WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Wausau School Superintendent Keith Hilts says he and the rest of the district are relieved after the third attempt at a building referendum question ended with voters approving some $120 million in improvements.
“We’re grateful for the input and we are grateful for the support,” said Hilts. “We really appreciate this gift and we will make the best use of every dollar; invest it in students, staff, and families while getting the most we can out of it.”
Many of the projects focus on upgrades to the district’s middle and secondary schools. Hilts expects design work and planning will begin shortly and will continue into next spring. Ground could be broken on the first of the projects by next year at this time.
“There might be a couple of little things we can do as stand-alone projects but for the most part we won’t start for about a year,” said Hilts.
The two previous building referendum questions were defeated by voters. That forced district leaders to take a step back and hold several open discussions with residents about their wants and needs for the district’s buildings. Hilts credits that input with helping them get the latest version passed and hopes that dialog will continue as leaders look to improve the elementary schools as well. “Some people think we should be merging [schools] and some people think we should not. I’m going to be proposing [that the board] form some subcommittees to facilitate those conversations.
“We certainly want to have those conversations soon,” added Hilts.
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District leaders have previously stated that with the way the amount of debt that will be retired in the next few years it could be possible to come back to voters with another referendum question for the elementary schools that would have little to no impact on taxes.
