2023 Community Task Force

The Task Force

The Mequon-Thiensville School District (MTSD) has assembled a community task force to assess budget shortfalls, evaluate the top alternatives from a recent analytical process, and suggest prioritized solutions for current and future budget deficits to the MTSD Board of Education and administration.

The 2023 Community Task Force will meet this fall to engage in its review with the goal of presenting recommendations to the Board of Education and administration by early December. All task force meetings will take place in the Range Line Community Center Conference Room at 11040 N. Range Line Rd., and are open to the public. Community members are encouraged to attend and observe.

The Budget Crisis

The state of Wisconsin continues to provide school districts with inadequate sustainable funding and the Mequon-Thiensville School District is forced to do more with less as we work hard to provide the programming and resources our students deserve and provide the excellent educational experience that our community expects.

For the school year, MTSD is managing a budget deficit of $1.4 million. Based on conservative assumptions, the projected deficits in the MTSD for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years are over $2 million and over $3 million dollars respectively. These assumptions and projected deficits take into account the state-level funding that was recently granted to public school districts as part of the Wisconsin state biennial budget process for 2023-25.

Why is MTSD experiencing a budget crisis?
How is the MTSD Board of Education addressing our budget crisis?

Why is MTSD experiencing a budget crisis?

Despite our legislative advocacy efforts and what was touted as a historic state biennial budget year for public school districts across the state of Wisconsin, MTSD does not stand to benefit substantially from state funding as a lower-spending, property-rich community. “Property-rich” means that the state perceives our community to have a better-than-average ability to pay higher property taxes. As such, MTSD receives approximately 2.6% of revenue limit authority from state aid, and 97.4% from local taxes.

The state of Wisconsin continues to provide school districts with inadequate sustainable funding and our district is forced to do more with less as we work hard to provide the programming and resources our students deserve and provide the excellent educational experience that our community expects. Instead, we are projecting historic budget shortfalls beginning now through the foreseeable future.

Based on conservative assumptions, the projected deficits in the MTSD for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years are over $2 million and over $3 million dollars respectively. Plainly speaking, we are experiencing a school budget crisis. To address this crisis, we as a school district must find ways to increase revenue streams while reducing operating expenses.

How is the MTSD Board of Education addressing our budget crisis?

During the months of August and September, the MTSD Board of Education engaged in an analytical process in order to prioritized recommended solutions to mitigate our budget shortfalls. At the conclusion of the process, the following alternatives emerged from many in the Board’s discussion as those that best meet the objectives and will require further evaluation:

Explore an operating referendum to be voted for in either April 2024, November 2024, or April 2025.
Launch a philanthropic giving campaign.
Use a combination of fund balance and Fund 46 to balance the budget.

The administration believes the appropriate next step is to once again involve District and community stakeholders in meaningful and authentic two-way communication. Community engagement in the MTSD has historically involved a community-led committee that studies a specific topic with the potential to impact the community. A 2023 Community Task Force is being assembled to review the current and projected budget shortfalls, consider the Board’s highest ranked alternatives from the recently completed analytical process and make prioritized recommendations to the administration and School Board delineating solutions to the budget deficit.

Why a Task Force?

2021 Elementary School Boundary Task Force Meeting The Mequon-Thiensville School District has a history of engaging the community through ad-hoc committee structures that explore districtwide issues. Individuals outside of the organization’s structure drive the work of such a task force or committee. In 2004, 2007, 2014, 2019, and again in 2021, the District utilized a task force structure, comprised of a diverse group of community stakeholders, to examine issues ranging from school closures, school boundary adjustments, cost savings in the areas of transportation, co-curricular activities, and reconfiguration of schools, to developing a recommendation(s) for how to financially sustain the quality of the District.

Pictured above: A meeting of the 2021 Elementary School Boundary Adjustment Task Force.

Board Charge

During a special business meeting on October 5, 2023, the Mequon-Thiensville Board of Education authorized Superintendent Dr. Matthew Joynt to form an independent community task force, with the following charge: The 2023 MTSD Community Task Force shall review the current and projected budget shortfalls, consider the Board’s highest ranked alternatives from the recently completed decision analysis, and make prioritized recommendations to the administration and School Board delineating solutions to the budget deficit.

Process Overview

The use of a task force will empower an external, non-elected committee to devote the time and expertise required for meaningful community engagement, which will equip the Board and administration with a recommendation(s) to address the stated charge.

The Task Force will conduct a total of four meetings to gather information, ask questions, consider options, and ultimately draft a report detailing the final recommendation of the task force to the MTSD Board of Education and administration during the Board’s working board meeting on Monday, December 4, 2023.

Highlights of a Task Force Model

The Board of Education, in its work with the MTSD administration, continues to prioritize community engagement in gaining information to inform decision-making.
Community engagement in the MTSD has historically involved a community-led committee that studied a specific topic with the potential to impact the community.
A Community Task Force is being assembled to review the current and projected budget shortfalls, consider the Board’s highest ranked alternatives from the recently completed analytical process, and make prioritized recommendations to the administration and School Board delineating solutions to the budget deficit.
- Task Force membership will include an array of residents representing a spectrum of opinions and perspectives related to the school district and community.
- The recommendation(s) of the MTSD Community Task Force are not binding and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Board of Education, of any individual school board member or of the Superintendent.

Strengths of a Task Force Model

The utilization of a Community Task Force by the Superintendent is an opportunity to work with a representative group of community members to understand issues and include community input in identifying options for moving forward.
The process, if needs-based, transparent, and sense-making, will have traction with the community to predict the resolution of the issue in the near future. By utilizing this method of engagement, the Board and administration will have the power to modify the recommendations of the Task Force.

Challenges of a Task Force Model

Timeline of District Budget Planning & Work of the MTSD Board of Education

In alignment with Board Policy 6210: Fiscal Management, District officials closely monitor past, current, and projected financial conditions to maintain a long-range fiscal plan that supports the needs of the school district. The following timeline of events describes the steps that have been taken by the District and the Board of Education in monitoring and planning for the 2023-24 school year budget deficit in the MTSD.

November 2022 - In anticipation of the important biennial State budget, the MTSD BOE updated its legislative platform position on public school funding, including support for annual increases in per-pupil categorical aid at a rate at least indexed to inflation. The District then formally began its legislative advocacy efforts.
November 2022 - April 2023 - The Board and administration engaged in the annual school district budget development process, in preparation for the 2023 Annual School District Meeting and Budget Hearing. Meanwhile, school officials continued to inform the community and local legislators of the critical need for more public school funding.
July 5, 2023 - Governor Evers signed the 2023-25 state biennial budget into law which includes disproportionate funding for school districts throughout Wisconsin and has resulted in one of the most inequitable biennial budgets approved to date.
July 24, 2023 - Held school district’s Annual Meeting where the community certified the tax levy. The 2023-24 budget presented to the community included a deficit and the use of Fund Balance and Fund 46 to manage the budget shortfall for the near term.
September 2023 - Conducted the annual “Third Friday Count” to determine student enrollment as submitted to the state for funding formulas.

Questions about the 2023 Community Task Force or MTSD Budget Process?

Contact the District office on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. by calling 262-238-8500 or email us any time at: communications@mtsd.k12.wi.us

Task Force Website Last Updated on:
Monday, November 6, 2023