Referendum does not meet voter approval
By Steve Van Kooten
According to polling data from Crawford County, Prairie du Chien’s proposed non-reoccurring operating referendum proposal did not garner enough votes to pass this past week.
Election data showed that the referendum received approximately 1,800 ‘yes’ votes. More than 2,300 district residents voted ‘no.’
The Prairie du Chien Board of Education approved a four-year, $10 million non-reoccurring step-up referendum for the November ballot at their August 7 meeting.
The step-up referendum would have given the district $2 million the first year and added an additional $250,000 cumulatively each year for the following three years.
“We’ve heard from our community on that,” said District Administrator Andy Banasik. “Our next step is now we’ll look at what we’ll have to cut to balance our budget. Those are the things we’re going to look at, and we’ll put that out in front of our community.”
The potential cuts could come from the district’s programming and staff, Banasik said.
“Your budget is 80 percent staffing,” he said. “We feel as a board and as an administration that we’ve redacted as much as we could to retain our programs. When you’re talking $2 million in possible cuts, you have to talk about programming now and what you want your school to look like.”
Those cuts could impact the school as early as the 2025–26 school year. Areas that could see reductions include advanced placement/dual credit courses, electives, athletics and co-curricular activities, among others. Increased class sizes could also become a reality.
According to Banasik, the district has attempted to streamline their budget. In the last three years, he reported that the district saved $700,000 through “tough decisions,” like changing or consolidating staff positions. The savings come from fewer employee costs (benefits, etc.). Those cost savings did not result in any programming reductions.
Had the referendum passed, Banasik claimed that the district would evaluate solutions for the district’s finances.
“I think we felt as a board that, as we work through this, where are we in four years? What do we want our district to look like? How is funding? Where is our enrollment? I think we are trying to be good stewards to our community. We are not spending your tax dollars just to spend,” he said at the August meeting.
The district also dropped its mil rate in 2023–24 to 6.11 from 10.66 in anticipation of a referendum and to curb increased property values in the community. The referendum would have increased the mil rate to between 7.0 and 8.03 in 2025–26. But, on October 28, the district held their annual budget hearing and announced that the 2024–25 mil rate would decrease even more than expected. The board unanimously approved the revised budget, which lowered the mil rate to 5.94 per 1,000 of taxable property. This is the lowest mil rate the district has approved in at least five years.
The revised budget also decreased the school’s 2024–25 levy to $5.2 million, approximately $150,000 less than the original number published in the Courier Press.
For the 2024–25 school year, the school district helped balance its budget by drawing approximately $1.1 million from its general fund. Banasik said the district can’t do that a second year because it would leave the school without any fund balance remaining.
According to Banasik, the district has until January to decide if they will attempt another referendum proposal for the elections in April.
“We’ve discussed it, but we haven’t put pencil to paper yet,” Banasik said.
Fifteen CESA 3 schools requested an operating referendum in November in the State of Wisconsin, and voters approved eight. Closer to Prairie du Chien, the numbers are less positive: Platteville, River Ridge, Cuba City and Dodgeville’s proposals also failed.
Iowa-Grant, Darlington and Belmont were among the schools to successfully pass their referendums.
On November 5, Wisconsin State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly released a statement that said, “Wisconsin families value public education and understand our schools need sustainable funding to keep the lights on and provide a high-quality education to our kids. At the same time, they understand this responsibility should not disproportionately fall on local taxpayers.
“Our state legislature has severely underfunded public schools for well over a decade, and it has led to a record number of districts going to referendum to try and fix severe financial constraints on their own. Too many communities were forced to vote Tuesday whether to increase property taxes just so their local schools can pay staff, heat and cool their buildings, and provide a quality education.
“There’s a better path. We must reinvest in our public schools and the future of our kids. The upcoming biennial budget provides yet another opportunity for the legislature to uphold its responsibility to appropriately fund public schools and to stop forcing Wisconsin communities to make impossible choices.”
Banasik and other district staff ran informational meetings about the referendum throughout October and November in Prairie du Chien and Eastman.
