Vote yes on Rib Lake school referendum

Voters in the Rib Lake school district should vote yes on a $19.5 million school referendum.

Communities live or die based on the strength of their local schools.

Families, businesses and industries all look to a community’s schools to gauge whether or not to make an investment in the community. Business and industry look to schools to provide the workers able to step into jobs in fast-paced and modern work environments. Families choose communities to live in based on the quality of their schools measured, not only by the vigor of their academics and breadth of co-curricular opportunities, but by such things as the perception of safety and the age and upkeep of the buildings and grounds.

Rib Lake schools have a well-deserved reputation for their academic success. They have received national recognition for their achievements and are an example for other schools to follow, especially in regard to collaborative learning. Rib Lake schools also have a reputation for being good stewards of community tax dollars, stretching every dollar to maximize its impact for the students and community.

However, you can only stretch something so far. The referendum addresses long-term maintenance needs of the district’s aging buildings and infrastructure as well as common-sense improvements to improve student and staff safety and ability to meet long-term educational and community needs.

The process to get to this point has been a long one. For more than two years school staff, elected leaders and community members have studied and researched the district’s existing facilities to determine where there are real needs.

A fundamental reality of the school funding system in Wisconsin is that the local budgets set each year are, by design, largely operational in nature. The state legislature forces schools to send major maintenance projects to voters for approval before they can happen.

At the same time as the district administration and school board looked at the long-term maintenance needs, they also looked at ways to improve the facility to reduce costs, increase safety and provide a better and more-modern learning and work environment for the students and staff.

School leaders then went to the community and made their case and asked for input from residents in a comprehensive survey conducted last fall. School leaders took that feedback to fine-tune and scale back their initial proposal to create the question that is going before voters at the April 2 election.

As with any investment, there is a cost. If approved, the impact to taxpayers will be about $1.46 per $1,000 of equalized value or about $146 on a $100,000 home. While no one likes to spend more on taxes, addressing longterm maintenance and educational needs in the district, rather than being done in a piecemeal manner, will result in savings over time.

The Rib Lake community has always had pride in their schools, teachers and students. Voting yes on the Rib Lake School referendum will help ensure that pride is not diminished for years to come.