Whitnall District Will Take a Few Days to Digest Budget Proposal

Superintendent Lowell Holtz plans on taking a few days to digest Gov. Scott Walker’s state budget before discussing how it will impact the district.

Holtz told the Whitnall School Board and about 30 others at a board meeting Monday evening that he and district business manager Amy Kohl should have a grasp on what Walker's anticipated cuts, which are expected to be announced at 4 p.m. today, will mean for Whitnall.

"Once (Walker) makes it formal, we’ll spend a couple days after that analyzing with different budget analysts what that means to our district," Holtz said. "Everyone will be looking at it from every different angle. Amy and I will spend two to three days with different professional organizations to try to bring something to get and get it out to the board Friday and to the public shortly thereafter."

To get an idea just how deep those cuts might be, Andrew Reschovsky, a professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, unveiled figures that speculate how school districts' revenue limits would be affected if school aid is cut by $900 million or more and if there is a $500 decrease in revenue districts can collect per student, both of which are widely expected to be included in the proposal.

The study estimates Whitnall could see its revenue cap drop by more than $1.5 million and Greenfield by more than $2 million.

The revenue cap is the most money the district is allowed by law to take in -- a combination of state aid and property tax revenue.

This study is not an estimate of state aid. Instead, it shows if nothing changes in 2011-12 -- enrollment or equalized valuation of district -- how much each district's revenue limit would be reduced.

Holtz said in a recent interview that he in the wake of the expected budget cuts. Greenfield Superintendent Conrad Farner .