Is the Markesan School District on the Verge of Dissolving?

A Markesan store owner who put this sign outside his business for Teacher Appreciation Week is concerned about the impact of the school district’s future on his business.

By Terry Lawler
The bullet that the Florence County School District narrowly dodged last fall is now piercing toward the Markesan School District.

Facing a severe budget crisis that they blame on school district revenue controls, district officials are talking about the real possibility they may have to dissolve the 850-student rural district in south-central Wisconsin.

Last fall, voters in Florence bailed out that district after the school board voted to dissolve it. In Markesan, however, voters rejected a $2.7 million three-year operating referendum in April. For students, it means another dark cloud over their education, which already has brought them increasingly large class sizes.

The difficulties piling up on the Markesan School District are like the leaves on an artichoke. As one peels off one after another – which includes recently concluded teacher bargaining campaign and a successful challenge to a previously imposed Qualified Economic Offer – one discovers that at the heart of Markesan’s problems are the same revenue caps that are crippling school districts throughout Wisconsin.

Nancy Habeger

Monte Spillane

Connie Hynnek

Jerry Chisnell

John Horn

Despite sacrifices from teachers and the efforts of some community members to pass the April referendum, talk of dissolution “is not a case of Chicken Little,” said Three Rivers United Educators (TRUE) Executive Director John Horn.

The district faces many of the same problems faced by Florence and other districts that may have similar fates: declining enrollment, inadequate state aid, low revenue limits, a declining fund balance and misleadingly high property values.

Nancy Habeger, a 3rd-grade teacher and past president of the Markesan District Education Association, said the tax structure in Markesan is unique.

Because of expensive vacation homes on Big Green Lake, much of the land value in the district has soared, which reduces state aid, Habeger said. But many of the district’s voters are on limited incomes and most don’t have children in the schools, which makes it difficult to pass a referendum.

“We look like a rich district but we’re not,” said Connie Hynnek, also a 3rd-grade teacher.

In addition, Markesan’s student enrollment is down more than 340 students since 1995, which results in more cuts in state aid.

MDEA President Monte Spillane has watched the erosion of his district since the revenue limits were imposed in 1993.

“We have bigger classes at the high school, most having close to 30 students,” he said. At the elementary level, students are spending less time in music, art and physical education classes.

Over the past five years Markesan has lost its drivers’ education program, an elementary aide, a principal, 1.4 speech/language positions, and 12.9 full-time teachers.

Jerry Chisnell, coordinator of technology and MDEA negotiator, has definitely noticed the impact of larger class sizes.

“There are upwards of 30 kids in the elementary technology class,” he said, “and 30 kids in science classes in the middle school.”

Despite the best efforts of at least one community activist and district officials centered around the April referendum, many Markesan residents are ill-informed of their district’s peril, the teachers said.

“The board produced a community referendum booklet called ‘School Funding Issues.’ Community people made brochures. Tom Beebe from the Wisconsin Alliance of Excellent Schools made an excellent presentation to a fairly good group,” Habeger said.

A local veterinarian produced a PowerPoint presentation and showed it to community members several times. Still, after the referendum failed, community members were quoted in a local paper complaining that too much money is being spent on sports and that art, music and physical education teachers should be eliminated.

“People don’t understand the requirements of state and federal laws and they don’t understand licensure,” Hynnek said.

Spillane said the strategy for the next referendum must change. Although the MDEA voted to support the April referendum and worked behind the scenes to build support for it internally, members were not highly visible in the community promoting it.

“This time we must be very involved,” he said.

Teachers feel that if the district waits too long to vote on another referendum, it will be too late.

“The school board and the superintendent have decided that they are not going to let the district dissolve in a long spiral,” Chisnell said.

The board is using up the district’s fund balance to keep as many programs going as it can.

“They are keeping it intact until the money is gone,” Chisnell said.

Hynnek added that one board member was quoted as saying, “We’re running at full throttle until it blows up.”

According to Habeger, that blowup will happen “in less than two years.”

While they appreciate the district’s commitment to try to maintain a quality education for its students, all four teachers realize that Markesan’s schools are moving toward possible dissolution.

“The state has pitted taxpayers against the people who take care of their children, and no one in the Legislature will do anything about the levy limits and the QEO,” lamented Habeger, who is a representative on both the TRUE and WEAC Board of Directors.

The worst fate of all awaits Markesan students if the district folds.

Spillane noted that “these kids are not going to be shipped to one or two other districts; they’ll be spread over seven or eight.”

“I live in this community,” Chisnell said. “If the schools close, I’ll have to move, but I want my kids to grow up in this community. Does the Legislature want ghost towns all over this state, because that is what they’ll get.”

Just down the street from the high school/middle school entrance, a local grocer has a sign out front reminding people to thank teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

“The store owner has told me that if the district shuts down, he’ll probably have to move his business,” Habeger said.

All four teachers said they remain enthusiastic about the Markesan district. Still, all four know that time is running out for Markesan schools – and other districts facing similar plights – and it’s up to voters, and
ultimately the state Legislature, to address the problem.

Resource page on school funding

Posted June 2, 2006