WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – Voters in the Wausau School District face two referendums on the November ballot. One of which could combine two elementary schools.
The first, worth $155 million, would fund elementary school upgrades and other building needs, while a $3 million second referendum would add staff for pupil services, including counseling and special education staff.
The district is on the verge of paying off old debt from prior building projects and because interest rates remain low for borrowers, neither would increase taxes in the district.
Opponents of the plan say It’s not the time to make this type of change and that the district’s focus should be elsewhere in times of a pandemic.
If the referendum passes, students at Lincoln Elementary on the Southwest side of Wausau would join Grant elementary.
“These are families that are struggling. Their first priority is not to go and have conversations with the school board,” said Mary Thao, Wausau parent and former school board member. Lincoln and Grant schools reside in low income, and minority neighborhoods. Many feel they are hit hardest by the pandemic. “It is grossly unfair to do this to our most vulnerable students,” continued Thao.
The opposition says the district lacked communication and what feedback they did receive was overwhelmingly against the plan.
Thao asks, “If surveys came back from our community that talked about keeping our neighborhood schools, then how did we land on this?”
Different versions of the plan have been in place for over 5 years, the district saying they have made outreach efforts continually, but repeatedly get small turnouts.
Superintendent Dr. Keith Hilts has not held his position since the start of the project, but says he’s made it his mission to communicate since joining the school district. “We did two dozen listening sessions in the schools and community, that was face to face interactions. We also did about 10 sessions that we call “idea”action sessions that engaged about 200 community members, ” said Hilts.
The district acknowledging the pandemic did have its effect on efforts.
“When the idea of merging Lincoln and Grant specifically came up, we didn’t have time to try and engage that community specifically before we had the timeline to bring it to the school board,” Hilts told WAOW-TV.
The board, even questioning whether or not to include in this November’s ballot.
Hilts says, “There’s one reason why we think we wouldn’t have this referendum [ on the ballot] And that really was because of the pandemic and communication struggles.”
But the district says it wants to take advantage of this unique election year, “We didn’t want to take away a really wonderful opportunity from this community to tell us yes or no…. were anticipating a 90% voter turnout this November, we want to hear the communities voice so this is really the best opportunity to do so”.
If voters say “no,” the district will likely present a similar plan again in the future, due to the physical needs of the district’s infrastructure.
