Sun Prairie to leave Dane County Schools Consortium; board asked to allow affirmative dissolution vote

Sun Prairie Area School District officials told the school board on April 14 that the district will withdraw from the Dane County Schools Consortium on June 30, 2025, and asked the board to authorize district staff to vote affirmatively to dissolve the consortium if the consortium’s member districts hold a dissolution vote before that date.

Dr. Sarah Chaiaklardi, director of secondary teaching, learning and equity, presented the report to the board as part of the superintendent’s consent agenda and said the district is pursuing withdrawal because of recent operational challenges within the consortium and a loss of fiscal-agency support. “We are seeking your authority to be able to vote affirmatively to dissolve the consortium should a vote be held by the consortium prior to our withdraw,” she said.

The consortium was formed after an intergovernmental agreement executed in spring 2019 to pool resources and expand work-based learning and youth-apprenticeship opportunities across Dane County districts. Dr. Chaiaklardi said the district remains one of 16 member districts and that Monona Grove Area School District has served as the consortium’s fiscal agent.

Monona Grove informed the consortium’s executive director and member districts in spring 2024 and again in winter 2024 that it would no longer serve as fiscal agent “as of July 1,” Dr. Chaiaklardi said. District officials reported that no other participating district volunteered to assume the fiscal-agent role, a development they said underscores structural challenges with the consortium model.

Sun Prairie staff also cited programmatic issues. The presentation said the consortium membership team has imposed increasingly restrictive coursework approvals and a cumbersome application process that have limited the district’s ability to tailor youth-apprenticeship programming to students’ needs. At the same time, Sun Prairie has substantially expanded in-district capacity: district staff said youth-apprenticeship participation doubled compared with two years ago and that they plan to double participation again next year across Sun Prairie East, Sun Prairie West and Prairie Phoenix Academy.

To support that growth, Sun Prairie employs three full-time staff focused on work-based learning: one district Career and Technical Education coordinator based in central office and two college, career and life-readiness coordinators at the high-school sites, the presentation said.

Because the intergovernmental agreement allows dissolution by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of participating school boards and requires at least 30 days’ written notice from the consortium board of directors before such a vote, Sun Prairie is seeking advance authorization to cast an affirmative vote if a dissolution motion is presented before the district’s scheduled withdrawal. The presentation did not record a board vote on that authorization.

Dr. Chaiaklardi said grants related to youth apprenticeship and work-based learning will continue and that the district will work with the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin and local employers to maintain continuity of services for students. “We will ensure continuity of services by continuing to leverage our staff to serve our students in partnership with our businesses in the years to come,” she said.

The presentation concluded with expressions of gratitude to district staff working on CTE and college-career readiness and to students participating in work-based learning. No formal board action on the authorization request appears in the transcript of this presentation.