November 4, 2015 at 4:15 p.m.
Jacobi: Failure to pass referendum would impact entire community
Jacobi: Failure to pass referendum would impact entire community
If the referendum fails, the district will have to cut an average of $5.5 million a year from the district budget over the next three years, she said.
"That would be devastating," she said. "And it's not just devastating to the school district, I mean that's what people see. They say 'Oh, just tighten up your belts, get rid of some teachers, some administrators, we don't need them anyway.' But the school district is so important to the whole community."
The ripple effect of a failed referendum would extend far beyond the school campuses to the business community, the administrator said.
"We can't get doctors and professional people to come to our community, it's difficult now because of the location. But if we don't have a solid school district, it's going to become even more difficult. So who is going to be putting in brand new kitchens and all of our businesses that live on having a viable community? The ripples will be felt far and wide," Jacobi added. "And I don't know if people understand that yet."
Changes to programs that affect state funding, such as Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) which was eliminated by Gov. Scott Walker and replaced with Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR), have also complicated the local budget picture
AGR has differences that go beyond maintaining class sizes at a certain level in exchange for additional funding in the lower elementary grades, Jacobi said.
"It's a little further down the road," she explained. "Which is why we are looking at the February referendum because we're going to have huge staffing decisions to make following it. And the AGR will be a piece of that."
Jacobi said the district has made one presentation to the Rhinelander Kiwanis Club and is working to schedule additional opportunities to get information to the voters. She said she and Director of Business Services Marta Kwiatkowski are also working on fine-tuning their presentation.
"We are continually working on updating our presentation, because we are trying to make sure everybody sees it," Jacobi said. "We are trying to make it easier to understand, but we are not dumbing it down. It is a very complex discussion and it is very hard to understand and it is our job to make it as simple as possible, to help with that understanding."
Jacobi said the district is working to set up a schedule of presentations to the public that will answer any questions about the need for the referendum. If anyone has questions about either the 2015-16 budget or the referendum they can call her or Kwiatkowski, she added.
"We want to answer questions," she said. "We don't want people to read something and go 'Wow, I wish I knew what that meant.' We understand that it is a very complicated conversation and we want to make sure that people understand what we are asking of them and why we are asking."
She also noted that a proposed bill in the state legislature would prevent school districts from going back to referendum for two years after voters turn one down.
"That's another layer of complexity that people have to understand. We've only got one shot, if they can railroad this legislation through," Jacobi said. "So we have to make sure that every voter understands what it is we're asking and what it means if it doesn't pass the first time. Because there would be no do-overs if this legislation were to pass."
Kwiatkowski said that while the mill rate for the 2015-16 school year will remain at $10.99 per $1,000 of Fair Market Value, or $1,099 in taxes on a home valued at $100,000, the estimated mill rate on the February referendum, which adds an additional $1 million to the current referendum amount, would increase by .43 cents to $11.42. If the referendum passes, the school district taxes on a $100,000 home will increase by $43 a year to $1,142.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at [email protected].
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