Our high school district is seeking approval for a bond to address urgent facility needs. We have made significant efforts to cut down the cost of the bond from $22.5 million to $8 million, in response to the feedback we received from the voters in the previous bond attempt. We have carefully evaluated the difference between our needs and wants and are only asking for what is essential to maintain our facilities (keep the doors open). The bond is set for a term of 15 years to avoid paying additional interest, and we have also increased the building reserve levy to help take care of the necessary repairs, allowing us to keep the bond lower.

We have gone out for every available grant but still need this bond to address the pressing needs of our high school district. As much as we dislike asking for additional funds from our taxpayers, it is the only mechanism we have to provide safe and functional facilities for our students and staff. The bond is a critical step towards ensuring that we have the resources needed to maintain our facilities, and we hope that our voters will support it. We will reassess the needs of our facilities after five years with the building reserve, but for now, there is no other way to address the significant repairs that need to be done.

For more info, go to the HS Bond/Building Reserve Levy Tab.

Our high school district is in need of urgent maintenance and repairs, and we are asking our voters to approve a building reserve levy to address this issue. Currently, our building reserve levy is set at 100,000 per year, which is not enough to keep up with the growing needs of our facilities. The band-aid price of repairs is getting larger and we do not have enough funds to address everything that needs to be fixed. With this proposed building reserve levy, we are seeking to increase the annual allocation to $400,000 per year, which will allow us to address the issues that have been piling up for years. 

Our high school district has more square footage than JES, LES, and WMS combined, which makes it even more imperative to allocate the necessary funds for maintenance and repairs. If we do not get this money, we are uncertain of what we will do if something happens and we cannot fix it. This is why we structured this the way that we did with the HS Bond and HS Building Reserve Levy.  Together, these measures will help us to not only address the immediate maintenance needs of our facilities but also ensure that our high school is equipped to provide a high-quality education for our students for years to come. The proposed levy does not come with any interest payments and is set for a term of 5 years, after which we will reassess the needs of our facilities.  We hope that our voters will support both the building reserve levy and the high school bond to help us effectively take care of the needs of our high school district.

For more info, go to the HS Bond/Building Reserve Levy Tab.

The elementary school district is asking voters to approve a building reserve levy to address the critical need for building maintenance and repairs. The current budget of $200,000 per year is not enough to keep up with the increasing cost of maintenance, and the band-aid approach is becoming more expensive. The proposed levy would increase the budget to $400,000 per year for five years, without any interest payments. The district needs to be able to maintain the buildings until a long-term plan can be developed.

Without this additional funding, the district will be unable to address major repairs and maintenance, such as replacing the temporary boiler at LES. If something happens to one of the buildings and the district cannot afford to fix it, the only option would be to switch to virtual learning. It is essential to approve the building reserve levy to ensure that the district can maintain a safe and healthy learning environment for students and staff.

For more info, go to the ELEM Building Reserve Levy Tab.

The Elementary General Fund Levy is a critical component of our district's financial plan. It allows us to maintain budget authority and keep providing high-quality education to our students. Despite having the same budget for the last 7 years, our district has continued to face increasing costs, making it challenging to manage everything with the same amount of money.

Initially, we were looking at a general fund levy of $137,193.87 for the elementary district, but due to recent legislation, it got cut to be a $14,235.54 general fund levy to get back to where we were this past year. 

We did not have to go for a general fund levy in the HS, but with the HS Bond and HS/ELEM Building Reserve levies, we do not want to ask too much from our community. Therefore, we are not going to recommend running this levy, despite the challenges we face. We understand that we will lose some budget authority in the Elementary district, but we know the importance of the HS Bond and HS/ELEM Building Reserve levies. By supporting these referendum initiatives, we can ensure that our district continues to provide an excellent education to our students while keeping our community's tax burden manageable.