Proposed Solutions to Identified Needs

LRMP Proposed Solutions

Over the last three years, the Cedarburg School District has examined instructional and facility needs to maintain the District's high academic standards. Through the development of a Long Range Master Plan, the district identified planning for anticipated growth, supporting current and future needs of teaching and learning and improving safety and security as the top priorities to address. Proposed Solutions for each school as presented and approved by the School Board can be found on the left side navigation bar for each school.

Revised LRMP Plan

Following the survey in June, the Long Range Master Plan Team reviewed the initial plans and developed a list of priority strategies to reduce the plan’s overall cost. Those strategies included deferring capital replacement projects to operational budgets over the next six to eight years and deferring or eliminating projects that do not compromise the District’s overall goals. By using these strategies, the team was able to reduce the estimated cost which decreases the property tax impact on district residents and businesses.

The reduced-cost plan, as presented to the School Board on June 20, still addresses growth from projected new enrollments and places emphasis on career-oriented education, especially in science, technology, engineering, art and math, in addition to enhanced safety and security items. The revised plan does not include regular, on-going facility maintenance projects; the district remains committed to living within its annual operating budget for those items.

1. Needs

The top three priorities for this Long Range Master Plan are:

1) Addressing Enrollment and Capacity
Within District boundaries, 15 new subdivisions/developments have been approved or proposed. That equates to 441 new homes. Coupled with regular growth, the District could experience an increase of over 176 resident students by 2026-27 when compared to the 2016-17 enrollment count.

2) Improved Teaching and Learning Environments
Our commitment to students is to ensure that every student graduates from high school well-prepared and future-ready. Thus, the goal of the District is to optimize student achievement by designing learning experiences responsive to future job markets, by incorporating: project based and real life applications; engineering and design principles and departments (like art and engineering) that foster student collaboration; critical thinking; and problem solving skills.

3) Safety and Security
The safety and security of our students, staff and community is always a priority. Upon conducting a variety of security assessments, the district looks to makes multiple improvements from traffic control to building security and everything in between. Cedarburg School District is committed to providing the safest environment possible.

2. Capacity & Enrollment

School Capacity
All but one of our schools are currently operating at/over capacity, creating operational challenges. As a result, schools are using spaces and rooms for functions other than their intended purposes, including using hallways and storage spaces for instruction.

Enrollment Growth
Based on the Applied Population Laboratory (APL) Enrollment Study, the District is anticipating steady growth that could total 176 additional resident students by the 2026-2027 school year when compared to the 2016-17 enrollment count.

3. Potential Solutions

To address the top three priority needs, the District has worked with architectural and construction consultants to create a solution. This potential solution not only solves growth concerns; improves teaching and learning, and addresses safety and security, but it also addresses the majority of concerns that were expressed in the community focus groups. The potential solutions can be found by school on the left side bar.

4. Financial Background

$59.8 million is the estimated cost of these potential solutions.

• The estimated tax increase would be 58 cents per $1,000 of home value compared to the 2016-17 tax levy rate to fund the project over the next 20 years. If property values continue to rise and student enrollment grows, this increase could decrease over time lessening the impact on the community. Since the District is paying off debt within the next two years, the increase is less than it otherwise would have been since the total impact of the borrow is estimated to be at $1.41.
• For more information on the financial background, please click the link below:

https://www.cedarburg.k12.wi.us/about/financial-background.cfm