School District facility needs referendum comes up for vote
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
The East Troy Community School District has a referendum on Tuesday’s ballot. The district is asking to borrow $20.8 million to fund the facility needs of its buildings.
This is the third time the School District is bringing a referendum to voters to make improvements and additions at its schools.
In 2012, the School Board assembled an Ad Hoc Facilities Committee charged with assessing the district’s needs and creating a master facilities plan. In total, the master facilities plan calls for about $41 million in needs.
Each sitting School Board has decided, when going to referendum, that $41 million is too much to bring to the taxpayers at a single time, preferring to cut the cost back.
The first time around, voters rejected a $17.2 million referendum on Nov. 6, 2012. The referendum included $9.5 million for the construction of community auditorium, safety and security upgrades throughout the district, a STEM addition at the High School, renovation of the traditional technical education rooms at the High School, as well as other district improvements.
The referendum was rejected 3,545 votes to 3,133 votes or 53 percent to 47 percent.
Five months later, the district put forth a $19 million referendum for facility improvements in the district and this time 73 percent of the voters said “No.” The second referendum included $9.2 million for an auditorium, which became a sticking point to many voters.
In February, the School Board voted to bring a third referendum to the public, but acknowledging the previous failures, the board voted to seek more public input before drafting a new referendum. In the months since, the district has held listening sessions, open houses, invited the public to attend School Board working referendum and regular meetings, and sent out a district-wide survey in spring to gather as much information as possible as to what type of referendum the community would support.
Many of the listening sessions, meetings and open houses were sparsely attended and the referendum survey, which was available online and in hard copy to the nearly 8,000 residents of the district, had only 548 responses.
While the survey didn’t provide the board with the solid answers it was looking for about what the community wanted for the individual schools, it did clear up at least one question – about 80 percent of the community members who took the survey said they would prefer the referendum not exceed the $20.8 million the district can borrow without having an increase on the tax levy.
The district can borrow that much without it increasing taxes because of the debt fall off from the 1999 referendum, which built Prairie View Elementary School and made other improvements at district schools.
With a monetary value set on the referendum by the community, the School Board voted to draft the referendum at the Aug. 11 meeting.
It was not a vote without controversy.
School Board members Martha Bresler and Dawn Buchholtz strongly opposed going to referendum, saying the possible renovation of Chester Byrnes Elementary School hadn’t been fully examined and the $11.7 million addition to Doubek Elementary School was execessive and would take much-needed money away from the High School improvements.
Buchholtz and Bresler wanted more time to examine all the options and questioned what the survey results actually meant, and voted against the referendum.
Board members Ted Zess, Chris Smith and Steve Lampbrechts voted in favor of going to referendum, saying there had been enough time to look at the numbers and the community had made it clear what it wanted and it was time to act.
“To me we could continue to explore Chester Byrnes but it’s just not a long-term solution when we’re dealing with a 1930s building,” Zess said Tuesday.
“Anyone who is going to make a $21 million financial decision needs to give that discussion significant consideration, particularly if you are representing the taxpayer,” Buchholtz said Tuesday. “If this passes, we are making a 20-year commitment, unfortunately, it’s not a 20-year solution.”
Zess disagrees.
“To me it’s a good, common-sense, long-term plan to meet the building needs of the district,” he said Tuesday. “The whole reason the referendum process started in 2010 is because we closed Chester Byrnes. We can’t afford to build a brand new elementary school, but we can add on to Doubek and that’s a long-term solution.”
“Do we have needs? Absolutely!” Buchholtz said. “However we don’t have a $12 million of urgent needs at Doubek.”
The issue of what improvements can be made at the High School with nearly $12 million to be used on the Doubek expansion have been at the center of the referendum controversy since the beginning.
“We had to take some money away from the High School to address the elementary school needs and that’s where some of the controversy is coming in,” Zess said. “But we knew, based on the survey results, that the voters would be okay with a zero tax impact so we have a budget of $20 million and that does the vast majority of the work needed at the High School and fixes the elementary problem.
“The final plan for the High School is pretty much the same, we just made some cost-cutting in areas,” Zess continued. “We pretty much listened to the administration at the school and they said here’s what you can do to save money on the project.”
Buchholtz said when the board went “back to the drawing board” after the last referendum failure, it deliberated for months and came up with a plan for the High School that everyone agreed upon.
“Unfortunately, that has not been the process for the elementary solution,” she said.
“There are too many unanswered questions and $21 million deserves a consensus,” Buchholtz continued. “I’m not asking anyone to vote against education. I’m asking people to vote in favor of collaborate decision making, following a process and responsible spending. It’s our job to be accountable to the taxpayers, staff and students.”
On Tuesday, voters will have the opportunity to decide the issue for themselves.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 4. Area municipalities voting for the School District referendum include:
Town of Troy, N8870 Briggs St.;
Town of East Troy, N9330 Stewart School Road;
Village of East Troy, 2015 Energy Dr.;
Town of LaFayette, W4614 Potter Road, Elkhorn;
Town of Spring Prairie, N6097 Highway 120, Burlington;
Town of Eagle, 820 E. Main St.;
Village of Mukwonago, 625 S Rochester St.; and
Town of LaGrange, N7899 Highway H.
Zess and Buchholtz both urged anyone with questions about the referendum to speak up.
“Contact the School Board members or the district office and ask your questions,” Zess said.
Anyone with questions can contact the School Board members or Hibner at the district’s website at www.easttroy.k12.wi.us or (262) 642-6710.
Sorry, I’m voting no. I support the decision to demolish Byrnes, but the cost is so dramatically under budgeted (due to the need to abate the asbestos) that it could be 3-4x the proposed cost.
Additionally, spending the proposed amount on refurbishing and remodeling Doubek is ridiculous. Stop throwing good money after bad, and simply add on to Prairie View to have a truly up to date elementary education facility.
And Mr. Lambrechts, shouldn’t you step away from voting if you are trying to sell your adjacent parcel of land to developers? Funny how a school next to your parcel drives up the market value to developers, isn’t it?
I wanted to clear up a couple a couple items in your post that are simply untrue.
1. The abatement of asbestos is included in the demolition cost and budgeted for.
2. “Just adding on to Prairie View” is the most expensive option that the community is not in support of as it would add to our tax bill.
3. The proposed plan works with the current site and has no need to purchase additional land.
I am sorry that you have been misinformed. If you’d like to chat feel free to contact me at any of the methods listed here: http://www.easttroy.k12.wi.us/board/boardmembers.cfm
@b the point you make about throwing money after bad is a good one. I’m fairly new to the community and strongly in favor of investing in the schools as they most certainly need it. I would be interested to hear more arguments against this referendum.
Mr. Smith,
Sometimes there is significantly more value in spending more money. Doubek was an antiquated building 20 years ago, and throwing more money into it is absolutely a case of piddling more money into a structure that will be grossly outdated on Day One. Our Board and administration is supposed to present the most cost effective plan to taxpayers and then make a strong case. You have caved to the vocal minority, and in doing so have diminished the district.
And given that there are developers that would like to take the land that Doubek and Byrnes sit on and turn in into more residential area, it makes me wonder what would happen to the cost difference between adding to Prairie View or Doubek if we built a new addition to Prairie View and then sold that parcel. And tell me, was there discussion about Mr. Lambrecht’s desire to sell and develop the lumber yard into a residential area, and what the value was to him personally if Doubek remained? Did he recuse himself from any vote related to a decision that offered him personal gain?
The bottom line is that there was great disagreement on this referendum package at the board level, and you three men on the Board refused to discuss other options and slammed this package through. They pretty much played politics instead of working to collaborate to achieve a package that everyone could support. It’s embarrassing to see what you three have done to the Board, and what you are doing to our schools.
And mark my words…you are so far off on the cost of the Byrnes demolition that it is laughable. Do you have a signed contract that removes all possibility of cost overruns? Did anyone request help from Jim Strasburg as to what past cost estimates were? I know what the numbers were, and I’d be very pleasantly surprised if you have budgeted enough to cover 1/3 of that cost. I hope that you like egg on your face.
I am sorry that you chose to flex your muscles and ego by playing politics. Unfortunately, it demonstrates the bullying that we claim to want to see out of our schools.
And Second Year Resident, I am sorry that you arrived at might be the worst time in our district’s history. Our community no longer supports its students (unless they play sports) and is willing to pinch pennies on school’s while spending like drunken sailors. Selfish, selfish, selfish.
As for me, I an planning on open enrollment for my kids to get them out of ET, and am beginning to consider putting my house up for sale and relocating to a community that still is proud of the support that it shows for its schools.
b,
I am sorry to hear that you will be moving your children out of East Troy and wish you the best of luck!
Does any of this have to do with the shortage of teachers at the schools?At one time there used to be 20 kids in my daughters class and now this year there is 30.
Samantha,
The referendum was a capital referendum to improve facilities and consolidate the schools. It did not address teachers directly. Feel free to voice any concerns or questions to the entire school board at boardofeducation@easttroy.k12.wi.us
I’m disappointed… I want better schools for the children and the community. The Wisconsin schools I attended in the 80’s and 90’s were much nicer than what ET offers today. It’s a ticking clock for me, if the community does not support our schools I will either move or open enroll my kids(3) too. I also find it hard to believe that the East Troy voter base will vote in favor of a school referendum if it results in a tax hike regardless of the plan put forward. It seems the American tax payer has made their voice clear, most don’t want to pay anymore taxes…for anything! Personally, I am willing to pay more for good schools but I also realize I’m likely in the minority. I look forward to hearing about a new plan.
Hi 2nd year res,
Thank you for the comments and the time to express your thoughts. As a new board member I have realized one thing about elected officials – they need more public feedback. “What plan works?” is the biggest question on our minds right now.
I agree with everything you are stating and would also personally support paying more for better schools. East Troy has a great community and district and I am not sure where the disconnect is with the schools. I believe part of it is due to misinformation and the other part is the solution was wrong. We need to find the right solution. It is critical to our community.
You are not the only family that will be effected if the schools do not improve. Personally, I have two young ones under three years of age. We are facing a similar discussion in my family about the possibility of moving or open enrolling out. I am certain there are many families with similar thoughts.
It scares me to contemplate that thought.
As always, we welcome comments/constructive criticism!
Ok thanks.
Trying building a plan that all Board members can support with enthusiasm and THEN bring it to the public. This could have been a relatively easy win, but you alienated half of the constituents as a result of the majorities divisive tactics.
And the behavior of the ETCS staff that attended Monday’s meeting was shameful. We don’t allow bullying in our schools, and yet the Board President and Superintendent allowed it to go on for nearly an hour. What an embarrassment.