FOND DU LAC – The Fond du Lac School District Board of Educators will hold a special meeting and workshop Feb. 24 to discuss budget cuts and the current vacancy.
The meeting starts at 5 p.m. in the board meeting room of the District Administration Center, 72 W. Ninth St., and the meeting agenda includes a resolution of budget reductions for 2026-27.
Immediately following the meeting, a workshop will begin with interviews of four applicants for the current board vacancy: Antonio Godfrey, Cathleen Christensen, Andrew Smedberg and Tenille Graf.
The board has been operating as six members since Tom Oliver resigned Jan. 12, just days before he died of pancreatic cancer.
The interviews and the discussion that follows will be public, and meetings are livestreamed on the FDL YouTube YouTube channel. Applicants’ letters of interest are posted on the workshop agenda.
The final item on the agenda is a preliminary discussion on school consolidation planning.
Budget reduction recommendations include technology, maintenance and staff
Fond du Lac School District Chief of Finance & Operations Michael Gerlach provided a budget projection for the school board in January, recommending reducing expenditures by $3.5 million to address the ongoing structural deficit from a projected decline in student enrollment.
The school district has an operational referendum question in the upcoming election, which will still be necessary to improve security and mitigating the impact of that decline if voters approve it.
The list of budget reduction recommendations is available on the meeting agenda, split into three categories based on priority. The “green” list is the primary recommendations the board would vote on Feb. 24, while “yellow” and “red” recommendations were considered but not on the table for now.
The school board had two previous workshops Jan. 26 and Feb. 16 to discuss the recommendations and curate this list.
The “green” recommendations for the 2026-27 school year include increasing elementary school class sizes, reducing some staff development and support programs, eliminating the driver’s education program and cutting six library media specialists.
Technology changes include moving to a two-to-one Chromebook ratio for first-grade students — meaning one device per two students rather than one-to-one — and delaying new interactive displays in Fond du Lac High School classrooms.
Building-level cuts include limiting cosmetic projects such as paint and ceramic tile replacements, as well as light replacements outside of classrooms and convenience measures like wall hooks, bulletin boards and podiums.
School board members made clear none of the measures is something they want to do, but the recommendations strive to keep providing a safe learning environment while reducing the budget deficit.
What does school consolidation mean?
At the Feb. 16 meeting, school board President Katie Moder requested the school consolidation preliminary planning discussion topic for this meeting to show what it would look like for the district to close two schools in 2027-28.
This would not be something the board would vote on at this time, she added.
Fond du Lac School District Superintendent Matt Steinbarth said closing any schools isn’t possible for this coming school year, but is something to consider to help avoid future reductions and referendums.
Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Fond du Lac school board to mull cuts and start consolidation talks
Reporting by Daphne Lemke, Fond du Lac Reporter / Fond du Lac Reporter
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
