Horicon School Board Approves 2025-2026 Budget

On Monday, Oct. 20, the Horicon Board of Education approved the 2025-26 adopted budget and tax levy certification. The revenue is $12,550,212, and the expenses are $12,706,134, which leads to a projected deficit of $155,922.
District Administrator Katie Schwartz commented on the deficit, saying, “That deficit is conservative in nature and our hopeful worst-case scenario.” Last year, the district predicted a deficit budget but ended the year with a positive fund balance.
The all-fund tax levy is $5,123,119, and the mill rate is 7.97, which is .17 points more than last year.
Board Matters
• The board approved opening a line of credit with Horicon Bank, not to exceed $1,200,00. This is something the district approves every year, and they have not had to short-term borrow since the 2013-2014 school year.

• The board approved the 2025-26 Early College Credit Program/Start College Now - second semester.
• The following community donations from the last month were acknowledged during the meeting. Senior Nolan Spettel constructed gaga ball pits for the district as his Eagle Scout project. Amy Williams donated to the high school’s comfort corner. Corey Davis arranged for the donation of ice cream and cones from Scoop De Ville in Hartford as a reward for the middle school students. The Beaver Dam Community Hospital Foundation granted the district $4,304 for the purchase of four AED devices. The Horicon Marshmen Foundation donated CPR mannequins, a TV and Board of Ed display, an iPad, and funds towards each club. Josh Muche, with Modern Woodmen, donated bricks and mound clay for the rebuilding of team boxes for the Horicon Recreation Program at River Bend Park.
• The board accepted resignations for two elementary special education aides, and approved the hiring of two new elementary special education aides to fill those openings, as well as a first-grade long-term substitute teacher.
• High School Principal Teresa Graven presented advanced placement test results during the meeting. Ninety-four exams were administered this year, the most yet, as the participation and course offerings grow, across 10 subjects, and 73% of those students earned a three or higher.
• The district received a Department of Justice Digital Mapping Grant. “That grant will allow us to work with a company who operates drones and will move throughout both the inside and the outside of our building to digitally map out where every room is, and then they will overlay that with the images that they get with our current map of the building,” explained Schwartz. “In the event of an emergency, the responders in the community and the dispatchers will have live access to our building and be able to interact with our maps to identify and talk responders through where to go in the building...It will really provide us with an opportunity to work more interactively with those trying to help us in the event of an emergency and also helps us to have a greater integration with those responders.”
• The Veterans Day program is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 10 a.m. in the high school gym. The next Marsh Talk Radio is scheduled for November 19. The next Community Coffee is scheduled for November 20 at 8:30 a.m.