Granton School District considers first operational referendum

When looking ahead to the Granton Area School District’s financial future, District Administrator Nancy Popp informed the board that more has to be done to increase the school’s budget in the coming years or face massive cuts in order to stay afloat. To try to prevent cuts, the district is considering holding its first operational referendum to exceed revenue cap limits in the April 2026 election.

Popp gave her report on the district budget at the Sept. 8 regular board meeting. This year, she said, the budget will be running in the red, with the fund balances covering the deficit in the 2025-2026 school budget. In the years that follow, the situation only gets worse.

“If everything stays the same, we’ll be $495,000 in a deficit,” she said. “And we won’t have the fund balance to be able to sustain that.”

The nearly $500,000 deficit projected for the 2026-27 school year, Popp said, is just looking at the bare minimum. If there are other increases in costs for basic operations for the school, that projected number could be even higher.

“This includes a 2% raise for the staff and a 10% raise in insurance and increases in special ed.” said Popp. “That 2% raise can be a $5,000 to $10,000 difference in wages. This doesn’t include potential increases in other areas of expenses. This isn’t adding any staff, no increase in utilities, supplies, or any major repairs.”

Popp informed the board that something will have to be done to keep the district from staying in the red in the coming years. She told the board it will be necessary to consider holding an operational referendum within the next several months to make sure the school has enough funds. Otherwise, she said, they will have to begin making cuts to shave off at least $500,000 from the budget.

“That’s equivalent to seven staff positions,” she said on what a cut like that would look like. “I’m unsure of how we would do that.”

It was advised that the board have a decision made by November on what sort of operational referendum it would ask the public for, with the question being finalized and approved by December. During the next months, the board will be consulting with Baird Financial about the district’s financial situation and what will actually be needed by the district to cover its expected expenses in the years moving forward. Whatever question is chosen will be put on the ballot for the April 2026 election.

In other business, the board approved the continuation of the cross country co-op with the Neillsville School District for the next two years and approved a personal finance course to be taught by agriculture instructor Katie Reider.