Two deemed invalid due to insufficient and illegible signatures
By Heather Ruenz
Editor
The Palmyra-Eagle Area School District Board voted to deny five detachment requests last Wednesday, just two days after the Mukwonago Area School District Board had voted to accept them.
Now, according to Eagle resident Stephanie Schroeder, who opposes the petitions and said she spoke to a state Department of Public Instruction representative, the petitioners, per DPI statutes if they choose to move forward with an appeal, will need to prove that at least 50 percent of the homeowners in the territories included in the detachments support an appeal. That appeal, if it occurs, will be filed with and reviewed by the DPI.
“This means the petitioners are required to get new signatures from the people in the affected areas prior to March 15,” Schroeder said.
“Individuals will be knocking on doors again in the very near future. Our friends and neighbors who felt misled or wanted to have their names removed now have a chance to make a difference,” Schroeder added.
Potential impact
Scott Hoff, president of the PEASD board, said information presented by the district’s financial consultant at the Feb. 25 special meeting led to the board denying the requests.
“The small parcel transfers would have strong negative impacts on not just our students in the classrooms, but on every taxpayer in the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District,” Hoff said. “The financial impact would not just be felt down the road, but also as soon as next school year.”
Keith Brightman, of Ehlers, a company that provides financial expertise and advisory services to schools, presented a study to the PEASD that compared the district’s financial future without detachments versus the impact of up to all five of the petition requests.
The total impact of all five petitions detaching from the PEASD, Brightman estimates, would result in a $1.6 million loss in revenue authority for the district.
That loss in revenue authority, as described in the Ehlers’ study is equal to: 25 full-time teaching positions, seven times the current supply budget, 100 times the current textbook budget and six times the current co-curricular budget.
“Based on the results of the financial analysis, there will be significant and negative financial impact to the resources of PEASD if any or all of the detachment petitions move forward,” Brightman’s presentation summarized.
“Because resources impact educational programs, the potential detachments, in part or in whole, would result in a ‘significant impact on the educational programs of PEASD’,” the report stated.
Petitions denied
There were five owner-initiated small territory detachment requests from village and town of Eagle residents approved by MASD, then denied by PEASD last week: Baldwin, Brost, Kluss, Loohauis and Sherwin.
According to District Superintendent Steve Bloom, while all five were denied, two of the petitions were deemed invalid.
“Baldwin was deemed invalid due to an insufficient number of signatures by state statute,” Bloom said. “Loohauis was also deemed invalid due to illegible signatures that resulted in an insufficient number of signatures required by state statute.”
Bloom said the total number of signatures on all five petitions was more than 350 and while approximately a dozen individuals, as of late last week, had requested to have their names removed, it was a complex process.
“There is no assurance that a name, once written on a petition, can be legally removed. A substantiation of fraud would need to be proven… a very high legal standard to meet,” Bloom said.
The morning following PEASD’s decision to deny the five petition requests, Bloom, in a district-wide email, assured staff “not only was there a very strong showing of the PEASD staff but also our students and many parents and grandparents of our students.”
In the days preceding the meeting, Bloom said, he had received nearly 200 statements from employees, parents, students, former students and community members who spoke of the schools and district as a family.
“The small size and personal touch that our students and families receive from you is recognized and appreciated,” Bloom wrote to staff. “Do not ever underestimate the influence that you have daily working with our students and the profound and fundamental impact that has on this community.”
Bloom also reminded staff that while people do have a choice to send their children to other districts, many have chosen the PEASD.
“There is a tangible pride in our community and that is reflected in a pride in our schools. This should never be forgotten – people choose to be here. Many of the reasons expressed for this choice is because of you and the work you do for our students daily,” Bloom wrote.
Initial request recap
Village of Eagle resident Lisa Schulist made the formal request Feb. 16 to the MASD board for the five proposed detachments that would take those areas in Eagle out of the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District and into the Mukwonago Area School District.
“I am a 15-year resident of the Village of Eagle and it’s my fifth year open enrolling my children into MASD,” Schulist told the MASD board at the Feb. 16 meeting. “I believe the petitions speak for themselves. The 354 families that have signed these petitions believe it is in their children’s best interests to be part MASD. Many of our children have been attending your schools and have benefited from the effective, successful and well-rounded school district you have created.”
Schulist cited low scores on tests at Palmyra-Eagle and the fact that about 100 kids from the areas requesting annexation into MASD already open enroll into that district as reasons for the requests.
“It is our understanding that most of the students currently enrolled in the high school would open enroll to remain in PEASD along with their siblings. It is also our understanding that families of 16 of the current PEASD students would attend MASD schools if you approve this attachment,” Schulist said.
“These numbers do not indicate a massive change in enrollment at either district. Even if the 60 additional children in the affected areas were to come into MASD, that would be a 1 percent increase over your current enrollment. This would not put the district at risk of overcrowding, as some opponents would like the community to believe. This number also represents a mere 6 percent of the Town and Village of Eagle. It does not spell the end of PEASD as the opponents would also like you to believe,” Schulist added.
After Schulist’s presentation Feb. 16, about a dozen Palmyra-Eagle Area School District residents spoke against the annexation. They voiced concerns that the possible detachments were just the first step that would eventually destroy the district.
One Palmyra-Eagle area resident pointed out that the process originally began as a large parcel detachment but the requesting group wasn’t able to get the signatures required, therefore, the effort changed to small territories.
Many of the residents who spoke against the requests also pointed out that most of the families requesting the detachment have already made the choice to go to Mukwonago schools while others in the areas in question shouldn’t be forced to open enroll back in the district in which they already reside.
There were also some Mukwonago Area School District residents who spoke out against the annexation that night. They said they feared the additional students would cause space and needs issues for the district.
Very different outcome
As the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District had done, the MASD board also had a fiscal study done. Looking at the long-term financial impact on the two districts, the MASD would come out in a much better position than the PEASD.
The results were compiled by Baird and presented to the board by MASD’s Business Manager Darren Clark at the Feb. 16 meeting.
If the annexation ultimately takes place, Clark said, the Mukwonago Area School District would take a $450,000 hit financially the first two years, but that would disappear in the third year because of state aid and revenue limits being calculated on a three-year rolling average. By the third year, it is estimated, MASD would see a more than $800,000 increase in revenue annually.
