At a packed May 13 meeting, the school board voted unanimously (5–0) to finalize controversial staffing changes after nearly two hours of community public comments. The approved changes included the nonrenewal of one high school contract and the reduction of three positions across the high school and intermediate school from full-time to part-time employment. Leading up to the final vote, these changes prompted student activism, including a May 7 walkout, as well as advocacy from staff and community members. Additionally, several staff members expressed concern about coming curricular developments, including increased class sizes.

Staffing levels are measured in terms of full-time equivalencies (FTEs), where 1.0 FTE represents one unit of full-time employment, while anything below that number constitutes part-time employment. At the May 13 meeting, the staffing reductions totaled 1.7 FTEs, with the contract nonrenewal representing a reduction of 1.0 FTE and the three adjustments to part-time representing a reduction of 0.7 FTE. The former was a cross-categorical special education position, while the latter cuts included a 0.2 high school-level drama department decrease, a 0.4 high school-level art department decrease, and a 0.1 intermediate school-level technical education decrease.

Laurie Burgos, district superintendent, outlined the factors the district considered in the reduction process, noting declining enrollment as foremost among the pressures that led to the recommendation to make cuts.

“Enrollment is the biggest factor, and not just current-year enrollment; we also take a look at past data in terms of cohort sizes, meaning how many students are in a particular graduating class,” Burgos said. “We have a large senior class this year that’s larger than our incoming freshman class, so when you have fewer students, you’re going to have to make some adjustments.”

Wisconsin school districts receive a set amount of funding for each pupil enrolled, making enrollment a significant consideration when making financial decisions. In the past decade, Shorewood’s enrollment peaked in the 2016–2017 school year at 2,161 students and has trended downward since, with a significant drop around the 2019–2020 school year (Figure 1). Broader statewide and federal trends echo these enrollment projections, according to a 2025 presentation prepared by the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, with per-pupil staffing levels at an all-time high over the period studied (2016–2017 school year–2022–2023 school year) as enrollment has steadily dropped. According to Burgos, this has required the district to align staffing with enrollment trends to maintain financial stability.

“I like to remain somewhat hopeful that the state will do a better job of funding public education, but we can’t plan on hope, so we plan conservatively,” Burgos said. 

In order to close gaps in funding brought on by inadequate state funding, the district has turned to referenda, most recently a $5.5 million operating referendum that passed in April 2023. Burgos says the additional revenue has helped the district maintain financial sustainability and mitigate what could have been more drastic changes.

“If we didn’t have the operating referendum dollars in place, we would have had a $3 million deficit this year alone, which would result in deep cuts to staffing and programming for students,” Burgos said. “What we’re trying to do is balance resources that we might have available right now because of the operating referendum with what we might not have available in future years.”

Among the goals of the April 2023 referendum was a commitment “to attract and retain top-notch staff and compensate them for their skills and experience,” according to a 2023 district presentation. Some staff and community members have criticized the district for what they believe was improper use of the referendum revenue. 

“The school district has decided to take a significant amount of that [referendum money] from the community and, instead of applying it to the people and programs that make Shorewood High School exceptional, put it into savings accounts,” said Eric Mathews, science department chair. “I think the community of Shorewood, when they shared their resources and generosity with the district, did not do that to maximize our fund balance. I think they did that to maximize our students’ educational experience.”

The May 7 walkout, planned entirely by students, was in response to the board’s initial vote to proceed with FTE cuts taken at its April 29 meeting, says Nathan Berkowitz, senior and walkout organizer. More than 200 students participated in the demonstration, according to Berkowitz and fellow organizers Kaymin Phillips, Jenna Abu-Zahra, and Breckan Henkhaus, who spread the word through flyers, social media, and an online petition that currently stands at 1,068 signatures. The protest itself featured chants, handmade signs, and speeches urging the district to reconsider the cuts.

“After listening to the school board meeting…and hearing staff and community members’ testimonies on how the school board was planning to cut our teachers, my peers and I were moved to take action,” Berkowitz said. “We wanted to give back to our teachers, just as we knew that they would, and always have, given back to us.”

Despite the finalization of the cuts, Berkowitz hopes the momentum generated by the walkout will prompt continued community engagement.

“Going forward, I hope to, and urge others to attend subsequent board meetings and make the voices of the community heard,” Berkowitz said. “Shorewood students have already [shown] their passion and dedication to fighting for their teachers, and I hope to see that passion continue in the future.”

Abby Fowler, school board clerk, explains that although she disagrees with the rationale underlying the walkout, she encourages student participation in activism.

“I was so proud [of the walkout] … The fact that these kids organized, coordinated, got their stuff pulled together, pulled it off—you know, this is the work,” Fowler said. “The caveat to that is that I do feel as though there was misinformation disseminated to the students from teachers.”

Fowler believes some of the urgency behind the walkout stemmed from incorrect information relating to the scale and specifics of the cuts. 

“At one point, I had a student tell me that we were cutting five full teachers, and that was just not true,” Fowler. said. “That certainly didn’t come from the administration and it didn’t come from the school board.”

According to Fowler, the board’s decision to reduce FTEs fulfills commitments to financial sustainability also laid out in the referendum. Furthermore, Fowler explains that such staffing changes are a relatively normal part of year-to-year district considerations.

“[Cuts] will happen whether we have referendum money or not,” Fowler said. “The two are not tied, and the rearrangement [of staff] is a tightening of the belt. We’re being conscious about what we’re doing with our money and how we can do it.”

Looking ahead, Burgos emphasizes the importance of fiscal responsibility as the district weighs its options with the end of the current referendum period on the horizon. 

“If we get to the point where we need to go back to the community and ask for another referendum, we want to be able to show how we have been responsible with our referendum dollars, how we have fulfilled the commitments that we made in 2023,” Burgos said. “If we weren’t able to show that, I wouldn’t feel comfortable going back to the community and asking again. Ultimately, that’s a board decision, but I take that responsibility really seriously.”

Still, some critics believe that the district’s promises went unfulfilled.

“I haven’t seen any decisions made by the district that support the vision of attracting and retaining staff and protecting programs as what they’re committed to,” said Mike Halloran, English teacher.

Though the science department will remain at 6.0 FTEs, Mathews foresees problematic increases in class sizes next year, a result, he says, of limited departmental autonomy in decision-making.

“The single biggest difference that students will experience in science classes is a more crowded learning environment—bigger lab groups, more cramped lab environments, probably fewer lab experiences, less access to lab materials,” Mathews said. “Our teachers are exceptional, our teachers are remarkably hard-working…but we are not miracle-workers, and we cannot take a lab environment that is stretched to the limits and make it as impactful as it should be.”

Historically, Mathews notes, deciding curriculum changes for coming years has been a collaborative process within the science department, with administration offering input but not making final determinations. That changed this year, Mathews says, as the department had no involvement in the process.

“This year, for the first time since I’ve been department chair, course assignments and FTE reductions were given to us already determined,” Mathews said. “Departments had no say in how those decisions were made at any point along the way. In my time as department chair, and since I’ve been a teacher at Shorewood High School, that has never happened.”

Shorewood High School administration was unavailable for comment regarding changes to curriculum and teaching assignments. 

During the May 13 board meeting’s public comments, several community members expressed concern for the uncertain future of the interdisciplinary course Watershed Wisdom, which Mathews co-teaches. Since its beginning, the class has included a salary stipend for instructors. This year, an administrative decision to eliminate that stipend could jeopardize the program’s future, according to Mathews.

“At no point did somebody say, ‘[Watershed Wisdom] is canceled,’ but the action of defunding it, for all intents and purposes, makes it unsustainable to teach,” Mathews said. “Next spring would be Watershed Wisdom class of 2026. At this point, that will not happen, and it could never happen again if funding for the program is not reinstated, or if there’s not a commitment to fund the program as the district has done since 1998.”

Andy Skwierawski was one community member who spoke out against the defunding of the program during public comment. Skwierawski emphasizes the course’s academic and personal impact on students, including his own daughter.

“Watershed Wisdom is a rigorous expeditionary learning program that has, for each of the many students I have spoken to about it, quite literally changed their lives and altered the course of their education,” Skwierawski said. “That type of class only comes from giving teachers the freedom and support to explore their passions with their students and develop curriculum that they have a strong connection to. Taking Watershed led my daughter to her current fields of study: forestry and civil engineering. The board and the administration’s willingness to simply discard an almost 30-year pillar of the curriculum is just unfathomable to me.”

Skwierawski argues that the removal of courses like Watershed Wisdom may cascade into larger problems for the district.

“Shorewood has always had a reputation of creating unique programs and supporting passionate teachers to try to create the best learning environment possible,” Skwierawski said. “These decisions seem to really undermine that and further undermine any credibility the Shorewood School Board has to claim it is truly supporting its teachers …. If the administration and the school board are unwilling to invest in something so important and unique to Shorewood, one has to wonder why any teacher would be interested in coming here knowing that if enrollment dips a little, or if there is a projected shortfall some four or five years from now, years of hard work may be tossed away.”

Kathryn Aemmer, physical education department co-chair, also shares concerns about increasing class sizes next year. Specifically, Aemmer notes that the Strength Training course will run with 70 students across two sections, a number she says is unsustainable given the available space and equipment.

“That will be 35 kids each class period, if it’s split evenly—there might be 40 and then 30 kids,” Aemmer said. “We already don’t have enough weights down there for the class sizes we currently have. Then, there’s not enough space for people to actually safely work out in those areas. It’s not going to allow students to actually take advantage of the time that they have down there to have quality learning, and it’s also going to create a lot of opportunity for physical danger to students’ bodies.”

Looking ahead, Aemmer also expresses concerns about a planned cap on Strength Training enrollment in the 2026–2027 school year. Coupled with lighter opt-out requirements for Lifetime Wellness and expected cuts to Yoga and Adventure Education, Aemmer worries these administrative decisions could lead to FTE reductions in the physical education department down the road.

“In this department, between myself, [Samuel] Keller, and Miguel Browne, we all do an exceptional job of creating community here, and a safe place for students and people to go during the school day,” Aemmer said. “If we aren’t able to uphold our jobs and maintain the FTE that we do, those will no longer be space that we will be able to have, just based on exertion, just based on where we’re being asked to go throughout the school and the expectations of fulfilling everything without having the support.”

Within the drama department, cuts also present challenges going forward, says department chair Adam Sheaffer. Next school year, the drama department will be reduced from 2.0 FTEs to 1.8 FTEs, with tech theater teacher Brad Brist being moved to part-time employment (1.0 to 0.8 FTE), requiring him to pay more for health insurance, Brist explains. In addition, Brist says that he expects tech class sizes to continue growing, which he believes raises significant safety concerns.

“In my class students use power tools; they use saws and impact drivers and drills and various things that could cause them to lose a limb,” Brist said. “I have never had a serious injury in a shop that I have been in charge of, but the more students that I am forced to have in a class, the more likely it becomes that an injury is going to happen. I can only supervise so much at any given time, and when I am expected to have a large number of students, I have been told that 15 is the minimum required for the class. When I first started, I typically had classes of about four to eight.”

Brist’s FTE reduction mirrors a larger trend within the drama department. In 2022, the loss of the program’s then-dedicated costumer and SIS Drama director, Sara Van Loon, required the department to dip into its production budget in order to fund costuming, Sheaffer says, while also impacting students interested in costuming. 

“The loss of the costume program is huge,” Sheaffer said. “It’s very unusual for a high school to have this large of a [costume] shop without having a dedicated person who’s managing the shop, like a wardrobe supervisor … The three pillars of the theater are costumes, tech, and acting; right now one of the pillars is kind of deteriorating.”

According to Jesse Perez, social studies teacher, the social studies department will be reduced from 5.0 FTEs to 4.6 FTEs, requiring two teachers to instruct outside of the department. 

“In being decreased to 4.6 FTEs, social studies teachers have to be super flexible,” Perez said. “One of the aspects of flexibility is that Evan Schmidt will be transitioning to teaching one section of French, and then Nicole Magin will be teaching one section of English. The fact that Mr. Schmidt is capable of teaching a language and that Ms. Magin is capable of teaching English makes it so that [we don’t have] to do something more drastic—in that regard, we’re really lucky that we have people who are multi-faceted.”

Perez also echoes concerns related to larger class sizes.

“[Larger class sizes] make it trickier; [they make] it much harder to do our jobs,” Perez said. “I also anticipate longer wait times on grades and things like that coming back. That could also make that a little bit more stressful for students in the future.”

Joe Oleniczak, math teacher, highlighted the impact FTE cuts have had on staff morale. He says that, as a result of the reductions, some teachers have considered leaving SHS or the teaching profession in general.

“The trend since I’ve been here is that we’ve lost teachers and classes every single year, so it’s almost a constant worry of who’s next—and it very well could be you,” Oleniczak said. “The best part about teaching is coming every single day and seeing your students, and being passionate about what you teach and being able to create that community aspect. It feels like all of that is being ripped apart when you see these changes happening that are, essentially, taking pieces of your family away.”

Oleniczak argues that the reaction to lowered enrollment by the school board isn’t proportional to the magnitude of the issue.

“We hire teachers for a specific reason, for a specific set of skills that they can offer; they’re the ones who can teach these classes best,” Oleniczak said. “To all of a sudden overcorrect because enrollment is slightly going down is like picking up someone’s life and moving them to this great place just to kick them to the curb once things go down.”

In response to community advocacy, Burgos encourages those invested in the district’s future to stay involved, both within the local district as it prepares to consider school reconfigurations, and at the state level. 

“There’s time yet to advocate with the [Joint Committee on Finance] and advocate for public education in a lot of different places,” Burgos said. “Continuing that advocacy with our state legislators is really important … I would also just keep encouraging people to reach out and ask questions. If there’s ever something that seems off, we would want to make sure that we’re providing as much information as we can so there’s clarity. Again, I think there was a lot of misinformation coupled with frustration around the pressures that we have been experiencing here in Shorewood that are very real and that we need to continue to address.”