Athens referendum
Voters will be asked two questions on Nov. 8
The Athens Board of Education on Monday voted to put two school referendum questions on the Tuesday, Nov. 8, general election ballot.
Athens School District will ask its taxpayers to approve a phased-in, recurring operations referendum allowing the district to exceed its revenue limit by $900,000 in the 2022-23 school year and by another $770,000 in the 2023-24 school year. The tax increase total, $1,670,000, would continue indefinitely if the referendum is approved. A recurring op- erations referendum increases school taxes each year with no end date.
The operations referendum is needed to rescue the school district from financial ruin, largely the result of state revenue caps and declining enrollment. Budget documents obtained Monday show that the district’s fund balance, which stood at $1,371,361 in the 2020-21 school year, fell to only $152,375 in the 2021-22 school year. The documents predict that the district’s fund balance will be a negative $842,057 in 2022-23 if the referendum does not pass.
The district has a roughly $9 million annual budget.
Under state revenue caps, school districts lose their ability to tax and spend if they lose students. The Athens School District three year enrollment average has fallen from 428 in the 2018-19 school year to 411 in the 2021-22 school year.
Athens School District is no stranger to recurring referendums. In spring of 2011, Athens School District voters passed a recurring operations referendum to allow the school district to exceed the state’s revenue cap limit by $350,000 each year.
Athens School District will also ask its taxpayers during the Nov. 8 general election to vote on a capital improvements referendum authorizing the school district to issue general obligation bonds not to exceed $5,525,000.
The school district’s plans are to use the capital improvements referendum money to pay for a new Athens High School track and Athens Elementary School playground, new roof and backup generator at Maple Grove Charter School in Hamburg and new upgrades to the CTE (Career and Technical Education) classroom and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) in Athens middle/high school.
Athens School Board member Tom Ellenbecker Jr. at first said at Monday’s meeting he wanted the school district to not ask for a small amount of capital improvements money on Nov. 8, to allow it to conduct more research on the school building needs and then ask taxpayers for more capital improvements money in next spring’s election. School board member Steve Janke agreed with him.
“It just feels like we are rushing the capital improvements referendum now,” Ellenbecker said. “It’s like we are only putting a band-aid on our problems when we have a long list of capital improvement needs in the school buildings. When are we going to need to ask taxpayers for more money because they are going to have referendum spending fatigue?”
Ellenbecker felt more comfortable asking school district taxpayers for $5,525,000 in a capital improvements referendum question on Nov. 8 when he discovered school districts are allowed to ask voters to approve two referendum questions each year.
Elise Murn, consultant for R.W. Baird, said voter approval of both the operations and capital improvement referendum questions would, after the phase-in, increase the school tax mil rate by $5.51 from $7.70 in the current year to $13.21 by 2023-24. This would represent a 72 percent increase in the school tax rate, she confirmed. School taxes on a $100,000 home would increase $551 (assuming the house’s taxable value does not change).
Murn said an approved operations mil rate would increase the mil rate 96 cents in the first year and $3.37 in the second year. An approved operations would increase the mil rate by $1.18, enough to finance a $450,000 loan payment.
In other school news:
n The school board voted to approve four different 2022-23 budget proposals that will be used depending if school district voters approve both the operations and capital improvement referendums on Nov. 8, only the operating referendum, only the capital improvements referendum or neither of the two referendum questions.
If both referendum questions fail on Nov. 8, then the school district would be in debt by $842,000 in its 2022-23 Fund Balance which is mostly used to pay staff salaries and benefits.
Athens School District is facing budget woes due to having a declining enrollment of students the past two years.
n School board members voted to have the school district pay $30,000 toward the village of Athens’ Schlegel Street reconstruction project next summer, plus the engineering and land transfer costs to deed its portion of the street to the village.
Randy Decker attended Monday’s school board meeting on behalf of the village. He said the village has received a grant for the Schlegel Street reconstruction project that consists of new asphalt, curb and gutter. The village awarded the engineering contract to Marathon Technical Services in Wausau for the Schlegel Street reconstruction project. n The school board voted to give Jamey Handschke, Athens School District buildings and grounds supervisor, authority to find a company to fix a water leak in the Maple Grove Charter School water supply line from the well to the school building that was discovered last week.
n Athens School District has hired Bridget Kottke as its new administrative assistant at Athens Elementary School. She takes Beth Steinke’s spot, after Steinke took the school district office administrative assistant job.
The school district has also hired Athens High School assistant football coaches Craig Diedrich, Adam Ellenbecker and Cameron Diedrich; Athens Middle School football assistant coach Jake Stange and Athens Middle School volleyball coach Katlyn Brooks. Tom Ellenbecker is a volunteer middle school football coach and Kathy Luther is a volunteer volleyball assistant coach.
n The school board voted for the school district to hire Fischer Transportation of Fenwood for just over $590,000 to provide bus transportation during the 2022-23 school year.
Elise Murn
