Facility Planning

 Open Enrollment allows students to attend a public school district other than the one in which they reside.

How Open Enrollment Works Under the Open Enrollment program, parents can apply during a designated timeframe each year to have their child attend a non-resident public school district the following school year. If more students apply for a particular district than there are available seats, a random lottery is used to determine which students are approved for Open Enrollment transfers.

Importance for School Funding Open Enrollment is a crucial funding source for school districts in Wisconsin. The state's funding follows the student - when a non-resident student enrolls through Open Enrollment, their district of residence pays a state-determined transfer amount to the non-resident district that the student attends. For the 2022-23 school year, this transfer amount was $8,459 per student.

With funding from the state being limited, Open Enrollment allows districts to gain additional revenue by accepting transfer students from other districts. This supplemental funding source is extremely important for maintaining educational programming, staffing levels, facilities, and overall operations. Conversely, when resident students transfer out to non-resident districts through Open Enrollment, it reduces our district's funding.

Our District's Open Enrollment Participation during the 2023-24 school year, reported that our district had 74 non-resident students attend our schools through Open Enrollment. We also had 71 of our resident students attend other non-resident districts.

The board and administration closely monitor Open Enrollment numbers each year as part of our budgeting process, since the transfers in or out have a direct financial impact. We aim to accept as many non-resident transfer students as possible through Open Enrollment to bolster our funding while providing educational opportunities for those students.

We will continue our efforts to attract non-resident students to our district through Open Enrollment in order to maintain and enhance our programming.

The mill rate is a tax rate that is used to calculate local property taxes. It represents the amount per $1,000 of the assessed property value that the homeowner must pay in property taxes. The mill rate is determined annually by the local government (city, village, town, or school district) based on the total assessed value of all properties within its boundaries and the amount of money it needs to raise from property taxes for its annual budget.

In Wisconsin, school districts make up a significant portion of the total mill rate for property owners. The school portion of the mill rate funds the operation of the public schools within that district. The higher the mill rate, the more property taxes a homeowner will pay to support the local schools.

The total property tax levy for the district has increased steadily, going from $7.4 million in 2008 to $11.8 million in 2023 - a 60% increase over 15 years.

However, the equalized mill rate, which factors in the total property value in the district, has been more stable. It peaked at $4.51 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2013, but has hovered around $4.15 for the last several years.

A couple of key trends:

1. While the district's tax levy has risen, the increase in overall property values has helped keep the mill rate reasonably steady. Total equalized property value grew by 46% from 2008 to 2023.

2. The district's mill rate was consistently higher than the state average until around 2018. Since then, Waterford's rate has fallen below the Wisconsin average as property values have increased faster than the levy.

3. There was a spike in the 2021-2023 levies, with a $1.5 million (16%) increase from 2020 to 2021 alone. This could reflect new budgetary needs like building projects or operational expenses.

Overall, while the district's tax levy has climbed significantly since 2008, steady growth in property values has allowed Waterford to avoid dramatic mill rate spikes that would substantially increase the tax burden on homeowners.

Debt defeasance is a financial technique that school districts use to refinance or retire outstanding debt, called bonds, issued to finance the construction of new school buildings or renovations. When a school district defeases debt, it sets aside cash that will be sufficient to make future debt service payments on the outstanding bonds. This allows the district to remove the debt from its balance sheet quicker, even though the bonds have not yet matured.

The advantage of debt defeasance for school districts is that it can save money over the long term by taking advantage of lower interest rates or restructuring the debt payments. However, it also requires the district to set aside a significant amount of cash which can strain budgets in the short term.

School districts in Wisconsin may choose to pursue debt defeasance as part of their overall financial management strategy, particularly when interest rates are favorable or if they need to restructure their debt obligations to better align with their budget and cash flow.

As a result of strategic planning with the debt levy over the last three years, the district has prepaid $4,520,000 of outstanding debt, resulting in $1,473,240 net savings of future debt payments and related interest.