$7.5 million auditorium will be on spring ballot for Wisconsin Heights

The Wisconsin Heights School District will be presenting residents with another referendum in the spring election. In the wake of a $27 million facilities referendum in the fall, the District has decided to go forward with the question of a $7.5 million auditorium project. When the board initially debated putting the $27 million facilities referendum, the auditorium project was still in play. After a lengthy discussion at a critical meeting, board members decided that with the initial $27 million ask, another $7.5 million was too much. The support from the students for an auditorium project was loud and clear. The board has already planned to revisit the auditorium project in the spring. With letters to the editor, public speaking at meetings, and presentations at board meetings, the voice of the students was clear. They wanted a new auditorium. The board voted six to one on Monday, January 25, at their meeting, with Mike Wagner the lone dissenting vote.   A history of needs   Three years ago, during the Future Search, the community identified priorities for the District. Improving facilities, especially Black Earth and Mazomanie Elementary Schools, landed in the top five priorities. District officials commissioned a facility study in 2018-19. The study identified significant facility needs at Mazomanie and Black Earth Elementary Schools that would cost approximately $21 million to address. Notably, that $21 million would only address the facility needs (roof, HVAC, etc.) but would not update the buildings to meet current educational programming needs such as enhanced technology and flexible learning spaces.   According to District administrator Jordan Sinz, the Board verified this estimate in the fall of 2019, when they asked a separate company, Miron Construction, to also estimate the costs for building renovation versus building new. Their estimates came in at $22.8 million for renovations just at the elementary schools.  According to both estimates, building an elementary addition would cost almost the same amount of money – $22 million – and allow the District to provide a modern learning environment for students. By consolidating district facilities, the district will also save on annual operating expenditures such as utilities and maintenance at multiple buildings.  Efficiency increases also are realized as shared staff members will not have to travel from building to building, and families with students at different grade levels will be able to drop them off at a single location.  This spring, the district surveyed parents and community members to determine support for a referendum. The majority preferred a one campus solution that would include an elementary addition over renovating Mazomanie and Black Earth schools.   During the summer, the District held online Community Conversations, Sinz said.   “We outlined the background of the process and presented the plan for the one campus solution. We received some feedback, and we have addressed that in the planning process,” he said.  Two consistent pieces of feedback were about the traffic on the one-campus site and about what to do with the current elementary school buildings.  “We were glad to hear from the public so that we could address both pieces of feedback as we plan,” said Sinz.  According to Sinz, Performance Services is working with KL Engineering, a transportation and traffic engineering firm, to address the traffic concerns. Jim Wede, Performance Services, presented the traffic study to the Board of Education on September 15. According to traffic data, the main entrance to the site is safe. Improvements in traffic flow on school grounds are within the control of the School District, and Performance Services has already begun conceptual traffic designs aligned to the traffic study recommendations. This cost was already built into the facility plan.  The second piece of feedback was what the District is going to do with the existing elementary school buildings.  The district also commissioned an enrollment study that predicted slow growth over the next few years. Enrollment is critical to a district’s finances since the number of students plays a key role in determining the amount of money a district can raise in property taxes and receive in state aid.   Wisconsin Heights has had a deficit operations budget for the last 13 years, which has been offset by the passage of operational referendums since 2009 that allows the district to raise additional money in property taxes each year. The most recent operational referendum was approved in April of 2019 and runs through the 2023-24 school year.  A capital referendum, which is what the District brought to voters in the fall, allowed the district to add to its debt by a specific amount to pay for one-time construction or facility improvements. Wisconsin Heights has not had a capital referendum in 26 years. In contrast, almost all of the other school districts in and adjacent to Dane County have had facility referendums to update their facilities in the past five years.   “Being in Dane County, we realize parents have several really good options right next door,” explained Sinz. “For us to remain a viable option for our parents and our families, it is critical that we invest in our School District. We have facility needs that are not going to go away, and those needs will continue to eat into our operating budget, meaning less monies are available for student learning.”  The District had also considered making the construction of an auditorium at the middle and high school site a part of the November referendum plan. The auditorium will be available to community groups and used for school district fine arts and other events.