GBAPS faces funding woes in budget

GREEN BAY, Wis (WGBW) – Another referendum may be headed to the voters in the Green Bay Area Public School District (GBAPS).

During the workshop meeting of the Board of Education for the District on Monday night, trustees discussed the impact that the lack of state funding and federal funding freezes will have on the GBAPS budget.

In the state budget, the state allocated an additional $325 per pupil in state aid to the school districts. However, the budget allocation shifts this responsibility to the local property owners. GBAPS District Chief Financial Officer Angie Roble said this will increase the tax levy.  

“The important thing to note is that it’s going to fall strictly on the property taxes because there is no aid to offset that, that levy increase with that $325 per pupil increase,” Roble said.

The state budget increases special education reimbursements to 42% for the 2025-26 school year and to 45% for the 2026-27 school year. However, the amount that the District will pay for students who open-enroll in other public school districts has increased. Under the new state budget, the District must also increase the amount of money allocated to private schools under the voucher system.

Trustees react

Trustee Jeanette Knill urged residents to speak out. “ Please talk to your representatives. Talk to your senator. I’m doing it. And we need to light a fire under our representatives, so they are funding our public schools properly in Madison,” Knill said.

Knill also noted  that the finances of everyone in the district will be affected.

“Property taxes are gonna go up. I don’t like that. I pay property taxes. That means housing costs are going up,” Knill said. “Don’t blame the school districts, whether it’s Green Bay or Ashwaubenon or De Pere. It’s the guys in Madison who voted for this budget.”

Trustee Laura McCoy also expressed frustration with the state budget and its affect on the school district. “This to me represents an enormous amount of unfairness in how we fund public education,” she said. “We’re at the mercy of politicians, and again, and again, they have proven that they – Well, I have to ask myself, and I’m speaking only for myself now, do they care?” 

Federal funding freeze

Meanwhile, the District also faces losing 3.4 million dollars in federal funding due to a funding freeze for several grant programs by the United States Department of Education. Those funds paid for after-school programs, literacy coaches, bilingual staff, and social workers and counselors. GBAPS Superintendent Vicki Bayer said these are the funds that support the most vulnerable students in the school district.

“Because that’s what these funds are for, the kids that need additional support, not due to special education needs, but rather socioeconomic factors,” Bayer said. “After-school programming for parents that have jobs and they rely on those after-school services so that they can work in our community. These are programs. We will continue this school year.”

Wisconsin is part of a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Department of Education’s decision to withhold that funding. 

All of this adds up to a struggle for the GBAPS budget. Bayer said the district has cut the budget, closed schools, reduced staff, and will have to make more cuts.

 ”We’ve closed and consolidated three schools. We’ve reduced staffing, including 10% of our administrative staff. We’ve reduced department budgets. We’ve taken on a burden of some of the employee benefits plan, but also increased what our employees have to pay into it,” Bayer said. “We’ve been at this for three years now, and it continues to be a challenge.”

Bayer told the Board of Education that similar conversations are happening at school districts across Wisconsin.

“They’re all having conversations about where else can we possibly cut before we start hurting our children? That’s across the state for public schools. You’ll see more schools closing in the next year,” Bayer said.

The GBAPS District will receive a new budget at the October 13th meeting. From there, they will decide whether to ask voters to approve an operational referendum. The last operational referendum for GBAPS was a $16 million referendum in 2016. The referendums in 2022 and 2024 were for facility updates and capital improvements.

The state of Wisconsin has a budget surplus of over $4.5 billion.