West Bend School District Referendum is a GO

YES, IT'S TRUE. What part about the other examples around us in Wisconsin does our school board not get?

Every school district referendum measure in Wisconsin failed yesterday, according to returns reported on the Department of Public Instruction's referendum Web site.

Voters from Appleton to Salem to Siren said "no" to keeping class sizes stable, maintaining buildings and buying textbooks.

School district has no plans to pull out of April 7 vote

By DWAYNE BUTLER Daily News Staff

By law, school boards across the state have until today to decide whether to withdraw referendum questions scheduled for the spring general election. The West Bend School Board doesn't have any plans to pull back from a $68.85 million referendum that is set for the April 7 ballot. (DON'T BE FOOLED. WITH BONDING, THIS COULD CLIMB AS HIGH AS $103K, ACCORDING TO BAIRD)

“Our board has been committed to letting the community decide on this (referendum) because of the significant, negative decisions that we’ll face should we not do this are going to be substantial,” said West Bend School Board President Joe Carlson. “The board wants the community to make that decision and not have seven people on a board make that decision for them by delaying a referendum.”

The school district is hoping to take advantage of low interest rates and the recent drop in the price of building materials.

The district’s financial adviser, Brian Brewer of Robert W. Baird said in an interview last month that if both questions pass, the mill rate increase is 68 cents (at 4.75 percent interest for 20 years) versus last fall’s estimate of 82 cents (5 percent). The total interest payment sinks from last fall’s $39.96 million to to $36,728,900.

“The information from Baird clearly outlines the cost benefits of this timing for bidding and interest rates,” West Bend School Superintendent Pat Herdrich said via an e-mail. “The board believes the community needs to make the decision on the long-term cost savings and the current conditions for their children.”

Carlson reiterated his comments last month about this being the best time to move forward.
"If you believe that we need to take care of the project as we feel we need to, this is going to be the best time to do that,” he said. “There will be multiple recessions in the next 20 years when we pay these bonds off, so this won't be the last time. But it is the time when we can save the most money by starting it now.”

Carlson added, “I realize that $10 a month may be a lot for someone who is out of work, but we've got 7,000 students in our school buildings and their future depends on what we do.”

Carlson said the board has received letters and e-mails asking them to delay posting of the referendum questions based on the economic downturn. But he's also heard from those favoring the referendum, including one person who says it is the “perfect storm of opportunity because of the low construction costs and the fact that we've got the plan down to almost half the size it was in October of '07.”

The referendum was scheduled for last November's election, but the board opted to delay it when the economy quickly shifted downward and caught many people by surprise. It was approved last month and put on the April ballot.