OUR PLACE
On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, the City of Lake Geneva will vote on a proposed non-recurring referendum for the Lake Geneva Joint #1 School District.
If approved, the district will be able to increase its annual budget by $4 million each year for the next four school years, through the 2028-2029 school year. This increase will help address the district’s deficit and support safety and security improvements. Please note that this $4 million increase applies only to each year, it does not accumulate, nor is it a permanent addition to the budget. The Lake Geneva Joint #1 School District will face a significant budget shortfall if the operational referendum is not approved. One of the three elementary schools will close beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. Grade levels and school boundaries within the district will be reorganized, and students will be reassigned to the remaining two schools.
Families will lose the option of school choice within the district and must attend their designated home school within the district to balance school sizes and capacities. 16-20 full-time positions (including teachers and essential staff) will be eliminated for the 2025-2026 school year. Class sizes will exceed the district’s target range of 20-24 students, impacting individual attention and learning quality. Academic programs and extracurricular activities will be scaled back or eliminated. In-town busing will be discontinued, increasing walking distances and bus ride times. Families will face higher student fees. A modified academic calendar will result in fewer instructional days, which will reduce the number of days students are in school learning. Repairs and updates to critical infrastructure (e.g., security cameras, doors, emergency communication (radios and phone systems)) will be delayed, increasing safety risks. An approved Lake Geneva Joint #1 School District referendum in April would have an estimated property tax impact of $0.78 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Even with these cuts, the district’s financial stability will remain a challenge, deeply impacting the quality of education and community services.
Please consider helping and supporting the school district. The current national leadership is coming for the school district, as well, since the Department of Education, under the management of a female professional wrestler, is eliminating the department job by job, with half the staff gone already. If the department goes down then the citizenry of Lake Geneva may look forward to no elementary school at all as Title one through four will disappear, and those make up twenty-five percent of the school district’s annual budget. Before the leadership change the referendum was needed, but now the district is talking about its survival. Without elementary schools in the area (and bussing money will go away with the title losses) home childcare becomes more than a giant issue. It has become a survival issue. Vote in favor of the referendum and pray to survive the local school system.
