January 7, 2015 at 5:17 p.m.
School panel starts referendum discussion
School panel starts referendum discussion
The district is in the second year of a three-year, $12 million referendum approved by voters in February 2013. That referendum will expire at the end of the 2015-'16 school year, but with no changes to the state school funding formula on the horizon, and with state aid to the district continuing to decrease, Superintendent Kelli Jacobi told the committee it's time to begin discussing the possibility of another referendum.
"We just want to get this conversation started," she said.
"We know that, at present, there have been no changes at the state level in school funding that are going to provide additional funds for our school district. We know that we're going to have to have this conversation. It's already started in community conversations so I wanted this conversation to take place at the committee level, just to get the ball rolling."
Jacobi told the committee there are a few options for the district moving forward in terms of when to pose the referendum question and what type of referendum question to put on a ballot.
"Are we thinking fall 2015 (to put a question on the ballot)? If so, then we've got work to do quickly in preparation for that," she said.
"Is the board thinking of waiting until spring 2016? It could be a fall (vote), and then if there is a need, a follow-up in spring. We just need to get this conversation started."
As for the type of referendum question to pose, Jacobi recommended the district look at another non-recurring referendum for operations - the same type of referendum passed in 2013. She said she does not recommend proposing a capital improvements referendum.
"My recommendation is ask to continue to exceed the revenue limits, which is what we're doing now - the non-recurring referendum," she said. "I am not recommending any other type, like capital projects, at this time. I just don't think it's the right time for that."
"We need to be assured that we have funding at a level that we need to continue operations," she added.
No matter which option is chosen, Jacobi said the process must begin immediately.
"It (might seem) like this is not necessary yet to have this conversation, because we do have the referendum for next school year, but we've got to be planning in advance," she said.
"To put forth a referendum, there's a lot of planning. You need to get information out. It's going to take some time. It's not something that can be done quickly because our community and voters will feel like we're rushing them. We don't want that to happen."
Decreasing state aid is the main factor in the district's financial woes, school officials said.
This has been the trend since the 2005-'06 school year when property taxes made up 57 percent of the budget, and state aid 43 percent.
Those figures have grown further apart over the years, with property taxes making up 83 percent of the budget in 2012-'13 and state aid coming in at 17 percent.
For the 2000-'01 school year, state aid was 52 percent while property taxes covered 48 percent.
"It's going to go down. We're going to get 85 percent of what we got this year (next year)," Director of Business Services Marta Kwiatkowski said.
"We lose 15 percent of our state aid annually," committee chairman Mike Roberts added.
"And because of the revenue limit, we can't keep up with inflation. ... We get more out of balance by about $1 million every year because of the revenue limit and the loss of state aid funding."
To jump-start the discussion, the committee directed Jacobi and Kwiatkowski to bring all of the data used during the presentations promoting the previous referendum to the committee to be updated.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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