Referendum Choices? Don't be fooled...

"Both Badger and Jackson on the same referendum puts the cost too high to pass, and doing one or the other might not garner enough support to pass. The two-question format allows for both on the same referendum.

“I’m feeling that there is going to be support for both questions. A message I seemed to hear from people is they wanted more choice and why did you give us just one question. This seems to meet the need in that regard,” Van Eerden said. "

FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://activepaper.olivesoftware.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=V0JETi8yMDA4LzA4LzIzI0FyMDAxMDI=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom


The “two choices” referendum is a JOKE. This is why:

Everybody KNOWS we need to update a number of the schools. By including Jackson school as a part of that choice, it is an automatic shoe-in.

Everybody KNOWS we need to make updates to Badger. So what’s the point of separating it out? I could see if it was a tear-down and rebuild, as formerly proposed…but it is NOT. Another “shoe-in”.

People are going to look at this as two, nice, conservative choices because we are simply just renovating and taking care of maintenance problems, aren’t we? Nobody reads the fine print and sees that the idiotic idea of the security systems is included as a “nice to have”. It certainly is not a “need”.

Including Jackson right now is, unfortunately, probably not a good idea. It should be a long-term goal that is included in a plan that is laid out over the next few years. We simply need to deal with the neglected maintenance issues, and the ADA compliance issues. This should be a third item on the agenda, separate from the remodeling of the other area schools, if it is a referendum question AT ALL. (Since there isn’t even any land available.)

Time and again the 20-year bonding and principal amount is not given straight-up to the taxpayers. That is a HUGE amount and significantly increases the final referendum cost. When you put together the total referendum, it is a package that nearly hits $100,000,000. People will not look at it like that and the school board likes it that way.