2024 Referendum: Make a Choice + Use Your Voice
The Challenge
Inadequate Funding
Because state funding has not kept pace with inflation, the Wauwatosa School District facing a budget shortfall of $9.3M for the 2024-25 school year, and $61M over the next five years.
The District intends to satisfy the shortfall in 2024-25 by using its healthy fund balance. In subsequent years, the District must either reduce its expenditures or seek additional revenue streams.
Aging Facilities
At least approximately $150M in deferred maintenance needs have been identified across all Wauwatosa School District buildings.
Inequity exists among elementary school buildings, and our secondary schools - which were not designed to accommodate the current 21st century learning needs of our students - contain foundational systems and structures that are well past their end-of-life expectancy.
The Process
The Wauwatosa School District believes all community stakeholder input and engagement is valuable. Therefore, a variety of opportunities were provided to allow and encourage community members to share their perspectives.
Tosa 2075 Task Force
The Tosa 2075 Task Force was assembled to provide the Board of Education with input and counsel on how best to address large-scope issues that are being faced in Wauwatosa School District. The Task Force presented its Final Report to the Board of Education on DATE.
Community Survey
The District collected community input and perspectives via a survey that was mailed to all residential addresses in Wauwatosa. The survey served as a feedback loop to support the sharing of perspectives with the Board of Education.
The District engaged School Perceptions, an independent education research firm, to conduct the survey. School Perceptions is the same company that managed the community survey conducted ahead of the 2018 facilities referendum.
Board Listening + Engagement Sessions
To further gather input and perspectives from the Wauwatosa community, the Board of Education held three engagement sessions, which served as an opportunity for community members to learn more about the challenges facing the District and voice their opinion(s) related to potential solutions.
District Administrator Recommendations
District administrators - including the Superintendent, Chiefs and Directors - provided recommendations to the Board of Education related to the five charge areas as well.
The Solution
On Monday, June 17, 2024, the Wauwatosa Board of Education unanimously approved placing two questions on the November 2024 ballot, totaling $124.4M.
Operational Question
Shall the Wauwatosa School District, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, be authorized to exceed the statutory revenue limit by $16,100,000 per year beginning with the 2025-2026 school year and ending with the 2028-2029 school year, for non-recurring purposes consisting of funding operational expenses, including salaries, benefits, and instructional and co-curricular programming?
This question is asking the community to provide a total of $64.4M over four years to fund district operations including salaries and benefits for staff, and instructional and co-curricular programming for students. Specifically, the funds would be used as follows:
$52.4M to cover the operational shortfall for the 2025-26, 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years.
$8M to increase educator compensation.
$4M for curricular materials.
The District will use its fund balance to cover the projected funding gap of $9.3M for the 2024-25 school year.
Without significant increases in public school funding from the state, there will be a need to continually ask operational referendum questions in order to maintain programming for students.
Capital/Facilities Question
Shall the Wauwatosa School District, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, be authorized to issue pursuant to Chapter 67 of the Wisconsin Statutes, general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $60,000,000 for the public purpose of paying the costs of school building and facility projects consisting of: deferred maintenance and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) facilities standards capital projects at Eisenhower, Madison, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Washington Elementary Schools, and Montessori/Fisher and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) facilities standards capital projects at Wauwatosa East and Wauwatosa West High Schools?
This question is asking the community to provide a total of $60M over 20 years, which would allow the District to address all deferred maintenance Eisenhower, Madison, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Washington Elementary Schools and Montessori/Fisher. It would also allow the District to ensure Eisenhower, Madison, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Washington Elementary Schools, Montessori/Fisher, and Wauwatosa East and West High Schools meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) facilities standards. These projects are specifically identified in this document.
The Tax Impact
Next Steps
Visit the Tosa 2075 web page to learn more and dive deeper into each of the five charge areas. Then, mark your calendar for November 5, 2024.
Remember: make a choice + use your voice!