APPLETON – Appleton Area School Board members unanimously approved the district’s budget for the 2024-25 school year amid discussions about how to proceed in the face of an over $11 million deficit.
At the board’s Oct. 28 meeting, district finance director Holly Burr noted that the district can cover the shortage with existing funds this year. But over $8.7 million is a “structural deficit,” meaning that a shortfall will persist into the future, she said.
The district can’t continue to sustain that, Burr said at an Oct. 14 meeting. The district would likely have to either close schools, cut staff or go to an operational referendum, AASD superintendent Greg Hartjes said at the time.
Hartjes said Oct. 28, “The budget is not great for us” but it is “very good for taxpayers.”
When the district went to referendum in 2022, Hartjes added, “we wanted to have a minimal impact on taxpayers, and we’ve done that.”
But one parent, Oliver Zornow, urged the board to “re-inflate” the tax level to adequately support AASD’s programs.