RUSD gets park, City of Racine receives three schools

RACINE — The Racine Unified School District Board during its meeting Monday approved a transfer that will result in RUSD owning Franklin Park and the City of Racine owning Janes, Red Apple and Winslow schools.

The City of Racine also will receive a parking lot near Janes Elementary and land near Julian Thomas Elementary.

In addition, the city will have the right of first refusal to purchase Dr. Jones Elementary, which closed earlier this year.

The property exchanges will be on a staggered timeline, according to the transfer agreement.

The city will acquire Winslow by July 1, 2024, Red Apple by Sept. 1, 2025, and Janes and the adjacent parking lot by July 1, 2026.

Dates have not been set for when the city will acquire the land near Julian Thomas or for when RUSD will acquire Franklin Park.

The Racine City Council voted 10-1 on July 17 to approve the transfer.

During that meeting, Mayor Cory Mason said he anticipates the city will redevelop the school buildings to have mixed-use residential capacity, but no plans have been finalized.

RUSD plans to transfer ownership of the schools because they would have been expensive to upgrade, maintain or demolish.

“There would be a significant financial burden for the district to continue to retain those buildings,” Peter Reynolds, RUSD chief operations officer, said during an Aug. 7 board work session. “The ability to trade these with the city allows us to remove those from our budget.”

According to the approved transfer, the city will own the current Red Apple school at 914 St. Patrick St., which is scheduled to close in June 2025.

Red Apple is scheduled to expand into a K-8 school at a new location at 1012 Center St. The new building is expected to open in August 2025 and focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics education.

“It is, I think, to the district and the city’s advantage to be able to put Red Apple where we plan to put it,” RUSD Board President Jane Barbian said.

The school district wants to own Franklin Park because it is next to the future Red Apple site.

The park likely will be used for parking space, STEAM learning, recess and physical education, according to Reynolds.

As part of the proposed agreement, if RUSD no longer wants to own Franklin Park, it would return the property to the city.

Interim budget

The School Board approved a 2023-24 interim budget during Monday’s meeting.

RUSD is projecting a deficit of $2.57 million for the upcoming school year, and it faces severe budget challenges starting in the 2024-25 school year.

Jeff Serak, RUSD chief financial officer, said RUSD is facing a “fiscal cliff” beginning in 2024-25, when RUSD will be out of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money, which is COVID-19 pandemic aid.

In the 2024-25 school year, the district has a projected deficit of $34.3 million. The 2025-26 school year has a projected deficit of $37.95 million.

The 2026-27 school year has a projected deficit of $41 million. The 2027-28 school year has a projected deficit of $45.28 million.

Many Wisconsin school districts are facing similar financial constraints and have required operational referendums because the state revenue limit for districts has not increased in several years.

Another issue is the state reimbursement rate for special education, which public schools must provide. That rate will increase from 30% to 33.3% in the next two years, meaning RUSD will receive an additional $1.6 million in 2023-24.

That slight increase is far less than Gov. Tony Evers’ initial proposal for special education reimbursement. His proposal was for the state to reimburse districts for 45% of special education costs in 2023-24 and 60% of costs in 2024-25.

An RUSD budget hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25, and the board will approve a final 2023-24 budget in late October.