De Soto Area School District

A z-score places the district's Forward result against every Wisconsin district that year: 0 is the average district, +1 one standard deviation above. Because each year stands on its own, z-scores compare across the 2023-24 rescaling, when percentages cannot. In 2024-25, De Soto scored −0.23 in ELA and −0.13 in math (39th and 42nd percentile statewide); over the last three tested years it averaged −0.52 and −0.46.

Expected z-score given demographics

The Expected section’s two benchmarks on the z scale: the model fitted to every other Wisconsin district, and the peers’ own z-scores moved to the district’s demographics, size and property wealth, then their median. Filled dot: gap from the Wisconsin expectation; ring: gap from the peer expectation.

Compare groups on the z scale

Each student group's result against the same group in every other Wisconsin district (0 = the average district's result for that group), with the Wisconsin model's expectation for the district's students in that group.

Proficiency rates (the share meeting or exceeding) follow in the Achievement section. Z-scores standardize each year's result against every comparable district that year (0 = the average district; +1 = one standard deviation above), so years on either side of a test or cut-score change can be compared. Testing was canceled in spring 2020.

De Soto enrolled 443 students in 2025-26 (the September headcount certified by DPI). Since 2014-15 its enrollment has fallen 16%; the median regional peer shrank 12% and the median Wisconsin district shrank 9%. The chart indexes each series to its 2014-15 level. Private schools inside the district's boundaries enroll 10.2% of school-age children (2024-25), against 9.7% in the median district.

Children who live here and students who attend

Two DPI counts describe De Soto's size. In 2024-25, 512 children lived in the district by DPI's September membership count (full-time equivalent, so four-year-old kindergarten counts part-time; the revenue limit averages it over three years), and 440 students attended its schools. Open enrollment connects them: 75 residents attended other districts and 33 students from other districts came in. Since 2014-15, the resident count has fallen 12% while attendance has fallen 17%, as net transfers out went from 51 to 42.

Residents: children living in the district, by DPI September membership (full-time equivalent), the count the revenue limit is built from. Open enr. out / in: students open-enrolled to other districts and from them. Attending: DPI certified enrollment (September headcount). Open enrollment: DPI open enrollment annual reports, transfers rather than applications. Residents minus transfers out plus transfers in comes close to attendance; the remaining gap is mostly four-year-old kindergarten, which membership counts part-time. A dash means DPI has not yet published that count.

The entering class

De Soto enrolled 25 kindergartners on average over the last three years, −29% against the three years ending 2016-17, where the median regional peer moved −12% and the median Wisconsin district −12%. Over the same span its K–12 count moved −15% and the median regional peer −11%.

Where a falling enrollment line comes from matters more than its slope. Following each class from one grade to the next, De Soto loses students as its cohorts move up — 0.995 per student at 6 of 12 grade steps, against 1.008 for its regional peers. Cohorts shrink as they move up, so this district is losing students it already has, not only enrolling fewer.

DPI certified enrollment by grade level, the third-Friday-of-September count. Kindergarten is five-year-old kindergarten; four-year-old kindergarten is a separate program and is excluded. Three-year averages at each end, because a single district's kindergarten is a few hundred children and one year swings several percent on noise. Progression is students in grade g+1 the next year per student in grade g, averaged over 2014-2025; above 1.00 the cohort gained students. Regional figures cover the 5 regional peers with grade-level data.

Home values against nearby districts

On the 2025 tax roll the median home in De Soto was worth $211,900, 4% below the median of the 5 nearest districts, all within 26 miles ($221,350). That ranks 4th of 6 in the area and at the 31st percentile of Wisconsin districts (state median $263,500).

Wisconsin Statewide Parcel Map (State Cartographer's Office), 2025 tax roll: the median estimated fair market value (assessed value over the municipality's assessment ratio) of parcels classed residential only with a building on them, so vacant lots, apartment buildings of four or more units and homes on parcels that also carry farm, forest or undeveloped land are left out. Unlike the Census figure, the roll includes seasonal homes. Nearby districts are the 5 whose NCES office address is closest to De Soto's: La Crosse (26 mi, $244,800); Westby Area (23 mi, $243,600); Viroqua Area (17 mi, $221,350); Seneca Area (16 mi, $166,400); North Crawford (20 mi, $137,750).

Enrollment and the funding count

Wisconsin's revenue limit, which caps what a district may raise from general state aid and the property tax combined, is set per member using a three-year rolling average of membership: each September's full-time-equivalent count plus 40% of summer-school FTE. De Soto's revenue-limit membership for 2025-26 is 483.

DPI revenue limit worksheets (three-year average membership) and DPI September membership. Years without a membership count show a dash.

In spring 2025, 51% of De Soto students met or exceeded Forward standards in ELA and 54% in math, against 54% and 57% in the median Wisconsin district.

Z-scores, their trend and the expected values open this report (Achievement on the z scale); this section reports proficiency rates and the other outcomes.

Attendance, ACT and discipline

DPI WISEdash files. Chronic absenteeism = share of students missing 10% or more of enrolled days.

De Soto's day-to-day cost per member was $14,335 in 2024-25, against $14,945 for the median peer and $14,960 for the median Wisconsin district. This is DPI's current educational cost: instruction and instructional support, without construction, debt service, transportation or food service, which rise and fall with building projects rather than with what a year of school costs. Counting all of those, DPI's total district cost per member was $17,274, against $18,632 for the median peer and $18,324 statewide. Local property tax paid for 38% of revenue, against 38% statewide.

The revenue limit allows $12,831 per member for 2025-26, below the statewide K-12 median of $13,575 and below the peer median of $14,047. The limit counts general state aid and the property tax together, so state aid changes move the levy rather than total revenue. Voters have decided 6 operating questions, passing 2, most recently Apr 2025 (non-recurring, failed).

Total district cost per member and revenue shares: DPI comparative cost data. Revenue limit: DPI revenue limit worksheets; statewide comparison is K-12 districts only.

The district's 2025-26 levy is $4.2M, at a rate of 5.66 mills per $1,000 of equalized value (statewide K-12 median 6.90). 11% of the levy repays referendum-approved debt (Fund 39).

The median residential property-tax bill inside the district, all governments, was $1,653 in 2025 (statewide median $2,766). The median home on the 2025 tax roll is worth $211,900; the school portion of its bill is about $1,200.

Property tax on the median home, by taxing authority, payable 2026

A home at De Soto's median value, about $212,000 at the current assessment, owes roughly $2,440 in property tax for taxes payable 2026. The school district's part is $1,200 (45% before credits); the rest goes to the county, the city, village or town, the technical college district and special districts such as sanitary and lake districts, less the state's school levy tax credit. That bill is $300 more than the bill on the median regional peer's median home.

Each column is the tax on that district's own median home. Peer columns show the median across the group's districts, figure by figure, so their rows need not add to the total. The percentage is each authority's share of the bill before credits.

The same $212,000 home at each group's tax rates

Holding the house constant separates tax rates from home values. Taxed at De Soto's rates the home owes $2,440; at the median regional peer's rates it would owe $2,940.

Wisconsin Department of Revenue, Town, Village and City Taxes, 2025 levies (taxes payable 2026): each taxing body's levy over the full value it is spread on. The school rate is the district's own levy over its equalized value; county, municipal, technical college and special-district rates are averages over the towns, villages and cities the district covers, weighted by its value in each, so a home in any one of them pays somewhat more or less. The school levy tax credit is the state-paid credit DOR spreads by municipality; the lottery and gaming credit and first dollar credit, applied per parcel, are not included. Median home value: the median of the 1,637 residential parcels with a home on them on the 2025 tax roll (January 1, 2025), at the estimated fair market value the roll reports (assessed value over the municipality's assessment ratio); parcels that also carry farm, forest or undeveloped land are left out. Wisconsin Statewide Parcel Map, State Cartographer's Office. The parcel-based median bill above runs lower because it covers every residential parcel, including vacant lots, and is net of the per-parcel credits.

Levy by fund and equalized value: DPI and Department of Revenue. Typical bill: parcel-level residential bills inside the district boundary; school portion applies the school tax rate to the tax-roll median home value and is an estimate.

Voters have decided 10 referendum questions since 2000 and approved 4.

DPI referenda file, 1993 onward.

3 of the 12 peers have a question before voters on November 3, 2026: Iola-Scandinavia (non-recurring $5.7M); Palmyra-Eagle Area (non-recurring $3.2M); Viroqua Area (non-recurring $7.2M). De Soto also has a question on that ballot. At the most recent election, April 2026, 1 question among De Soto and its peers went to voters and 0 passed.

Since 2016 the peers have passed 25 of 38 (66%) of their questions: 12 of 20 (60%) of revenue-limit (operating) questions and 13 of 18 (72%) of debt questions. De Soto's record over the same years is 0 of 3 (0%). In 2026-27, 10 of these 13 districts have voter approval to exceed the revenue limit.

On the ballot now

Operating authority above the revenue limit in 2026-27

Track record since 2016

Every question decided since 2016

Wisconsin DPI School District Referenda Report, as of October 27, 2026. Non-recurring and recurring questions ask to exceed the revenue limit (operating money); debt questions authorize borrowing for buildings. School years are the years an operating authority covers; a recurring authority is permanent. Amounts are the totals on the ballot; yes is the share of votes cast on the question. Comparison districts are the peers listed under Comparison districts.

85% of De Soto's teachers stayed in the district into 2025-26, against 91% for the median peer and 91% statewide; 8% left Wisconsin public schools. Average teacher salary was $50,355, against $58,004 for the median peer and $61,273 statewide.

Staff by role, 2016-17 to 2025-26

DPI All Staff files: distinct people (headcount) by role in each year. Peers: the median change across the peers.

DPI All Staff files, person-level, linked year to year.

Wherever this briefing sets De Soto beside other districts, it uses the groups below. A group figure is the middle value across its members, each counted equally, so one large member cannot dominate it.

Peers 12 districts

The 12 Wisconsin districts of the same type most like De Soto on four equally weighted factors: total enrollment (compared as a ratio, so half as large counts as near as twice as large), day-to-day cost per member, students per staff member (full-time equivalent) and the share of economically disadvantaged students, each difference scaled by how much the factor varies across districts, and none more than two standard deviations away on any one. The group starts with nearby districts that match closely (within half a standard deviation on average) and fills the rest from anywhere in the state. De Soto: 443 students, $14,335 day-to-day cost, 5.9 students per staff member, 34.8% economically disadvantaged. Peers carry the achievement, spending and staffing comparisons.

Regional peers 5 districts

The 5 districts of the same type within 25 miles of De Soto, straight line between district offices, whose profile on the same four factors is comparable: on average within one standard deviation of De Soto’s. They carry enrollment, property taxes and home sales, and their median sits beneath the peer median elsewhere. Districts in both groups appear in both lists.

“Wisconsin median” is the middle value across Wisconsin districts; property-tax and revenue-limit comparisons use K-12 districts only, because elementary and union high school districts overlap the same territory.