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Waunakee district identifies declining enrollment; revenue-limit exemption cushions immediate hit
Summary
Third-Friday student count showed a drop that moves Waunakee into declining-enrollment status. Staff said the state provides a one-time exemption that reduces the first-year revenue loss, but longer-term projections will be updated in December and likely lowered.
Waunakee Community School District officials reported Oct. 6 that the district’s third-Friday count marks it as a declining-enrollment district, a change that will affect the district’s revenue-limit calculations in future years.
Rebecca (staff member) presented the third-Friday student count and walked the committee through grade-by-grade numbers, noting a smaller 12th-grade class (296 resident students, plus 13 open-enrollment) and roughly 246 full-day kindergarten resident students (plus 15 open-enrollment), producing the typical 70-to-80-student cohort gap but this year without the usual net gain in the lower grades.
“Now that we’re in declining enrollment,” Rebecca said, “the interesting thing about that is, instead of losing, let’s say, dollars 250,000 right away this fall from the student count being less than we thought, the state gives you a one-time exemption, and I think it was around like 170,000 when I ran it last week.”
Why it matters: the revenue-limit formula controls how much general-aid and revenue the district receives. The state’s one-time exemption reduces the immediate budgetary impact, but if enrollment remains lower the district’s revenue calculations will be reduced in subsequent years.
Discussion and next steps
Staff said they will ask demographer Mark Roffers to update projections in December; Rebecca told the committee the prior long-term projection (to 2040) is likely to be lowered given the current trend. Board members and staff discussed housing and broader economic factors—high house prices and interest rates—as likely contributors to slowed in-migration of families.
The committee noted the short-term financial cushioning from the state’s one-time exemption but emphasized the need for updated enrollment projections and scenario planning; Rebecca said staff will present updated modeling after collecting additional data and the demographer’s December update.
Ending
Committee members asked staff to monitor the trend, coordinate with the village and return demographic updates in December to inform facilities and budget planning.
