Waunakee, DeForest school board approve operational referendums for fall elections

Operational referendums will go before voters in the DeForest and Waunakee school districts this fall.

By unanimous vote, members of the DeForest School Board unanimously approved a resolution on Monday calling for a $7.9 million referendum question to be placed on the November election ballot. Waunakee’s version is a little more complicated.

What school officials in Waunakee want the public to know is, this operational referendum “doesn’t reference the budget this fall,” said Steve Summers, the district’s executive director of operations at Monday’s school board meeting. Rather, it would take effect starting in the 2025-26 school year.

“We are planning one full budget in advance. So, if the public were to approve this question, this actually would not take place until October of the following year, when the community presented with tax levy,” said Summers.

The Waunakee board unanimously approved the resolution to go to an operations referendum at Monday’s meeting.

The Waunakee referendum is split into recurring and non-recurring components. The first part requests voters approve exceeding the revenue limit by $8.6 million for 2025-26 and an additional $500,000 for 2026-27 and thereafter. It would be recurring for the purposes consisting of maintaining programs and services and for employee compensation. It also seeks to extend two non-recurring referendums, previously approved by voters, on a recurring, or permanent, basis that are due to expire at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

The non-recurring part calls for an additional $1.050 million for 2025-26 and $2.1 million for 2026-27 strictly for employee compensation. It’s a temporary infusion of funding. If the board wanted to continue with this part, it would have to go back to the public to get approval to keep it going.

Summers explained that the referendum resolution was a response to feedback the district received in a community survey this spring. He said the amount of funding in this referendum is lower than figures presented in that survey.

Staff compensation is the focus of the referendum.

“So, the point is to have competitive compensation for all staff to remain, as a goal, at the average for all employee groups with our Dane County comparables,” said Summers.

Mark Hetzel, a school board member, noted that the tax impact of the referendum would be $1.3 million, because $8.1 million is already being spent in the budget. It came with the earlier non-recurring referendum funding that is set to expire at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

Summers explained why tax estimates weren’t included with the community survey. He said the tax levy will be a function of the 2025-27 state budget and how much is put into equalized aid, plus property value changes.

“But the overwhelming majority of the funding in this question is currently in the tax levy that our taxpayers are currently paying,” said Summers.

As for DeForest, if the district’s referendum is approved, the $7.9 million in excess of the revenue limit is recurring and would also start in 2025-26 to “support instructional programming, retain staff, and maintain facilities,” according to language in the resolution.

Board Member Stephanie Sarr asked the board to consider going down to $7.6 million.

“We don’t want to over-ask, and then ask the community again,” said Sarr. Originally, DeForest was considering asking for $13 million.

Jan Berg, another board member, said everyone on the board has thought long and hard about the figure, and while it doesn’t cover all their concerns, it comes the closest. Jeff Hahn, another member of the board, didn’t think the $300,000 difference would make that much of a difference.

“I wish we didn’t have to ask for the money, but that’s the environment we’re in,” said Hahn.

Other area districts, such as Sun Prairie, Marshall and McFarland, are also considering holding a vote on operational referendums.

DeForest was considering operational referendums of $7.3 or $8 million operational. School officials showed that with an additional $700,000, the district could add eight certified full-time equivalent staff to balance class sizes and improve programming and support. It would also increase the fund balance by 1.1%.