Plenty of Questions on Impact of Walker's Budget on Hamilton Schools

Hamilton School District officials - like those around the state - are still in a waiting mode when it comes to finding out exactly what impact Gov. Scott Walker's budget bill will have on the district.

“Right now, we don’t know exactly what it means for us,” said Denise Dorn Lindberg, spokeswoman the district.“We’re getting a lot of information and we have to determine what it means for our district regarding programs and spending.”

Walker's budget, unveiled last week, would cut $834 billion in state aid to Wisconsin school districts over two years. It also would reduce the revenue limit — the  amount districts can collect in state aid and property taxes — by 5.5 percent.

While the exact effect of the state budget is unknown, Lindberg said the district was glad to find out last week from the state Department of Public Instruction that it will continue to receive state funding for three of its programs: 4-year old kindergarten, summer school and Chapter 220.

“If we had lost state aid, we wouldn’t have been able to continue with those programs," she said. "The summer school and 4K kindergarten are a great foundation for the students throughout their school career.”

"We were nervous,” she added. “We now know we won’t have to gut those programs, if what the DPI said is accurate.”

The bigger question, however, is what's going to happen to the overall state aid the district receives and its revenue cap if Walker's budget is approved by the Legislature.

“It will play out differently for each district,” Lindberg said. “Hamilton is experiencing an increase in enrollment. We don’t know if they’re talking about a decrease of what we received last year or if it’s on a per-pupil basis. We just don’t know the specifics.”

She also noted that Hamilton is in a different situation than many Wisconsin districts when it comes to how much employees contribute to their benefits.

Walker's budget repair bill, which is now pending in the the Legislature, calls for most public employees to pay more for toward the cost of their health care and pension benefits.

But, Lindberg said, "our employees pick up retirement payments and more of their health care already. That could offset some of the losses we’ll see.”

Lindberg acknowledged the brewing debate over the state budget and what it will mean to school districts is having an effect on the district's staff.

“I think there has been a lot of anxiety about the news out of Madison,” she said. “To that extent, we have tried to provide as much information as we can. We’ve realized rumors and speculation have created a lot of anxiety.”

She said the employees would love to know exactly how things might affect them but that’s just not possible at this point.

"With the threat of layoffs, there’s a great deal of uncertainty,” Lindberg said.

Superintendent Kathleen Cooke and School Board President Gabe Kolesari recently had meetings at each school to talk to the staff about the current situation, Lindberg said.

One item in the Walker's budget would waive the requirement that school be in session for 180 days per year.

“Educationally, that’s something we would hope we wouldn't have to do,” Lindberg said. “I could understand that happening if your district was in dire financial straits and that’s the only way you could make it work. It’s not something we’re discussing at this time and it’s not something we would want to do.”