Sept. 18, 2023 8:30p
(WGTD)---Kenosha Unified’s annual meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening at 7.
Normally, such sessions are highly-scripted and staid affairs that are only held to comply with a referendum that was passed decades ago by a group of disgruntled taxpayers. Those who show up--usually people who see mostly eye-to-eye with the school board-- are given the ability to set the salaries of school board members and approve the tax levy.
But two years ago an organized group of conservatives caught the Kenosha School Board off-guard resulting in unanticipated reductions in the tax levy and the salaries of school board members. The actions were apparently the result of a simmering rage tied to the COVID face mask mandate from a year earlier.
The actions were undone at a special meeting held a few days later that was attended by a majority of school board supporters.
Although nothing but the ordinary is on Tuesday’s agenda, the Kenosha Education Association and CUSH—Congregations United to Serve Humanity—are urging their members to show up anyway. The meeting will be held in the auditorium at Indian Trail.
Meanwhijle, Kenosha Unified’s official enrollment for the new school year is a bit higher than initially expected. But it still represents a decrease from last year, a slide that began some 10 years ago primarily due to a lower birth rate.
School districts statewide are mandated to use enrollment as measured on the third Friday in September as their official count.
KUSD reported an enrollment of 19,187 students. That’s a decrease of 317 from last year, but 44 students fewer than what was projected.
Enrollment peaked in 2012 with some 23,000 students.
The KUSD boundary area has experienced a decreased birth rate that now averages about 500 fewer births each year than the recent high of nearly 2000 births in 2008.
Later this year, the school board is expected to reshuffle the district and close several schools and consolidate others.
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