(The Center Square) – Green Bay Area Public School District’s workforce has increased despite six years of declining enrollment.
Most of the additional hires were pandemic-related positions like contact tracers, additional nurses and full-time teachers serving on a rotating substitute basis when teachers were ill or forced to quarantine, a school district spokesperson told The Center Square.
Green Bay public schools, however, did not reduce staffing despite enrollment declines to ensure smaller class sizes, according to Lori Blakeslee, the district’s director of communications.
Enrollment in the school district has continued to decline over the course of the pandemic. There were 19,828 students enrolled in the district during the 2022-2023, down from 21,094 students enrolled during the 2019-2020 school year.
Meanwhile, the district’s expenditures have increased. In 2022, the district spent $174.5 million on instruction and $118.4 million on support services. In 2019, instruction expenses were $154.3 million and support services cost $105.6 million.
