Some School Districts Could Dissolve If November Referendums Fail

School lockers. Photo by Phil Roeder (CC BY 2.0)

Five months ago the Siren School District took drastic steps to cut costs after a $1.8 million referendum failed.

Staffing reductions in the small northwestern school district included seven teachers, the middle and high school principal, and a finance director.

Now voters in Siren are being asked to approve a four-year non-recurring $ 750,000 per year operational referendum on Nov. 3. Officials there say without the additional financial support the district will need to explore all available long-term options, including dissolving.

Siren is not alone.

A handful of other small, rural school districts across Wisconsin are facing the possibility of being dissolved if their referendums don’t pass.

This includes school districts in Dodgeville, Gillett and Winter.

And another district in Dodge County has a pending dissolution awaiting state approval after multiple failed referendum attempts.

School district dissolution is not a common occurrence. In fact, none have dissolved since 1990, when the Ondossagon School District was absorbed into the districts of Ashland, Drummond and Washburn.

But now school officials say because of state-imposed revenue limits, their ability to fund day-to-day operations is becoming impossible.

“If this was just Winter Wisconsin, I’d look at the previous people on the school board and say, ‘boy, you guys really botched something up,’” said Winter School District Superintendent Craig Olson. “But when it is every school district in the state, this not someone mismanaging their money. There is a very systemic problem out there.”

78 school district referendums on Nov. 3 ballot

Public schools are funded through a combination of state aid, local property taxes and a small percentage of federal funds. State aid is based on several factors including student enrollment, district property values, and district spending.

The 2025–27 Wisconsin state budget kept general school aid flat at $5.58 billion for the third consecutive year, providing zero inflationary increase for public schools. At the same time, declining enrollment and increasing costs including health insurance and transportation have more districts turning to taxpayers through referendums.

There are 78 school referendums on the Nov. 3 ballot in 71 different districts. Of those, 16 districts had failed referendums in the spring.

The Winter School District in Sawyer County serves about 275 students across 660 square miles.

In April, voters rejected a $2 million operational referendum. Now they’re being asked to pass a $1.5 million referendum.

If this measure fails, Olson says the school board will have to consider dissolving by July 2027. At the end of this school year Winter will have just $69,000 in its fund balance.

The State School District Boundary Appeals Board would consider the dissolution order between September 2027 and January 2028.

Dissolving a district is different than consolidating, which is merging two or more districts into a single system. When a district dissolves, it completely terminates the existing district and parcels out its existing assets to a neighboring district.

Olson says he gets frustrated by people who think not supporting Winter means they won’t have a tax increase. Instead, he says, they’ll just be paying a school tax to another district when the district boundary line is redrawn, Olson said.

“I’m worried about the kids,” Olson said. “If the Winter community doesn’t want to have the school then vote no so I can get the kids on track to graduate from another school district.”

Last week, the Hustisford School District made its case to the state’s School District Boundary Appeal Board to dissolve after voters rejected five referendums over the past five years.

The board is expected to make its decision in November.

Some rural school districts face dissolution if November referendums don’t pass was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.