ANTIGO -- Antigo School District officials plan to mail out postcard surveys in the next week to all residents who live within district boundaries. They intend to gauge community support for several options under consideration for a potential voter referendum.
“Basically, it gauges support for options,” Antigo School District Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds Jake Leiterman said. “It doesn't necessarily ask which one people are most in favor of. It would ask each individual, ‘Are you in favor of this option?’ and then it gives you choices like ‘strongly in favor,’ ‘somewhat in favor,’ ‘somewhat against,’ ‘strongly against,’ and it will ask that for three or four questions on there…Then they should see, this option has x percentage of support.”
The Donovan Group is a public relations firm that the district has been consulting in relation to the referendum. Though not yet approved by the school board, that ballot question seems increasingly likely to appear before voters in November. Lori Mueller, a partner with Donovan, called the surveys an important data gathering step.
“We’re going to test different solutions and different impacts for our taxpayers and see what kind of feedback we get,” Mueller said. “That will help inform for the board how they might want to proceed and also for you as a task force to provide that recommendation for the board. It will share with us what the community will and won’t support. It will help us evaluate solutions that are going to best meet the community’s needs and are financially responsible. And ultimately, it helps us identify the things that our constituents need to know leading up to a November election, if that’s where we’re going.”
Mueller discussed the surveys at a community task force meeting at Antigo High School Thursday night, at which time Steve Jamroz, one of the architects that has been studying the state of the district’s facilities, also announced potential costs of three different referendum options being considered.
“The first item on that list is a new elementary school concept for a 4K to grade 4 elementary school,” Jamroz said. “When we went through our process in April and May, we discussed with the group to build a building of that size to encompass the kids that you currently have at your elementary schools. It would need to be in the range of about 112,775 square feet and the budget worked its way out to about $46 million.
"That construction number is roughly about $408 a square foot, and that comes from two contractors that we worked very closely with that are in the industry and are up to date with the numbers that are in the industry. Those numbers include the site work, building work - all of the things that are involved with the construction of a new school.”
Kelly Fassbender, the district’s director of business services, said the district would receive substantial state aid for the potential project.
“The state is going to be funding a large portion of the project because of how we get state aid,” she said. “For example, when we put together a $46 million, which is that new elementary school, the total cost would be $68 million when you’re looking at interest over the years. Due to our unique situation, the state of Wisconsin is projected to provide about $45 million of the required funding, meaning that our tax payers would only pay $23 million.”
Fassbender said state aid would also be provided for two other options being considered for the referendum which would include renovations to other buildings in the district.
"Scenario two, the financing plan for $54 million, we would have a total cost of $80 million with interest. Due to our unique situation, the state would be projected to provide $49 million of the required funding, bringing the project cost to taxpayers to $31 million. Then for the third scenario, which is obviously the most expensive, your financing plan for $61 million with interest would be $90 million. The state would be projected to provide $52 million of that, bringing the projected cost to taxpayers down to $38 million,” Fassbender said.
When asked what would become of the city’s three current operational elementary schools if a new consolidated elementary school were to be built, Mayor Terry Brand suggested the buildings would not go to waste.
“That question can’t be answered until a referendum passes and the buildings become available,” Brand said. “But you know what happened to our other buildings. I think all the elementary buildings that we’ve closed over the past 15 years are being used for something. They’re community centers, a couple are schools again, there’s industry in a couple of them. None of them have been torn down. The community has found a use for those, which I think is the greatest thing, is that they become something else in the future.”
Jamroz said the decision of what to do with the buildings, and whether to have a referendum at all, would ultimately need to be made by the school board.
“I think it will be part of what the school board will have to wrestle with at the end of the day,” Jamroz said. “If the facilities task force committee feels that this is the right solution or that is the right decision, whatever they bring to the board will determine what they want to do with those schools.”
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