Minocqua J1 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, Minocqua J1 scored +0.76 in ELA and +0.39 in math (80th and 65th percentile statewide); over the last three tested years it averaged +0.71 and +0.19.

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.

Minocqua J1 enrolled 497 students in 2025-26 (the September headcount certified by DPI). Since 2014-15 its enrollment has fallen 11%; the median Wisconsin district shrank 9%. The chart indexes each series to its 2014-15 level. Private schools inside the district's boundaries enroll 6.3% 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 Minocqua J1's size. In 2024-25, 519 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 512 students attended its schools. Open enrollment connects them: 104 residents attended other districts and 92 students from other districts came in. Since 2014-15, the resident count has fallen 5% while attendance has fallen 9%, as net transfers out went from 6 to 12.

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

Minocqua J1 enrolled 42 kindergartners on average over the last three years, −9% against the three years ending 2016-17, where the median Wisconsin district moved −12%. Over the same span its K–12 count moved −5%.

Where a falling enrollment line comes from matters more than its slope. Following each class from one grade to the next, Minocqua J1 gains students as its cohorts move up — 1.009 per student at 6 of 8 grade steps. Children already enrolled here are not leaving as they get older; the decline arrives at the front door, in the size of each entering class.

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 0 regional peers with grade-level data.

Home values against nearby districts

On the 2025 tax roll the median home in Minocqua J1 was worth $392,600, 16% above the median of the 7 districts within 25 miles ($338,500). That ranks 4th of 8 in the area and at the 84th 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 those whose NCES office address lies within 25 miles of Minocqua J1's: Lac du Flambeau #1 (13 mi, $496,250); North Lakeland (24 mi, $473,600); Lakeland UHS (4 mi, $397,400); Northland Pines (24 mi, $338,500); Woodruff J1 (7 mi, $293,800); Tomahawk (24 mi, $241,100); Rhinelander (19 mi, $214,200).

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. Minocqua J1's revenue-limit membership for 2025-26 is 512.

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

In spring 2025, 64% of Minocqua J1 students met or exceeded Forward standards in ELA and 62% 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.

Minocqua J1's day-to-day cost per member was $19,541 in 2024-25, against $16,068 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 $22,100, against $19,242 for the median peer and $18,324 statewide. Local property tax paid for 74% of revenue, against 38% statewide.

The revenue limit allows $14,322 per member for 2025-26, above the statewide K-12 median of $13,575 and below the peer median of $15,569. 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 2 operating questions, passing 2, most recently Feb 2006 (recurring, passed).

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 $7.3M, at a rate of 1.62 mills per $1,000 of equalized value (statewide K-12 median 6.90). None of the levy repays referendum-approved debt (Fund 39).

The median residential property-tax bill inside the district, all governments, was $1,376 in 2025 (statewide median $2,766). The full bill on the median home comes to 1.9% of median household income, and the school portion on that home ($312,200) is about $546.

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 5 referendum questions since 1996 and approved 3.

DPI referenda file, 1993 onward.

3 of the 12 peers have a question before voters on November 3, 2026: Fox Point J2 (recurring $4.0M); Trevor-Wilmot Consolidated (non-recurring $7.6M); Twin Lakes #4 (non-recurring $3.2M). Minocqua J1 also has a question on that ballot. At the most recent election, April 2026, 2 questions among Minocqua J1 and its peers went to voters and 0 passed.

Since 2016 the peers have passed 24 of 32 (75%) of their questions: 16 of 23 (70%) of revenue-limit (operating) questions and 8 of 9 (89%) of debt questions. Minocqua J1's record over the same years is none. In 2026-27, 9 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.

92% of Minocqua J1's teachers stayed in the district into 2025-26, against 88% for the median peer and 91% statewide; 6% left Wisconsin public schools. Average teacher salary was $63,111, against $59,688 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 Minocqua J1 beside other districts, it uses the group 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 Minocqua J1 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. Minocqua J1: 497 students, $19,541 day-to-day cost, 6.0 students per staff member, 28.2% economically disadvantaged. Peers carry the achievement, spending and staffing comparisons.

“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.