Article on West Bend School Referendum

Here’s an interesting article about West Bend’s pending referendum in a construction trade rag of all places (trying to drum up pro-referendum votes from construction workers?).  There are some interesting comments by the district’s PR guy. 

School district voters last year rejected a $119 million referendum. This year’s proposal is broken into two parts.

The first question asks for $42 million for a new elementary school in Jackson and additions and renovations to seven district schools. The second asks for $27 million to rebuild and remodel portions of Badger Middle School.

Blain Fowler, the district’s public information coordinator, said the district’s referendum last year was to get a feel for what the community would accept. This time around, the community will be given choices and can see the needs broken into separate referendums.

Really?  We went through all of the expense and headache of a referendum in order “to get a feel for what the community would accept?”  It seemed to me that they actually wanted it to pass.  In any case, a poll or survey would have been more effective than putting the entire district through a referendum process. 

“Our oldest building was built in 1894 and our newest in 1969,” Fowler said. “With the nine buildings we have, that means we were on a pace of a new building every 12 years during that time frame. Now it’s been 40 years since we’ve added anything.”

That’s highly misleading.  The newest school building, the High Schools, was built in 1969.  Since then, it has had five additions.  The district also acquired the Rolfs Education Center in 2006.  To state that it’s “been 40 years since we’ve added anything” is simply not true.  The district has not added any new buildings, but they have added on to existing ones.  Those count as additions. 

“The middle schools are full, the elementary schools are basically full, and the high schools are packed,” he said. “At some point we’ll run out of room, and the options we have aren’t overly pleasant.”

There is nothing in the proposed referendum for the high schools.  Is Fowler hinting at yet another referendum on the heels of this one for the high schools?

“About 20 years ago, we used to spend a million dollars a year on capital improvements,” he said. “Prior to this year, we were down to around $380,000. We’re one of the lowest spending districts in the state.”

The district this year spent about $500,000 to remodel one of its elementary schools, the most significant work that has been done in the district in 20 years.

Again, the citizens of West Bend should remember that the entire reason that a referendum is deemed necessary is because of the extremely poor management by the school board.  Seriously, who in their right mind can look at a budget and say that $380,000 or even $500,000 is enough for routine maintenance of 11 large facilities?  Yes, I am arguing that they should spend more to properly maintain the buildings.  That does not mean that overall district spending needs to increase.  But in any case, when the school board tries to guilt you into voting for the referendum, remember why it’s on the ballot in the first place. 

It is a positive sign that this school board has recognized the inadequate spending on maintenance and increased it significantly.  They should continue to increase this so that a referendum is not needed again. 

1. Lying and misquoting figures was what got my ire up in the first place.  Feed them a line and the pathetic ignorant sheep will follow.  I believe they should take a long hard look at alternatives to brick and mortar.  The needs ( or wants ) have now exceeded, in many cases, the ability to pay.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 17, 2008 at 2124 hrs