2021 Annual Report

Horizon High School celebrated 17 years of serving the youth in our community with an online presentation by Dr. Richard Davidson on “Well-being as a skill: building a kinder, wiser, more compassionate world”. We thank everyone who helped make this a successful event.

Dear Valued Friends and Supporters:

Horizon High School, Wisconsin’s only recovery school, made it through 2021 pretty well! We were glad to be able to welcome students back into our NEW school facility in September… though this lasted for about 3 months when we returned to the virtual format with the rise of the most recent mutation of the coronavirus. Fortunately (knock on wood), the case impact locally here in Dane County has significantly declined, and we have gone back to a modified in-person schedule, to reduce the numbers of students and staff together in the school. See Traci Goll’s report for more details.

 Major items of note for Horizon in 2021 include hosting a record number of students (21!) in Spring 2021, possible only because of ZOOM;  the completion of the remodeling of the space below the old Taco Bell, into one integrated educational facility, thanks to the generosity of CG Schmidt and their many partners; a 1-year grant from CUNA for the hiring of an additional (part-time) counselor-a critical staffing improvement; the graduation of 9 of our students; our partnering with Second Harvest food bank enabling Horizon to have its own food bank for students and their families as well as former students in need. We also recently modernized our website, thanks to Tara Ingalls—check it out if you haven’t visited it recently.

With our new facility comes (no surprise) a doubling of our monthly rent. This plus new staff expenses, sees our annual budget creeping upward, now over $373,000. Staffing expenses are 79% of the budget. Looking at a breakdown of program expenses, ~46% of the annual budget is for academic programs, and ~35% is for the counseling aspect of Horizon’s program. Administrative expenses are ~17%, and we only spend 1.5% on fundraising efforts. MMSD funds provide ~27% of our budget, and Dane County Human Services provide ~10%. The remaining 63% comes from individual donations, several small families and group foundations, and occasionally a large foundation

 (e.g., CUNA). Nancy Meyer, a member of the board of directors, is very active in looking for grant opportunities, and we have been fortunate in the past year and a half to have received several federal and state COVID-related funds.

When we started Horizon over 17 years ago, we were operating on essentially an emergency, day-to-day, month-to-month basis, to save the lives of our kids. We were not at all thinking of being around 18 years later. But here we are, thanks to you, our supporters! On March 1st, we celebrated our 17th anniversary with an online presentation by Dr. Richard Davidson, on “Well-being as a skill: Building a kinder, wiser, more compassionate world”. Susan and Richie Davidson have been supporters of Horizon since the beginning (Susan was one of the founders) and we thank them for their longstanding support.

Best wishes,
John Fournelle, Board President