(The Center Square) — Chris Lindner knows the possibility of his Loyal School District consolidating with Greenwood in Clark County has plenty of people paying attention.
School consolidations in Wisconsin, now a rarity, could increase if his is successful.
“It very well could be a pendulum swing,” Lindner told Wisconsin’s Assembly Committee on Education during a public hearing Tuesday on five school consolidation bills.
The measures are aimed at helping school districts use consolidation to combat decreased enrollments and aging buildings across the state. Public school enrollment in Wisconsin is expected to decline by 200,000 students by 2050. The state has seen an estimated 10,000 fewer students each year.
Sponsors of the bills emphasized they are based on supporting voluntary consolidation for districts.
Included in the bills is a statewide consolidation and feasibility study supported by leaders of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction. They said a study hasn’t been done since the 1960s and would provide a road map for what the state’s 421 districts could look like and which areas have the potential to benefit from consolidation.
If done quickly, the study could be expensive but could answer questions on “how do we sync some of these things up,” said DPI Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy.
There is no estimate for the cost of a statewide study. Lindner said his district paid $12,000 for an individual district consolidation report.
McCarthy said the state had 7,000 school districts in the 1920s, reduced to 4,000 in the 1940s and further to 800 in 1950s and 1960s as K-8 districts and unified high schools consolidated in many areas.
The state’s last school consolidation came in 2018, when two districts combined to create the Holy Hill School District in Richfield.
McCarthy said two-thirds of the state’s school districts are experiencing declining enrollment and 75% of the state’s students are being educated in the largest 100 districts in the state, while 53% of school districts have less than 1,000 students.
“We need a toolset for our districts,” said Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie.
The consolidation bills would give districts an additional $2,000 per student for the first year after consolidating; a $25,000 grant to conduct its own consolidation or shared services study; grants for districts that consolidate but have differing levy limits; and school board consolidation grants of $500 per student for whole grade sharing.
Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, said some districts are considering consolidation or whole grade sharing, and the incentives could provide an impetus to make it happen.
“I don’t expect them to be out there begging for this,” Kitchens said, but noted that many districts also “recognize that this is going to be necessary.”
Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said consolidation isn’t feasible for some of the smaller districts in her area because of the logistics of wide-spread school districts and transportation, noting she can drive 3 ½ hours from one end of her legislative district to the other.
