July 9, 2026
By ANASTASIA PENCHI
DE SOTO Wis. – After more than 36 years in education – including 23 years as superintendent at various Wisconsin school districts — De Soto Area School District’s Interim Superintendent Craig Gerlach has some advice for the De Soto Area community.
“We need to pass a referendum next fall,” said Gerlach, who spent the 2025-2026 school year working in De Soto, but whose contract ended July 1. “Public schools are the backbone of every community. For a community to thrive, you need a good public school system.”
To do that, Gerlach said, the De Soto Area School Board will need to develop a long-term referendum plan that addresses its challenges, which include aging facilities, decreased revenue and declining enrollment. Community members will need to be willing to step up and speak out in support of that plan.
The key is figuring how to best serve children in a beautiful, rural, river community where second homes drive up prices and limit housing, which in turn lowers school enrollment and funding. Gerlach said getting the next referendum passed will require the support of everyone – whether or not they have children in its schools.
“We have to get there,” Gerlach added. “We can’t afford to fail the next referendum.”
Getting There
Gerlach graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1985 before starting his career in Texas – working as both a teacher and football coach. He earned a master’s degree in Texas, came back to Wisconsin and worked in various roles for Wisconsin school districts, including 10 years as principal and 23 as superintendent He earned an educational specialist degree from Edgewood College.
After retiring from his full-time superintendent job in Stevens Point in 2022, Gerlach worked as an interim superintendent in Waupaca the year before coming to De Soto. He said that he, the other De Soto school administrators and board members spent the 2025-2026 school year trying to gain the community’s trust.
The district needs to figure out what residents want, he said, since voters refused its last three referendums: $4.8 million in April 2024; $5.5 million in November 2024; and $4.2 million in April 2025.
“We failed three referendums,” he said. “What’s it going to take to pass the fourth?”
Gerlach said the district responded by spending the past year collecting information: enrollment trends were assessed in an Enrollment Study; building needs were documented in a Facility Study and residents were surveyed last December.
And after the April 2025 referendum failed, the board created a 33-member Community Stakeholder Committee – made up of two people from every municipality in the district – and
that group ultimately recommended the district consolidate its elementary schools and relocate them to the Middle & High School campus in De Soto.
The board is currently reviewing all of its collected information and is aiming for a November 2026 operational referendum. It will have to finalize details by August to get on the ballot.
“We’re not quite there yet,” Gerlach said. “The board has to dive in and dissect that and get a better feel for what that meant.”
Next Steps
As of July 1, Tim Fergot, the De Soto Area Middle and High School principal, began his new role as the district’s superintendent. Scott Kelly, who has been principal at Prairie View Elementary School in Retreat, became the new Middle & High School principal. Derek Fuglsang, principal at Stoddard Elementary, added a second role as he is now principal at both Stoddard and Prairie View.
Gerlach commended the board on that staffing succession plan. Fergot also served as assistant superintendent this past year under Gerlach to learn more about his new role.
“We have some really good people here and they are working well together,” Gerlach said.
“Good leadership matters,” he added. “Stable leadership matters.”
Board President Holly Nickelatti said Gerlach has been “amazing” for the district, as he even recommended and worked with the previous interim superintendent, Mike Ritchie, who was contracted with the district the year before (2024-25).
Nickelatti said this transition will be easier because both Ritchie and Gerlach knew that the board cared about the culture of the district and supported what it wants to accomplish.
“He (Gerlach) really understood his biggest job was to help to be a mentor to Tim (Fergot),” Nickelatti said. “I think he did an amazing job.”
Gerlach said the time has come for the De Soto Area community to make important decisions: Does it want a public school? And if so, should it be an average school or a great public school?
Many other small, rural school districts in Wisconsin are are in the same boat. The state has even begun offering temporary financial incentives to to encourage districts to consolidate.
One Wisconsin community that has recently chose this is the Hustisford School District, which is between Madison and Milwaukee. Voters repeatedly rejected operational referendums (including in April 2026), so the school board passed a resolution to begin dissolution and set up tuition agreements to send students to neighboring districts.
Gerlach said the question about schools should be about more than just money. He admits it’s hard to hear from area seniors on social security who can’t afford to pay more in taxes, but he doesn’t know what to do about it.
“I don’t have an answer for that, and I’m sorry, but that’s the reality,” Gerlach said, “You just have to look beyond yourself.”
Still he has hope that the district will get through it’s challenges.
“We are in much better condition than we’ve been in years,” Gerlach said, “We still have a mountain to climb.”
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