds could save teacher jobs.
Hill explained that while these ideas sound like easy fixes they only make a small dent in the larger problem. He noted that the entire athletics budget is $283,000 dollars and eliminating school supplies only saves about $60,000 dollars.
“If you took all of athletics and activities and you just wipe all of that out it would be less than $300,000 dollars,” said Hill. “We would end up having way more deficit if kids would leave because it is part of being in a school.”
The discussion moved to transportation and the possibility of cutting bus routes. Hill noted that the district has already reduced routes significantly over the years going from 21 routes down to just 10 today. He explained that consolidating from ten bus routes to nine would only save about $16,000 dollars in driver salary while increasing ride times for students.
“You would have one less bus so we could sell a surplus bus, but that is a one time gain in revenue,” said Hill. “We could not sell that bus every year.”
Another attendee asked about shutting down the Early Learning Center childcare facility and selling the building to save general education jobs. Hill explained that selling a building is not a permanent fix to a recurring structural deficit.
“Could we sell that and move them in over here and only sell the building once,” asked Hill. “It only really impacts that one time.”
Hill further explained that school finances are separated into different funds. The general education budget operates out of Fund 10 while the pool and Early Learning Center operate out of Fund 80 meaning cutting those programs would not legally free up money to cover the general fund deficit.
The conversation also touched on the idea of closing the district charter schools to save money. Hill addressed the public perception that the Viroqua Area Montessori School is causing the financial deficit. He clarified that the Montessori model is actually cheaper to operate than traditional classrooms.
“In a Montessori classroom with 27 kids there is a teacher and a paraprofessional,” said Hill. “Compare that to a traditional school classroom where you have got two teachers teaching that same number of kids. It is cheaper under the Montessori model because it is one teacher.”
Hill also noted that the charter schools do not raise administrative costs because their governing councils manage much of the heavy lifting.
The discussion shifted to class sizes as another potential area for savings. The district currently averages about 14 students per class which aligns with the state average. Hill noted that while small classes are ideal they are no longer financially sustainable under the current funding model.
“If you have 30 kids split between three teachers and each teacher gets 10 kids that is awesome,” said Hill. “But it is not sustainable so 15 is still 15 and two classrooms is still better than 25 in one.”
Hill provided specific average costs associated with different positions while answering a question about the cost of teachers and paraprofessionals.
He outlined the following average costs to the district:
- Teaching position: The average cost is roughly $90,000.
- Paraprofessional position: The cost varies significantly based on the benefits the employee selects. It costs about $60,000 if they take full benefits, $45,000 if they take single benefits, and $30,000 if they do not take any benefits.
A taxpayer brought up the state failure to adequately fund special education which legally mandates services regardless of local budget constraints. Under state formulas special education should theoretically be reimbursed at up to 90 percent for high cost needs but the district is currently only seeing about 35 percent reimbursement. District officials noted that if the state fulfilled its funding promises the district would not be facing a massive transfer of general funds to cover those required services.
The state of Wisconsin previously increased the regular special education reimbursement rate from 33% to 42%. However, during the open house, district officials noted that while they had built their budget around an expected 39% reimbursement rate, they were currently only receiving payments at a 35% rate. Because these actual payments are falling short of what was budgeted, the lower reimbursement rate is increasing the district’s existing deficit.
If the state were to fully fund the theoretical 90% reimbursement rate for special education, Viroqua Schools Business Director Chris Rozeske stated that the district “wouldn’t be talking about $1.2 million” deficit. By law, the special education fund (Fund 27) must balance out to zero at the end of the year, therefore, any costs not covered by state aid must be paid directly out of the district’s general education budget (Fund 10). Last year, making up this shortfall required a $1.6 million transfer from the general fund. Receiving the full 90% reimbursement would drastically reduce this transfer, keeping that money in the general fund to pay for regular education teachers and operations.
Hill said for every 1% change in the special education reimbursement rate is worth $25,000 to the Viroqua Area Schools budget. District officials noted that if they could just get the reimbursement rate to jump three percentage points—from their budgeted 39% up to 42%—it would mean an additional $75,000 for the district.
As the meeting drew to a close the conversation turned to the broader community impact of the cuts and the idea of consolidating with neighboring school districts to save money. Krista Browne who is running for mayor of Viroqua spoke up about why Viroqua is different from other places and cautioned against drastic structural changes like consolidation.
Browne referenced the consolidation of the Spring Green and Arena districts which she argued led to struggling main streets and 75 minute bus rides for students. She emphasized that Viroqua is a flourishing community where people specifically move for the culture and educational opportunities.
“I hesitate to cut or make dramatic shifts when I think the culture is shifting towards what is coming and not reactively going too far,” said Browne. “The importance of these public places where we actually get out of cars and see each other are critical to our well being as a person but also a community.”
Hill agreed that consolidation is not a quick fix noting it is typically an eight to ten year process that primarily only saves the cost of one superintendent and central office staff while still requiring the same amount of teachers and busses. He stressed that the district must show taxpayers it is willing to make hard internal choices before asking for another operational referendum.
“I do not believe in good conscience that the school district can go to voters in November and say we want to keep everybody so we are going to need you guys to support a $2.5 million dollar referendum,” said Hill. “I am new here but I can read the room to know that no that is just unconscionable to me that we would not clean our own house first.”
To address the massive shortfall the district has developed a staged five year reduction plan to right size the staff. Year one calls for the reduction of three elementary regular education teachers along with two secondary teachers and two special education teachers. The first year will also see the elimination of one speech language pathologist and four educational paraprofessionals.
Years two and three project cutting one elementary teacher and three secondary teachers along with adjusting special education staff and paraprofessionals and cutting one administrator or supervisor. Years four and five project cutting one elementary teacher and four secondary teachers along with another administrator and further support staff adjustments.
Hill noted that this plan remains flexible and can be adjusted if necessary based on natural staff turnover.
“If somebody were to retire in year two that we were thinking then retire in year three we would go ahead and make that move in year two,” said Hill. “As opposed to hiring somebody for one year to cover year three.”
Staff members were given more detailed documents regarding the five year reduction plan today following the open house meeting. The district has actively tried to reduce staff through attrition rather than layoffs. During recent school board meetings the compensation committee adjusted early retirement incentives to encourage long term staff to step down.
Hill detailed that the board policy incentivizes employees with over 20 years of service with a payment toward a health reimbursement arrangement to offset insurance costs. The policy also pays retiring staff a higher daily rate if they substitute teach for the district over the next five years and includes a payout of up to 440 hours in banked paid time off or sick leave.
The strategy appears to be working as the school confirmed three staff members submitted retirement letters this week helping the district realize more cuts through natural attrition. The specific names of the retiring staff will be released Monday after they have had time to share the news with their families.
The process for notifying other affected staff will begin soon. Private conversations with staff members will take place before a special board meeting on March 30.
“That preliminary notice would happen in a special board meeting on the 30th,” said Hill. “Those individuals would have five days to request a hearing either a private hearing or a public one and then on the 20th of April the board would vote for final notice.”
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