WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — After their two referendums on the November ballot failed, the Wausau School District is considering its next step.
Monday evening the Wausau School Board was given an update on the district’s referendums that were included on the November ballot. The District had two separate referendums on the ballot, both of which failed by a slight margin.
In the days leading up to the election, local residents expressed their concerns about the referendums including a lack of outreach to certain areas in the district and the elimination of some older more historic elementary schools.
On Monday night the school board heard from Wausau Schools Chief Finance and Business Services Officer Bob Tess about what their next steps could be with the referendums. Tess spoke about an exit survey the district will be conducted regarding the referendum and how retrying for the referendum in the next year or two would affect the district’s mill rate.
Most members of the school board were in favor of retooling the referendums for the election in April of 2021 to focus on school building improvements and operations. But two members had concerns about moving forward with a different set of referendums in April of 2021.
Board member Ka Lo expressed her concern about a lack of transparency with the referendum process leading up to November that had not been addressed by the administration. She was also concerned about the effects of the pandemic that would last well into 2021, making it difficult to ask the community for additional money in another tough year.
Board member Beth Martin also had some concerns about moving forward with another version of the referendums in April of 2021. Martin stressed the need for in-person and face to face conversation about the referendum with the community that wouldn’t be possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Martin also was concerned there wouldn’t be enough planning time between the end of 2020 and April 2021 to solve process issues for the referendum. Martin said she would be more in favor of waiting to present a new referendum to the community in 2022.
Monday night’s discussion on the failed referendums by board members was to give feedback to the administration on how to move forward. It is unknown when more information about the failed referendums or an April 2021 referendum would be presented to the board.
