Stratford might need tomake future cuts

By Casey Krautkramer

The Stratford Board of Education is mulling what its next steps are since the school district’s four year non-recurring operational referendum failed in the November 8 election. Dr. Nathan Lehman, Stratford schools superintendent, on November 16 provided the school board with a fall 2022 referendum followup at the school board meeting in the band room. He said of the 81 school referendum questions in Wisconsin, 67 passed and 14 did not. He said central Wisconsin school districts didn’t have good voting results because the Merrill, Loyal, Athens, Adams-Friendship and Stratford school referendums all failed.

“Our administration will start to look at future cuts,” Lehman said. “If we don’t go to a referendum in April and pass it, then we will need to show the school board anticipated cuts starting in the 2023-24 school year.”

Lehman said Stratford School District has been in the “low spending district” category for years, which means it gets less money from the state for each student than what is allowed.

He said Stratford School District received $9,443 in state aid for each student in the 2018-19 school year, $9,700 for each student in the 2019-20 school year and $10,000 for each student in the 2020-21 school year.

“We have been at $10,000 per student for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years because the state hasn’t given school districts any new money,” Lehman said. “If we don’t go to and pass a referendum in April of 2023, and the state budget includes a low-spending district bump, then we won’t get the bump because we failed our last operational referendum.”

In other news:

n Incumbent Stratford School Board members Chris Dickinson and Jeannie Tichy are up for re-election to new threeyear terms in the Tuesday, April 4, 2023 spring election. The incumbents and Stratford School Board residents who want to run against them for election in spring need to go to the school district office to file a declaration of candidacy and a campaign finance registration statement before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3, 2023, to get their name on the spring election ballot.

n The school board approved the Stratford High School Spanish Club’s trip in June to Costa Rica. Spanish Club advisor Sarah Sheridan will guide Spanish Club students in using their Spanish language skills with their host families in Costa Rica homesteads and interact with local merchants. Students will also tour various Costa Rica national parks, visit an indigenous village and tour a coffee plantation to see the process of cultivating and producing coffee.

n School board members approved a low bid of $21,350 from Wisconsin Mechanical Solutions, Mosinee, for installation of a modulating exhaust fan in the Stratford Elementary School kitchen. The other two bids Stratford School District received for the project were $26,385 from Air Quality Control of Wausau and $26,550 from Tweet Garot Mechnical with locations in De Pere, Wisconsin Rapids, Wrightstown and Tomahawk.

n The school board will let school district staff give it a recommendation on whether it wants a weeklong spring break in the 2022-23 school calendar, or not have a spring break like usual. The recommendation will come to the school board at its next meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 21, in the middle/high school band room.