Waunakee budget committee weighs offering higher per-student payment to retain 4K partners after state program change

The Waunakee Community School District budget committee discussed on Nov. 7 whether to offer increased per-student payments to local 4K providers after new state budget language created a separate state-funded 4K option that bars providers from contracting with public school districts in the same year.

Administrators presented a set of budget scenarios showing that, under a conservative base forecast, the district begins 2026-27 with an estimated $302,000 surplus because of increased state special-education funding and passage of the district's operational referendum. But a scenario in which the district stopped counting any 4K students (because all centers partnered with the state) would produce a larger immediate surplus while creating a substantial loss of equalization aid in 2027-28 and later years, shifting costs to property taxpayers.

"Losing the 245 students becomes a significant taxpayer issue in '27, '28," Steve Summers, a district administrator, said during the presentation. He explained that a state's declining-enrollment exemption cushions the first-year revenue loss but that the long-term equalization-aid…