Is Walker to Blame for Likely School Closing in Brookfield?

The school-closing debate in Brookfield took a political turn this week when the state Democratic Party cited the likely closure of as an example of how Gov. Scott Walker's state budget is hurting education across Wisconsin.

What has pretty much been a local issue caught the eye of state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate, who used the potential school closing to continue the  argument that Walker’s actions have been harmful to students.

"Scott Walker claims he gave local governments and school districts the 'tools' to deal with his budget cuts, but it looks the only tool they got was the ax," the PoliticScoop blog quoted Tate as saying Wednesday.

The focus of the dispute are provisions in the state's new collective bargaining law — Act 10 — that require most public employees to pay more toward their pension and health care costs. That law also strips away most bargaining rights for teachers and other public employees.

Walker has consistently claimed the provisions in that bill are "tools" to help local districts keep their budgets — and property taxes — in line.

Using those "tools" resulted in a next savings this year of about $3.8 million for the Elmbrook School District. However, the state budget also reduced the revenue limits for schools by 5.5 percent. And for Elmbrook, that's a loss of about $6 million in property tax revenue.

The district's looming budget deficit is one reason Elmbrook officials are expected to vote Oct. 25 on closing a school — most likely Hillside.

Superintendent Matt Gibson said at a recent public hearing that “there are financial reasons that cause us to look at a school closing.”

And at that drew more than 100 people on the school closing issue, School Board President Tom Gehl told the crowd that had it not been for the cuts mandated by the state, "we wouldn't be sitting here."

The Democrats are capitalizing on comments like that, saying the 5.5 percent cut in the revenue limit is the direct cause of the board's potential action on closing a school.

Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski said in an interview with Patch that closing Hillside is just another example of the harm done by Walker, and that Elmbrook is not suffering alone. Zielinski provided examples of other districts he said are being forced to make difficult cuts in the wake of Walker’s actions.

“No matter how many times Governor Walker talks about Kaukauna successfully using the tools, there is overwhelming evidence of other districts that have been harmed,” Zielinski said. “What is happening in Elmbrook is being played out across the state. It is not creating jobs and it will harm students for years to come.“

Calls to obtain a comment from the Wisconsin Republican Party or Walker's campaign team were not returned.

But Gibson, who had earlier this year, said discussion of school closures has been on the board’s agenda since 2008.

“There are three factors that have led to this point,” he said. “First, is the decline in resident enrollment in the district by 10 percent over the last few years. Second, we have excess capacity in our elementary schools. We are only using about 70 percent of the available space."

"And third, we had a revenue gap that was helped by the Act 10 provisions, but were hurt by the limits on our taxing authority and state aid cuts," Gibson said. 

He added the district would have been moving ahead with a closure, even if the governor hadn't cut state aid or tightened the revenue cap.

The closure of Hillside and the possible closure of Tonawanda Elementary has brought out parents and district residents and to the idea. If a closure is approved on Oct. 25, the school will go dark at the end of the current school year. 

Closing Hillside would save the district $1.2 million, partially closing an $8.7 million gap in the district's five-year fiscal plan.

School funding will remain a major issue efforts to hold an election to recall Walker from office are successful. The question is whether Democrats would use  the closing of Hillside to swing voters away from Walker, who won by more than 10,000 votes in Elmbrook District wards in 2010.