First Wisconsin School District Dissolution In 36 Years Approved

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

For the first time in 36 years, a public school district in Wisconsin will dissolve.

On Thursday, the School District Boundary Appeal Board voted unanimously to approve the dissolution of the financially troubled Hustisford School District.

The entire school district of about 275 kindergarten through 12th grade students will transfer to the Dodgeland School District. Students are already attending Dodgeland schools this year under a tuition agreement.

At the end of last school year staff was offered non-renewal notices. Hustisford Superintendent Todd Bugnacki said the vast majority resigned and found other work or retired.

Bugnacki the decision is a significant and emotional moment for students, families, staff and alumni.

“The path leading to this decision has been difficult. Like many small, rural school districts across Wisconsin, Hustisford has faced ongoing financial pressures, including declining enrollment, increasing operational costs, and limitations within the state’s school funding system,” Bugnacki said.

The Huntisford district covers 58 square miles in Dodge County, and included an elementary school and a joint middle school-high school.

In mid-October, the Hustisford School District made its case to the School District Boundary Appeal Board to dissolve after voters rejected five referendums over the past five years.

Bugnacki said now that the board has approved the request and the district will dissolved he has mixed emotions.

“There was the goal that we wanted to achieve, but as a superintendent with 38 years in the business that’s not a goal you want,” Bugnacki said. “You want to build districts and help them succeed. It’s extremely sad to think that after 175 years of providing public education in the village of Hustiford, that is no longer.”

Dodgeland Superintendent Todd Greco said his district’s responsibility is to help every student feel welcome and supported.

“That work began when we welcomed Hustisford students this fall, and it will remain our focus as we prepare to serve both communities as one district,” Greco said.

Greco says so far there are 150 Hustisford students at Dodgeland schools, but Dodgeland schools have enough capacity for all Hustisford students. Dodgeland has hired an additional 10 staff members this year to support the additional students.

The decision makes Hustisford the first school district in Wisconsin to dissolve since the Ondossagon School District dissolved into the Ashland, Washburn and Drummond School Districts in 1990.

It follows the Hustisford School Board’s earlier action to order dissolution after examining Hustisford’s long-term financial challenges, declining enrollment and the ability to continue providing sustainable educational opportunities for students.

Hustisford board member Tracy Malterer told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” the district wound up in this situation after realizing it would be in a budget deficit for the foreseeable future, given rising educational costs and state limits on property tax increases.

In a statement, State Superintendent Jill Underly said the Hustisford School District is “a casualty of decades of an antiquated, broken school funding formula that has failed to keep pace with the costs of educating our children.”

“This decision reflects the difficult choices that school districts and communities across Wisconsin are having to make as they are forced to do more with less due to a lack of support from the state,” Underly wrote.

At least four other rural school districts were considering dissolution before the Nov. 3 election.

Wisconsin public school district to dissolve for first time in 3 decades was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.