Here's what to know about the Oconomowoc, Shorewood and North Lake school referendums
Along with school board and municipal elections, voters in the Oconomowoc Area, Shorewood and North Lake school districts will decide April 4 whether to approve referendums that would improve facilities or help pay operational costs.
Here's what the proposed referendums look like:
Oconomowoc
How much is the Oconomowoc referendum seeking, and what projects are covered?
The Oconomowoc referendum is seeking $75.45 million for facility projects; the funds are split over two questions.
The first question seeks $38.65 million to replace Oconomowoc High School's 60-year-old steam-based heating and cooling systems, remove asbestos in the high school's HVAC systems and duct work, replace aging roof sections at the high school and Ixonia Elementary School, build six new classrooms at Ixonia Elementary, remove two temporary modular classrooms at Ixonia Elementary and replace the gym floor at Ixonia Elementary.
The second question seeks $36.8 million for projects at Oconomowoc High School, including renovating music and art classrooms into new art classrooms, renovating the upper gym into music classrooms, creating new physical education spaces to replace the upper gym, creating additional locker rooms, an auxiliary gym for gymnastics and dance, a larger fitness and weight training room and a wrestling practice area and adding new cafeteria space.
The Oconomowoc Area School District is a pre-K-12 district in western Waukesha County. Student enrollment is 5,031 at eight schools, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Why does the district say these projects are needed?
Oconomowoc High School's HVAC systems are 60 years old and have inefficient components. Finding replacement parts can be difficult or impossible, and there's the risk of unexpected failure, the district said.
The district also wants to address other issues at the high school, including roofing panels that are more than 25 years old, as well as a lack of sufficient seating in the cafeteria, undersized and outdated spaces for physical education, music, art and athletics.
Ixonia Elementary is "operating beyond functional capacity," and the district anticipates growth in that area in the next five years and would like additional classrooms to accommodate that growth. Like the high school, Ixonia Elementary also has roof sections are more than 25 years old and need replacing.
According to the district, the projects reflect what the district called its "current highest priority facility needs."
What is the Oconomowoc referendum's estimated tax impact?
If both questions are approved, school district taxes are expected to increase by 7 cents per $1,000 of equalized property value. A homeowner with a $350,000 property could expect an annual increase of $24.50 per year in property taxes for schools.
When was the last time the Oconomowoc Area School District held a referendum?
The last time the district held a referendum was November 2016, when voters approved a $54.9 million facilities referendum to build a new Meadow View Elementary School, add onto and renovate Ixonia Elementary, make security improvements and renovations at the high school's main campus, renovate instructional spaces at the high school's east campus and capital improvements at Greenland Elementary and Park Lawn Elementary, according to the Wisconsin Department of Instruction's referendum history database.
Shorewood
What is an operational referendum, and why does the Shorewood School District say it needs one?
An operational referendum allows school districts to exceed state-imposed revenue limits to fund operational costs. They are either recurring or nonrecurring. Recurring means that the funding continues indefinitely once approved; nonrecurring means funding stops after a predetermined time. In Shorewood's case, the proposed operating referendum would be nonrecurring and for five years.
According to the Shorewood School District, the referendum money is needed because there has been no increase in state per-student funding as well as increased costs and challenges associated with retaining and recruiting quality teachers. The district added that revenue caps have cost the district $5.5 million in lost revenue for the district this year alone.
The referendum money would help the district to maintain student programming and services while retaining and attracting quality staff.
The Shorewood School District is a pre-K-12 district in Milwaukee County, with 1,915 students at five schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
How much money is the Shorewood referendum asking for?
The district is seeking an additional $5.5 million per year starting in the 2023-24 school year and ending in the 2027-28 school year. The total amount is $27.5 million.
What if the Shorewood referendum fails?
If the referendum fails, the district said it will have to make an estimated $2.5 million in reductions to balance the 2023-24 budget, and it projects a $25 million shortfall over the next five years. Cuts would affect school programming, services and staffing.
What has the district already done to reduce expenses?
The district said it reduced its 2022-23 budget expenditures by more than $1 million while also accounting for raises, increases in medical benefits and other inflationary increases. The district also saved money with "consolidated grade level or content-area sections, decreased administrative staffing, decreased spending on materials and supplies, reduced spending on outside vendor/service contracts, changed healthcare policy and added new open enrollment students," the district's website said.
What is the estimated tax impact?
If the referendum is approved, taxpayers could expect to pay an additional $1.23 per $1,000 assessed fair market property value. For example, the owner of a $300,000 home would pay an additional $369 in school taxes annually.
When was the district's last referendum?
The district's last referendum was in April 2019, when voters passed a $65 million facilities referendum that covered districtwide safety and security improvements, Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility upgrades, renovations and updates to Shorewood High School's main academic building and renovations at the district's elementary schools, as well as $275,000 per year for districtwide facility maintenance costs, according to the DPI's referendum history database.
North Lake
How much is the North Lake referendum asking for, and for what?
The district is asking voters to approve a nonrecurring operational referendum that would exceed the district's revenue limit by $1.1 million for the 2023-24 school year, $1.2 million for the 2024-25 school year and $1.3 million for the 2025-26 school year, for a total of $3.6 million.
The North Lake School District is a pre-K-8 district in northwestern Waukesha County with an enrollment of 329 in its single school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It feeds into the Arrowhead Union High School District.
Why is the district asking for additional funds?
The district said the money would help to maintain educational programming and sustain annual operating costs. Declining enrollment and state-imposed revenue limits have presented challenges to the district's annual budget.
The district maintains the referendum money could help attract new students because it would enable the district to maintain its educational programming.
The district said there is a lack of population growth within its boundaries despite positive open-enrollment numbers. It attributes the lack of population growth to few young families moving in, low turnover in the housing market and an aging community.
What if the referendum fails?
The district said it "it would be difficult to sustain the current educational experience at North Lake School" and would make staffing reductions. It also said another referendum would follow in 2024.
What has the district already done to increase revenues and decrease expenses?
To increase revenue, the district said it has attracted open-enrollment students, established an education foundation, established a partnership with Lake Country Kindergarten Preschool for 4K and early childhood programming, applied for grants, sought private donations and increased student fees.
To decrease expenses, the district has eliminated administrative positions, reduced specialty staff, eliminated elective course offerings, eliminated retiree benefits and increased contributions to the Wisconsin Retirement System and health insurance, eliminated employee long-term care insurance, installed energy efficient HVAC systems and LED lighting, shared services, frozen staff budget (classroom supplies) and eliminated the Waukesha County DARE program and an eighth-grade overnight trip.
What is the estimated tax impact of the North Lake referendum?
If approved, the referendum would result in an increase of $1.72 per $1,000 of property value, according to district projections. The owner of a $200,000 home, for example, would pay $344 more annually in school taxes.
When was the district's last referendum?
The district's last referendum was in November 2014, when voters approved $2.26 million for capital maintenance building projects for the school building and grounds.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Here's what to know about suburban Milwaukee area school referendums
