School board looking at possible operational referendum

No decisions have been made but the School District of Rhinelander’s board of education has begun discussing whether and when to pursue another operational referendum. The discussion, which took place during the Sept. 16 school board meeting, comes less than two years after district voters approved a four-year $16 million operational referendum in November 2022.

Voters also approved a $26 million capital project referendum in April to fund renovations/additions to the technical education facilities at Rhinelander High School and James Williams Middle School.

District superintendent Eric Burke and district business manager Bob Thom explained that the district has found itself in this position because “expenses have gone up dramatically” but state aid has not kept pace.

“You can see special ed has gone up 16.5%,” Thom said, referring the board members to a slide comparing the district’s revenue and expenses in 2022 and 2024. “Co-curriculars have gone up 36%. But we added programs, we added some new sports, some new clubs, added things at the middle school. All good stuff for kids, (it’s) great to have kids that are involved in those things (as they) do well in school and tend to stay out of trouble. So we’re glad we were able to do it. Same thing with summer school. It’s gotten extremely popular. It’s gone up 41% over the two years. The virtual school, the RVA, has gone from $158,000 to now $351,000, or about a 122% increase over two years. Start College Now has gotten extremely popular, helping kids pay for college, up 129%. And then the boring things you see in the business office, property insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, up 11.5%. Professional development for the staff and paying their college credits. A lot of the staff members are taking advantage. We’re hiring young people, it’s attracting them. They want to be able to get their credits. It’s gone up almost 130% over the two years. So then when you jump to the bottom, you can see the total increase is 16.1% over two years in expenditures. Which, given what has happened with inflation, that doesn't seem horrible, it’s about 8% per year. But the issue, of course, is that back on top, our revenue has only gone up 3.38%. So we’re falling behind quickly on this. We’re 13% behind on expenses over-running our revenues over the past two years.”

“If I had a crystal ball two years ago, I would have said we needed a bigger referendum (in 2022). But at the time, everything seemed OK,” Thom added, noting that Rhinelander is far from alone in dealing with the increased expenses. Approximately 80 school districts are set to go to referendum in November to ask voters to exceed levy limits for operational expenses, the board was told.

While salaries and fringe benefits make up about 77 percent of the budget, Burke and Thom noted that the staff roster has been reduced by 15 positions and “anytime that we have (employees) leave, we make sure not to just (fill a position) because it’s there. We want to make sure that we actually need this position.”

Thom also noted that the district’s budgetary outlook could change significantly should the state legislature decide to allocate additional funds to public schools in the next biennial budget, particularly in the area of special education, but the administration cannot count on that to happen. It was also noted that Wisconsin currently has a budget surplus of approximately $3 billion. However, elected officials have been unable to agree on how to use those funds.

While stressing that the community has been very supportive of the district in recent years, the board members who spoke during the discussion appeared to recognize that it will be a challenge to convince voters to support another referendum.

“Everybody’s going to be like, well, they just upgraded the school, and now they’re asking for more money,” noted board member Patricia Townsend.

Burke and Thom listed various options for the board members to consider including a spring 2025 referendum or waiting until the spring or fall of 2026 (see photo at right).

There was some tentative support for the spring 2025 option but board member Mike Roberts was skeptical.

“I personally think spring 2025 is too soon to get the message out and it’s before we have more information on the state budget,” he said.

The state budget will not be finalized until June/July 2025.

Burke asked the board members to consider the various options over the next few weeks in anticipation of another discussion during the panel’s October meeting. The school board meets on the third Monday of the month.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].