West Bend’s Coming School Referendum

Here’s the plan for West Bend’s school referendum.  Let’s take a look:

To assess the District’s future land needs, a complete long-range facilities plan was hammered out that is estimated to cost $119.3 million. It includes new school buildings; two land purchases; and the expansions, renovations, repairs, and additions that are required at all District schools.

OK, that’s a helluva lot of money.  But I must recognize that West Bend’s schools have been pretty well run and they deserve the benefit of the doubt.  We are a growing district and new construction is inevitable. 

In response to the criteria above, the Board as a whole agreed last night that they would consider the following comprehensive long-range facilities plan at its June 11 regular Board meeting:

Ø Close Barton; convert Silverbrook into a 600-student elementary school for the Barton students, as well as to alleviate enrollment pressure at Green Tree, McLane, and Fair Park elementary schools;

Ø Complete energy efficiency work at Silverbrook; Close Jackson Elementary School and build a new 650 student elementary school on a new site in the Village of Jackson;

Ø Close Badger Middle School;

Ø Build a two-story twin middle school complex, with two separate schools to maintain the house and small school climate, yet joined by a common space to sustain exploratory classes, advanced classes, and other special services;

Ø Renovate the high school entrances and libraries, provide classroom additions for enrollment growth in special education and regular education, and address technology connectivity;

Ø Address the Decorah Elementary School building conditions, including demolishing and replacing a wing of the building that is deteriorating;

Ø Address the maintenance and expansion needs at Decorah, Fair Park, Green Tree, and McLane including items such as fire protection, windows, roofs, plumbing, parking, ceilings, heating and ventilating, and items such as fire protection, windows, roofs, plumbing,  parking, ceilings, heating and ventilating, and providing secure entrances at all schools.

OK… I am willing to extend the West Bend school district a lot of slack.  First, they have been pretty open during the process - especially Charlie Hillman.  Second, we ARE a growing district and construction costs that exceed revenue limits are to be expected.  Third, they have a history of doing a pretty good job running the district in a fiscally responsible manner. 

Also, I must note that the dollar amounts aren’t assigned to each one of these projects.  And even if we did see those numbers, we don’t know what it actually pays for.  For example, what are the design and materials considerations for new construction?  Are they the most economical while being durable?  All of that being said, I have some opinions (shocked?) at what I see.

I support the new construction, the closing of schools, the rebuilding of wings, etc.  As long as these are done reasonably, it’s necessary and rightly falls outside of normal operating expenses.  I also support the combined Middle Schools and such.  The folks who put this together have done a thoughtful and economical job with those initiatives.  I commend them for their efforts. 

I do not support the new windows, security, parking, roofs, fire protection, ceilings, heating, etc. being built into this referendum.  Those are normal maintenance items that should be planned for and built into the operating budget.  The failure of the school board to plan for these very normal maintenance items in the operating budget is troubling.  They should not be included in a referendum.

I encourage the school district planners to strip down the proposed referendum to the essentials associated with a growing district.  They are unlikely to find support for normal maintenance items that they neglected.