Appleton Area School District Packet Summary — 2026-08-19
Meeting: Board of Education Work Session August 19, 2026 - 11:02 AM
The Appleton Area School District Board of Education work session agenda includes two substantive items: a monitoring report on emergency superintendent succession and continued discussion of the district's 3-year-old Title I preschool program. The preschool materials focus on program costs, Title I funding pressures, sustainability options, and possible future expansion.
Key Items on the Agenda
Emergency Superintendent Succession Monitoring Report
The Board is scheduled to review the district's monitoring report for Operational Expectations Policy OE-2, Emergency Superintendent Succession. The policy requires the superintendent to designate at least one executive staff member who understands the Board's governance process and can temporarily assume superintendent responsibilities during an emergency.
The draft report contains the superintendent's certification that the district is compliant, with one compliant indicator and no noncompliant indicators. As evidence, the report identifies two positions on the emergency succession list:
- Deputy Superintendent — Matt Zimmerman
- Assistant Superintendent - School Services — Sheree Garvey
The report defines an emergency as a period when the superintendent cannot be reached and a decision within the superintendent's authority must be made to protect students, district personnel, or district interests. The emergency ends when communication with the superintendent is restored or, if the Board determines the superintendent cannot resume responsibilities, when the Board appoints an interim superintendent.
The document includes a separate Board action section where the Board can determine whether the district is compliant, compliant with exceptions, or noncompliant. That section is blank in the packet and should not be treated as a completed Board determination.
Continued Discussion on 3-Year-Old Preschool
The Board development portion of the work session includes a continued discussion on the 3K program. The accompanying presentation describes Appleton Area School District's Title I preschool program, its current costs, future demands on Title I funding, and several options for maintaining or discontinuing the program.
The packet describes Title I preschool as a federally funded program for 3-year-olds who would benefit from an early start in school. Children are considered based on developmental needs disclosed by their families and must be age three by September 1. The presentation states that AASD's program serves students at Franklin and Horizons.
Major Financial and Program Considerations
Title I Preschool Costs
The presentation compares spending on 3K students with spending per student in grades 5K–8 from the Title I budget:
- 2026–27: 19% of the Title I budget; $5,667 per 3K student and $393 per 5K–8 student
- 2025–26: 21%; $7,400 per 3K student and $450 per 5K–8 student
- 2024–25: 15%; $4,926 per 3K student and $589 per 5K–8 student
- 2023–24: 15%; $5,412 per 3K student and $593 per 5K–8 student
- 2022–23: 16%; $5,662 per 3K student and $528 per 5K–8 student
The materials also identify competing future demands on Title I resources. Established schoolwide programs are projected to account for 93% of the 2026–27 Title I budget, while future schoolwide programming could require additional staffing at HAIS, Huntley, and The Omolade Academy, along with possible middle-school programming at Kaleidoscope Academy and James Madison.
Three Options for the Future of 3K
The presentation lays out three possible approaches to maintaining or ending the district's non-special-education 3-year-old preschool programming:
- Continue using Title I funding through 2026–27, then close the Title I preschool program.
- Fund preschool through community funds.
- Discontinue 3-year-old preschool programming for students who are not receiving special education services.
The packet presents these as options for consideration and does not document a final Board decision.
Under the community-funding option, the presentation projects serving 64 students annually and estimates costs of:
- 2026–27: $360,000
- 2027–28: $370,800
- 2028–29: $381,924
These figures illustrate the projected cost of maintaining the program through community funding rather than continuing to rely on Title I resources.
Potential Preschool Expansion
The packet also presents a separate expansion scenario that would increase enrollment and add locations and services over three years:
- 2026–27: 64 students at Horizons and Franklin, with a $360,000 budget.
- 2027–28: 96 students at Foster, Franklin, and Jefferson, with a $500,000 budget and wrap-around care offered at Jefferson.
- 2028–29: 160 students at Edison, Jefferson, Dunlap, Foster, and an AASD Early Learning Center, with an $838,000 budget. The scenario includes wrap-around care and Adult Continuing Education credits at the Early Learning Center.
The presentation also references a Parent-Child Oriented Classroom as an additional service in the expansion plan.
What to Watch at the Work Session
The packet sets up two different kinds of Board work. For OE-2, the central question is whether the Board's eventual monitoring determination aligns with the superintendent's certification that the district is compliant with its emergency succession requirements.
For 3K preschool, the larger issue is long-term sustainability. The materials show that the program uses a significant share of Title I resources while the district anticipates other Title I commitments, and they place multiple paths before the Board ranging from community funding and expansion to ending non-special-education 3K programming.
