Mauston voters approve referendum to keep school district open

A Juneau County school district will avoid dissolution after voters approved a four-year operating referendum.

The School District of Mauston asked voters to exceed the state-imposed revenue limit by $1.75 million annually for the next four years. The referendum passed on Tuesday with around 66 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results.

It was the third time the district had put an operating referendum before voters in the last year. The measure failed during the November election by less than 2 percentage points. 

The Mauston School Board voted in November to consider dissolving the district because of the lack of funding. Without increased revenue, the district only had funds to operate for two more school years. The school board had also approved significant cuts to next school year’s budget, including ending all school sports, field trips and extracurriculars.

Superintendent Joel Heesch said he felt joy and relief after seeing the outcome of Tuesday’s vote.

“It means that we have a future. That’s the first thing, and that’s where we have to draw the positive from,” Heesch said.

He said the district will be able to avoid the worst budget cuts and continue with extracurriculars and sports. But he said school board members will still need to consider some cuts because the referendum amount is less than what the district needs to maintain a balanced budget.

Heesch said he’s proud of the jump in support among voters in just a few short months between elections, especially after fighting misinformation in the community about the district’s budget situation. He credits much of the change of heart among voters to an independent group called Yes for Mauston Kids.

The group of parents, business owners and other community members formed in early December to rally support for a referendum passage and address misinformation.

“There were a lot of people, and I would even say some of the people that are within the Yes for Mauston Kids group, that didn’t fully understand how school funding works and why we were in the situation we are,” said Brandon Luehman, a former Mauston elementary teacher who helped form the advocacy group.

Luehman said the district budget challenges come back to a lack of adequate funding from the state and the inaction of state lawmakers to fix the current funding formula. He said it’s why some members of the Yes for Mauston Kids group feel like their work is not over with the referendum passage.

“In four years, we very well could be in the exact same situation, doing this whole thing all over again,” he said. “The worst part of it is, it’s our state government putting us in a situation where school districts are being pitted against community members.”

Luehman said it will take many school districts joining the fight to get lawmakers to act on changing the funding formula.

Heesch said the limitation of the four-year operating referendum is something that is also on his mind. He said there’s no doubt his district will be forced to go back for a second operational referendum if state support doesn’t improve.