Lake Mills school board to present residents with two referendum questions

LAKE MILLS — On July 15, the Lake Mills School Board voted to present the community with two referendum questions for the November election.

“The proposed projects are in direct response to the community-based CAT team’s recommendations, which aligns with the stakeholder feedback we gathered during the recent survey process,” District Administrator Tonya Olson said.

Over the past 14 months, a Collaborative Advisory Team has worked on recommendations based on community feedback, and the two referendum questions were based on those recommendations and recommendations from a community survey.

The first question on the referendum “requests permission to borrow up to $36.9 million to fund high priority district-wide capital maintenance, safety and energy efficiency upgrades, renovations and improvements to key areas of the high school,” according to school district staff.

This part of the referendum will have no additional tax impact to residents.

There are several items included in the first question, including some in response to safety questions.The high school camera system is outdated, according to Olson, so the district would update those. And the main entrance would be changed with some security updates.

Additionally, the referendum includes relocating the current bus barns so they are not within the high school perimeter. Olson said this would address two concerns. First, for safety purposes, if the school had to go on lockdown due to an active shooter or bomb threat, they could still access the buses if they were outside the school perimeter. Second, the location of the current bus barns is in a congested area near where students park and parents would come to pick up students.

The referendum would also address several updates in the lower level of the high school. The referendum would allow the district to renovate and refresh the space including alternative learning, special education and math classrooms.

Megan Larrrabee, Director of Communications for LMASD, said the upstairs classrooms in the high school are nice places for the students and community to use because they were updated in 2020 after a 2018 referendum. The school district wants the same to be true for the downstairs classrooms.

There would also be renovations to the cafeteria and music room of the high school.

Updates that would be done at other schools with the first question include an updated middle school library and four new classrooms for early learning in the elementary school.

The second question “requests permission to borrow up to $14.3 million to fund the replacement of the lower-level gym at the high school with a new, larger lower-level gym.”

The tax impact of the second question will be two cents per $1000 of property value.

Currently, the lower gym is not locked off from the rest of the building, which Olson said is a concern because when people come in for games like volleyball, they can access the entire school.

The gym was also built with cheap wood and many spots on the floor are hollow. There is also not enough space for people watching games.

If the second question of the referendum moves forward, the district will build a bigger gym in the lower level.