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Beloit School District special meeting, Oct 6, 2026

43 min · 0 public speakers

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What happened

What happened at this meeting

Beloit school board holds annual budget hearing on $109,568,235 proposed budget 3:52

  • At the annual budget hearing, a district staff member said the total budget for '26-'27 was $109,568,235 between the general fund and the special education fund. 3:52
  • Board members asked how membership differs from enrollment and whether a $9 million transfer was counted twice in the budget total. 8:29
  • The staff member said the board would meet October 29th to approve the budget and the tax levy. 38:59
  • No one spoke at public comment, and the board voted unanimously to adjourn. 40:45

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Item by item (9)
  1. Call to order and roll call 3:52
    • Tia Johnson called the annual budget hearing to order at 7:05. 3:52
    • A staff member reported that all members were present. ~4:23
    • Tia Johnson announced that a motion carried unanimously. 4:31
  2. Budget overview and enrollment counts 4:31
    • A district staff member said the district was presenting a balanced budget with a line item to transfer money from Fund 73 if needed, and that a final budget would come to the board at the end of October. 6:03
    • Tia Johnson asked the staff member to explain the difference between membership and enrollment, and the staff member said membership is a prorated calculation based on a 3-year rolling average. 8:29
    • Bill Johnson said the membership number was 5,891, and the staff member said the Third Friday count was 5,330 in total and 5,209 with prorations. 12:09
  3. Revenue limits compared with other districts 12:37
    • The staff member said Sun Prairie receives more dollars per student than the district and that Gibraltar has the highest maximum revenue per member at about $25,000. 14:20
    • The staff member confirmed that the district's revenue limit per member is under $12,000 and said revenue limits set in 1992 have never been equalized. ~15:23
    • The staff member confirmed that the district pays $800 per student more for independent charter school students than it receives in revenue per member. 17:10
  4. Revenue limit authority and poverty aid 18:34
    • The staff member said the district's total revenue limit authority is $76,418,183. 18:34
    • Tia Johnson asked about aid for high poverty districts, and the staff member said the aid is still in law but not funded and would double-check. 19:40
    • One board member said the state does not fund high poverty aid and called that infuriating. 20:15
  5. Tax levy and mill rate 21:19
    • The staff member said final numbers would arrive October 15th and the mill rate was expected to be around $5.30. 21:19
    • The staff member said a $5.30 mill rate equals $530 per $100,000 of home value, spread across 3 taxing areas. 22:49
    • The staff member said state aid makes up about 74% of the budget and the tax levy 14.75%. 24:33
  6. Expenditures, special education and open enrollment 24:56
    • Bill Johnson asked whether $9 million was double counted, and the staff member said the transfer from Fund 10 is counted as both an expenditure and a revenue. 24:56
    • The staff member said about 904 students open enroll out of the district at a little over $10 million, and 105 students open enroll in. 28:23
    • The staff member said the budget assumes a 35% special education transfer from the state and that the district's special education population is close to 20%. 31:56
  7. Fund balance and community service fund 31:56
    • The staff member said the district is asking to add middle school athletics and the Read, Talk, Play Every Day initiative to the community service fund, with a corrected middle school athletics figure of $118,000. 36:22
    • The staff member said the auditors and the DPI had been consulted in writing on both programs. 37:16
    • Bill Johnson asked for a future update on how the district is communicating these programs to the community. 38:13
  8. Budget timeline and board questions 38:59
    • The staff member said final membership, charter and voucher counts were expected by October 15th, with an October 29th meeting to approve the budget and tax levy. 38:59
    • One board member said there were no further questions and that the state needed to correct the disparity in payments for students attending other schools. 40:23
  9. Public comment and adjournment 40:45
    • No members of the public came forward at public comment. ~40:45
    • Tia Johnson announced that the motion to adjourn carried unanimously at 7:43. 41:33

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

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Video: posted by the district as “Special Board Meeting - 10/6/2026 (7:00 p.m.)”