Overview
- The School District Boundary Appeal Board voted unanimously to dissolve the Hustisford School District and transfer about 275 K–12 students to the neighboring Dodgeland School District.
- Many Hustisford students are already attending Dodgeland this year under a tuition agreement, which will ease the operational shift to full transfer.
- Hustisford’s trustees ordered dissolution after five failed referendums, multi-year enrollment declines, rising costs, and a fiscal review that showed persistent deficits.
- State Superintendent Jill Underly said the district is “a casualty” of an outdated funding formula and local limits on property tax increases that limit small districts’ revenue options.
- The decision is the first Wisconsin district dissolution since 1990 and follows reporting that several other rural districts were weighing similar moves, raising the possibility of more consolidations and policy pressure on the state funding system.