Survey shows support for tech ed improvements at RHS, JWMS

No decisions have been made but if the results of a community survey are any indication the School District of Rhinelander has sufficient voter support to pass a capital project referendum focused on improving technical education facilities at James Williams Middle School and Rhinelander High School.

On Monday evening, the district’s board of education learned that more than 70 percent of those who responded to the survey, commissioned by the board and facilitated by a company called School Perceptions, would support the proposed $26 million referendum to fund improvements and additions to the technical education facilities at the middle and high school levels.

According to Bob Thom, the district’s director of business services, the price tag to complete the renovations/additions at both schools is approximately $26 million. That would translate to an extra $29 of property taxes on a $100,000 home.

 A decision on whether to go to referendum must be made by January 2024. The vote would be in April 2024, if the board decides to move forward.

School Perceptions President Bill Foster appeared via Zoom to share the results of the survey. 

Foster told the board more than 1,600 people responded to the survey, which was mailed to all district voters, a response rate of approximately 15 percent. 

“The survey just closed last Monday so we’re still receiving paper surveys but from a statistical (standpoint) you’re not going to see things change hardly at all, maybe 1 percent in one direction or the other,” Foster explained.

Foster noted that 42 percent of the respondents were age 65 or older. In contrast, 17 percent of the respondents were between 55 and 64, 16 percent were age 35 to 44 and 15 percent were 45 to 54 years old.

Having a large number of survey respondents over the age of 65 is considered a positive, according to Foster.

“When it comes to voting, our seniors tend to turn out and the younger folks, the 18 to 24-year-olds, tend not to turn out to vote,” he said. “So we think this is good.”

Foster also reported participation from every municipality in the district, led by the City of Rhinelander.

Rhinelander residents accounted for 28 percent of the responses, followed by Newbold (15%) Pine Lake (14%), Pelican (12%), Crescent (11%) Cassian (5%), Woodboro (4%), Stella (4%), Harrison (1%) and Parrish (4%). Five percent of respondents indicated they do not live in the district and 0.3 percent were unsure if they live in the district or not.

Sixteen percent of respondents are employees of the School District of Rhinelander and 29 percent have children attending a school in the district.

The School Perceptions report then broke down the responses by the following subgroups: resident staff, resident parents and resident non-parent/non-staff. According to the report, 92 percent of resident staff members who responded to the survey would support a $26 million referendum to support the proposed tech ed plan. Six percent were undecided and 2 percent were probably or definitely no.

Among respondents who have children currently in the district, 83 percent said they would definitely or probably support a referendum, 8 percent were undecided and 9 percent were in the “probably no” or “definitely no” categories.

According to Foster, a key subgroup is those who do not work for the school district and are not parents of currently enrolled students. Among that group, 70 percent said they would support a tech ed referendum, 7 percent were undecided and 23 percent responded probably or definitely no.

Foster called the 70 percent support from non-parents/non-staffers “really quite phenomenal.”

“When the board looks at this data you always want to put more weight on that group because they represent the majority of your voters,” he explained. 

“By the way, we do about 50-55 of these projects every semester and this is probably the best data we’ve seen thus far this semester, so it’s quite impressive,” Foster added.

With a margin of error of +/- 2.56 percent, the weighted support for “definitely yes” and “probably yes” was 73.25 percent as of Monday evening, he explained.

Under the heading of “what did we learn” the report states that “a majority of all subgroups support the District pursuing a capital referendum to update the middle and high schools.”

“If held today, the $26 million referendum for the proposed plan would likely be supported,” the report concludes.

The survey included an explanation of the proposed renovations and additions proposed for each of the two schools. Members of the community also had an opportunity to tour the two schools as part of a pair of open houses held earlier this fall. 

According to a handout distributed at the first open house, the RHS portion of the project would:

• Create a dedicated space for home construction classes

• Add autos/small engine/marine shop course

• Relocate and expand the woodshop

• Renovate metal/welding/manufacturing shop

• Create a fab lab and robotics area

• Renovate existing science labs and 1958 restrooms

At James Williams Middle School the project would:

• Add tech ed classrooms

• Relocate and update existing tech ed and art classrooms

• Relocate and update the choir classroom

• Relocate and update family and consumer education classrooms

• Add special education classrooms

• Renovate existing offices/improve building security

• Improve bus pick-up and drop-off traffic flow

“Technical education courses allow students to design and create wood, metal and plastic products, learn to weld, fix cars, marine repair, and build houses,” the handout explained.

Many of the existing classrooms and labs in both building haven’t been updated for decades (1958 and 1974 respectively) and students are increasingly interested in jobs in the technical sphere, district officials noted.

Student interest in tech courses has nearly doubled in the past two years, the open house attendees were told.

It was explained that all seventh-grade students are required to take a technical education course so that they have some exposure to potential careers in this sphere, but many are interested in delving further into topics like welding, home construction and robotics.

“Taking on a project like this is really not only just about the physical facilities, it’s about supporting our community as a whole, supporting our students and community members, giving them opportunities they might not have had,” noted the district’s director of curriculum Ryan Ourada. 

The full board is expected to make a decision next month as to whether to move forward with a referendum or not.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].