Fox Point and Bayside Week in Review: Feb. 27-March 5

Fox Point-Bayside Patch is featuring a weekly recap of the top stories from Feb. 27 to March 5.

Gov. Scott Walker released his two-year budget on Tuesday, which includes putting a cap on local property taxes and nearly eliminating the state's $2.5 billion deficit.

As Walker approached the podium, cheers erupted from Republicans. While 14 Democratic senators continued to protest Walker's budget repair bill, he challenged them to come back to the Capitol and avoid costing the state $165 million in bond refinancing.

Amid many key points in Walker's budget are plans to reduce state aid to public schools and local governments by $1.25 billion. The cuts would be offset by $1.5 billion in savings from his budget repair bill, which looks for teachers to contribute to their pensions and health care, and eliminates collective bargaining.

Walker revealed his budget on Tuesday, local school administrators are realizing that the cuts to schools are deeper than they had planned.

The budget would cut $834 billion in state aid to local school districts over two years. It also would reduce the revenue limit — the  amount that districts can collect in state aid and property taxes — by 5.5 percent.

Nicolet will sustain the most damage, with a total loss of roughly $1.5 million.

Fox Point-Bayside District Administrator Rachel Boechler said Walker's budget feels like a setup and that teacher morale is severely depleated. "It's going too fast," she said. "I understand that we have to change, we have to cut the state budget, I get that. I’m all for it, but you can’t change the rules midstream. It will harm our instructional program next year for sure."

Some local school districts entered into teacher contracts before Walker's budget was released and state Sen. Alberta Darling said doing so may have put those districts "into a box."

"The school districts that rushed to get new contracts without considering what the options would be at the state level have put themselves into a box,” she said. “These tools are going to help offset the cuts, and if school districts are going to rush, (they) are going to be a big mess.”

But the budget goes hand-in-hand with Walker's budget repair bill, which Darling said would free up money in pensions and health care, giving schools more choice where that money would go.

Residents, teachers, PTO members and even some students rallied at the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay on Thursday night.

The rally was hosted by Nicolet Forward, a citizens group helping educate people on the need for a referendum at Nicolet. Nicolet District Administrator Rick Monroe offered an informational presentation. He reminded the audience that he cannot tell people how to vote because as district administrator, he is on duty 24-hours a day. School Board members, on the other hand, can voice their opinions. School Board member in early Februrary explaining why Nicolet needs this referendum.

Nancy Martin is a former PTO member at Glendale-River Hills, one of the elementary schools that sends students to Nicolet.

"Our schools are the foundation for the future," she said. "I have a son who will be at Nicolet next year and we moved to the district because Nicolet had an excellent reputation. I don't want to see it deteroriated."

firefighters are participating in a new rescue training program to help train them how to save a firefighter when he is down. Another 10 Milwaukee County area fire departments who collectively are a division of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System-Wisconsin.

Among learning how to find a downed firefighter in pitch black conditions and repel down the outside of a building without harnesses, they also have to go through "the box."

The box is a 3-foot-by-3-foot, cube-shaped tunnel, crisscrossed with 86 wires too thick to break.

Moving through the box, "a few inches feels like a mile," said Rich Rutley, a heavy equipment operator with the fire department.