Wausau School Bell. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Wausau residents will see a drop in the school district mill rate for 2026.
Board members voted to adopt the 2026 budget on Monday, which was largely unchanged from the version presented at the annual meeting in September. Though Assistant Superintendent for Operations Josh Viegut says there was one key change.
“There was an increase in the revenue limit, but the biggest change as an increase in total aid,” Viegut told the board on Monday. “What that allowed us to do was pursue additional debt defesance from what we had presented at the annual meeting,”
State aid increased by about $1.2 million. The revenue limit increased by about $211,000. Viegut said that led them to funnel an extra $1,110,368 to debt servicing without increasing the levy or changing the mill rate. He adds that the district has been turning up the heat on debt payments in the last few budgets.
“Since we’ve been doing this, we’ve retired almost $70 million in debt and saved $19 million plus in interest payments. Last year, we actually retired the next two years of payments that were due in 2041 and ’42. There was a significant interest savings associated with that,” added Viegut.
The mill rate will go from $7.18 per $1,000 of assessed value to $6.58. That number remained unchanged from September. The budget also represents the district’s first balanced budget in recent memory.
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Viegut was also asked what the district plans to do with funds generated by the sale of three vacant elementary schools. He says that’s up to the board. “As of now, [the money] has been put into fund 46, which is set aside for long-term capital improvements. If the board had different guidance, I’m certainly open to that, [and] would certainly ask for board guidance before any of that money is spent.”
Hawthorne Hills and Hewitt-Texas elementary schools were sold to Christian academies. A third, Grant Elementary, was relisted earlier this month with an asking price of $550,000 after a previous sale agreement fell apart.
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