Some Wisconsin School Districts Turn To Voters For Funding

Referenda to raise money for local school districts will be on ballots this Tuesday in around 50 communities in Wisconsin.

They amounts of money requested in the referenda range in size from $150,000 for maintaining parking lots in Princeton, to $127.5 million for modernizing buildings and adding new technology in Racine.

Dan Rossmiller, the director of government relations at the Wisconsin School Boards Association, said school districts turn to referenda for essentially two reasons.

“One is to get voter approval for building projects where they have to borrow money and incur debt,” he said. “And the other reason is to allow voters to exceed the revenue limits which the state has imposed on school districts.”

Increasingly, school districts are turning to voters just to pay for existing programs and services. Over half of the referenda on the ballots are for operational expenses to maintain current educational programs.

In Florence County, the school district there was nearly forced to dissolve in 2005. A series of successful referenda since have kept the doors open.

“We’ve been cutting, sharing, trying to get more and more efficient in so many ways,” said Ben Niehaus, the district’s superintendent. “Whether it’s food service, custodial, central office, administration — I’m shared with another district. We’re down to the bone, there’s nowhere else to go.”

On Tuesday the Florence District will ask for $2.7 million for continued operation and maintenance through 2017.