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What is a referendum?
A school referendum is a request from a school district for District electors to vote "yes" or "no" on the resolutions (questions) approved by the Board of Education. It explains exactly what the district is requesting, the amount of money requested, and what it will be used for. The Washington-Caldwell School District has one question on the April 2, 2024, general election ballot.
What is the purpose of a referendum and why are so many schools in Wisconsin asking for them?
Back in the early 90's there was concern about the increasing cost of funding public education through property taxes so at the end of 1992-1993 school year, the State of Wisconsin changed the way schools were funded, by imposing a revenue limit. This restricted how much the schools could receive from General State Aid and local property taxes and they are never allowed to exceed the revenue limit. Unfortunately, for Wisconsin schools, this revenue limit or cap has not kept pace with inflation since 2009. This has made it difficult, not only to meet rising costs for basic supplies, salaries, insurance, etc., but has forced many schools, including our own, to defer critical maintenance for years and in some cases, decades.
The only way for a school in Wisconsin to get the money it needs for those increasing costs and critical maintenance and improvements, is to ask the community to approve an operating referendum. In fact, 85% of districts in the state have put one or more referendums on a ballot. To make a comparison, it would be like your salary being locked in 2009 and if you wanted a raise to help with rising costs you would need the majority approval of all of your co-workers. The revenue limit kept pace with the inflation for many years, but that ended in 2009.
Why is an operational referendum necessary?
Why is an operational referendum necessary?
Steadily and significantly decreasing revenue based upon revenue limits set by the State of Wisconsin
Inflationary impacts
An increasingly competitive labor market
One-time federal funds not sustaining ongoing operations
Please note that there may be other referendum questions from other municipalities/agencies on the ballot too. Please cast an informed vote on the Washington-Caldwell School District ballot question.
What does your vote mean?
If the voter votes yes, he/she is approving the request.
If the voter votes no, he/she disapproves the request.
Please cast an informed vote on April 2, 2024.
Register to vote: My Vote Wisconsin
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