(HUSTISFORD) Families in the Hustisford School District may soon be asked to pay more in property taxes to keep their local schools running for the next two years — a short-term fix that would give the community time to decide whether the district can stand on its own or needs to pursue consolidation or even dissolution.
The school board spent Monday night walking through two possible referendum questions, each aimed at covering basic operating costs. Neither option would repair buildings or upgrade aging facilities — long-standing needs that have failed to get voter support in multiple past referendums.
Homeowners would see a noticeable jump in their tax bills under either plan. The district’s current mill rate is $5.37 per $1,000 of assessed value. Depending on what option the district chooses, that rate could rise to between roughly $9.15 and $9.84 over the next two school years.
Under Option 1, the district would borrow $2.1 million in each of the next two years. That would leave Hustisford with an estimated surplus of about $808,000 at the end of the 2026–27 school year and about $551,000 the following year. The mill rate would climb to $9.17 and $9.15 in those two years.
Option 2 would borrow slightly more — $2.5 million each year — and create larger surpluses of about $1.2 million and $951,000. The mill rate would rise higher as well, to $9.84 and $9.81.
Several residents spoke in favor of moving a referendum forward, urging the board to keep the buildings open while the district charts its long-term future.
The district is already projecting a $1.6 million deficit at the end of the 2025–26 school year. Without a temporary infusion of revenue, the board has openly acknowledged that consolidation or dissolution may become unavoidable within the next two years. Hustisford has struggled for voter approval on both capital and operational referendums for nearly a decade, leaving building maintenance problems unaddressed and operating budgets squeezed.
Financial pressures aren’t unique to Hustisford — many rural Wisconsin districts have watched inflation outpace state funding. The local strain has grown sharper here as students increasingly enroll elsewhere, with more than $2.3 million in district funding following them to other public and private schools over the past decade.
The Hustisford School Board plans to revisit the referendum language at its January meeting. Any final ballot question must be approved by Jan. 27 to appear before voters in April.
