Skipping school is a serious problem with serious consequences.

"After Judge Gableman won the Supreme Court race and I had been appointed judge, we sat down and we talked to see if there were ways we could handle it better," Judge Kenneth Kutz explained of the truancy problem.

"Then when I started serving as judge, what I started to notice was that a lot of the people who came before me, especially the younger ones, had never completed school," he continued. "They don't have a high school degree, they don't have a GED or a HSED."

That realization led to a meeting with school officials from Grantsburg and Siren about the truancy issue and what could be done about it. Webster handles its truancy problems through its municipal court.

"One of the things both schools pointed out was a need for immediate consequences for these kids because the way we've been handling it, with a monthly truancy court, you tend to lose any impact a consequence may have," he explained.

"The principals would say the kids would get a truancy ticket and they'd treat it like a joke because they'd have to wait a whole month for court," he added.

Because of this lag time Judge Kutz decided to, on an experimental basis, hold truancy court once a week.

In establishing this new system, the court looked at other counties to see how they handle their truancy issues.

The way the truancy ordinances in the villages are set up, instead of sending kids to social services and perhaps as much as a four-month delay before the kid is in court, it will be quicker than that.

"Essentially, if a kid is truant one week, he'll be in court the next," he explained. "It's going to be a fairly quick turnaround."

"When it comes to the truant, I've got about a dozen different options of things I can do to them," the judge said.

The most basic option he foresees for the offender includes a $50 fine up front. He can impose and stay the fine, meaning the fine will not have to be paid if the offender succeeds in finishing the school year without anymore unexcused absences.

Other options include increased fines for increased truancy. Once the truant breaks the habitually truant standard, the fine can be $500.

"The chronic truant you can really levy some fairly hefty fines on them," Judge Kutz added.

Judge Kutz can also suspend their drivers license for up to six months, impose community service hours, impose curfews, or even house arrest.

"If it looks like the parent is the problem, not only can I order the kid to go to school, I can order the parent to go with him," he pointed out.

The judge said the previous ways of dealing with truancy just wasn't getting the attention of the kids, but he's hoping that will change.

"The first time around we probably won't be so hard on them, but if that doesn't deliver the message and they keep appearing before me, we'll start working our way up the ladder in terms of sanctions until we do get their attention," he noted.

In addition, Judge Kutz believes Burnett County will adopt a county ordinance against truancy.

"That will essentially give the school districts the option of how they want to refer them for prosecution," he explained. "If the truant is going to challenge the citation and the citation is written under the village ordinance, the village has to provide the attorney to do the prosecution."

But if the citation is written under the county ordinance, the district attorney has to to do the prosecution.

Truancy court will be held three Tuesdays in November and three Tuesdays in December. There were some conflicts with the judge's schedule which prohibited weekly court sessions, but come January, the court will switch to every Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

The judge said this kind of weekly court is something new to Burnett County.

"If it looks like we are making a significant dent in the truancy problem, we may back it off to two days a month instead of a weekly basis," he said.

"If we keep kids in education, it will help them get a job and I think that minimizes the risk they'll get in trouble and appear before me in other areas of the law," Judge Kutz concluded.