Survey says: Colfax school district is on ‘fact-finding mission’

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  Bill Yingst doesn’t even like to say the word.

Yingst, superintendent in the Colfax school district, prefers “the r word,” but even at that, he is reluctant.

Yingst is referring to a survey that has been sent out to residents in the Colfax school district that is intended to find out what building and maintenance projects  — if any — taxpayers in the district would support.

But at this point, to think those projects would go to a referendum, is quite premature, Yingst said.

“The whole purpose and intent of the survey is to gather data to get taxpayer input. I told the staff, ‘I don’t want to hear the word referendum.’ The other day, I referred to it as ‘the r word.’ We’re not there. That might be one option down the road that might be a consideration from some of the data we get. But this is simply a fact-finding mission,” he said.

“We are gathering data. We want to see what the taxpayers might support. I feel strongly about this. The taxpayers who live in the district are footing the bill. The process is not going to be (a case of) the school board and the school district dumping things on the taxpayer. We want their input, and we want their thoughts on this,” Yingst said.

Millions lost

Wisconsin’s Act 10, which went into effect July 1, 2011, and all but eliminated collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees, also reduced state aid for schools.

Because of Act 10, Colfax has zero extra dollars in the budget to complete any of the projects on the survey list, Yingst said.

State legislators claimed that with Act 10, school districts would save money by not collectively bargaining with employees for insurance coverage, for example, and could then use those savings to make up for the decreases in state aid.

While Colfax has reduced insurance costs by between $1 million and $1.5 million in the past five years, the amount of money has not been enough to compensate for the reduction in state aid, Yingst said.

Colfax lost $550,000 in state aid the first year Act 10 was implemented in 2011, and the aid has not been restored.

Over the five-year period, that amounts $2.75 million.

Today, Colfax is receiving less in state aid than the school district received ten years ago, Yingst said.

To deal with the reduction in state aid, Colfax, like many other school districts, has not hired replacements for teachers who have retired.

Not replacing those teachers means larger class sizes.

In the last five years, at least five teachers who have retired have not been replaced, Yingst said.

If school districts have no extra money in the budget, then how are schools going to pay for regular maintenance, such as replacing roofs that are starting to leak?

The survey that was sent out to households in the Colfax school district on February 1 lists a variety of  projects that all together total about $15 million.

“We are not minimizing the dollar amount. Nobody is saying that it isn’t that bad. It’s a lot of money. But in the budget we have, there is not extra money to do any one of these projects. Not even close. It is a very tight budget,” Yingst said.

Long-range plans

The Colfax Board of Education began discussing long-range planning and gathering ideas for building and maintenance needs about a year and a half ago.

The Colfax school board then made the decision to hire a survey company called “School Perceptions” to put together a survey.

School Perceptions conducts the majority of the surveys for school districts in Wisconsin and is a reputable company, Yingst noted.

“I want this to be a transparent process. We are not trying to slip this through. I want district residents to be aware of the current and future needs,” he said.

The deadline for completing the surveys is March 1.

The goal is to have 400 surveys completed, which is a number that School Perceptions says will give statistically significant results.

As of Friday, February 19, a total of 297 surveys had been completed, Yingst said.

Survey results

The school district does not see the surveys as they are turned in. Instead, all of the information goes to School Perceptions.

School Perceptions will tabulate the survey results, and the information will be presented to the Colfax Board of Education at the March 21 meeting, Yingst said.

At upcoming basketball games and parent-teacher conferences, the school district will have computer kiosks set up to allow district residents who have not completed the survey yet to do so online.

Tour guides will also be available to show district residents areas of the school that need maintenance and updating, Yingst said.

For those district residents who do not attend basketball games or parent-teacher conferences or who prefer not to tour the buildings during basketball games or parent-teacher conferences, “we will set up tours for anyone who wants to see the facilities,” Yingst said.

Anyone who is interested in setting up a tour can contact the school district office at 715-962-3155.

By making the survey available to district residents, “we are asking the taxpayers to prioritize the needs list. There is a place for comments and suggestions. They may think of things we did not think of,” Yingst said.

Steering committee

The next stage in the process, after the survey results have been presented to the Board of Education, will be to form a community steering committee.

The steering committee will be made up of members from the Village of Colfax and all of the townships in the school district.

“I do not want to limit anybody from being a part of this. I want as much participation as possible. This affects everyone. The taxpayers have a right to indicate their interests and to express their concerns,” Yingst said.

The steering committee will then also review the survey results and will make recommendations to the Colfax Board of Education.

“It will be up to the steering committee to recommend to the board. A referendum for everything? A referendum for part of it? Or maybe we don’t do anything,” Yingst said.

“If the taxpayers are dead-set against any of this, that’s where it lies,” he said.

Moving forward

On the other hand, “we have a responsibility to maintain and move things forward. Technology is huge. Science and math are huge areas. Lots of change and upheaval in the state. We are trying to maneuver and navigate. A lot has changed in the last five years. We have to consider the next generation,” Yingst said.

“Nobody wants to come back five, ten or 15 years from now and say, ‘who let this place fall apart? Couldn’t they see this coming? Couldn’t they take care of this?’” he said.

“It is a huge amount of money. I get that. But nothing gets any cheaper to build. Interest rates have been down the last seven or eight years. But the Fed is creeping up … the Fed has a goal of raising (interest) by 2 percent. That’s a big number when you’re looking at millions of dollars,” Yingst said.

And percentage points do add up.

A slight increase in the interest rate can mean the school district pays $400,000 more in interest, Yingst said.

Instead of paying interest, Yingst said he would rather spend that money on fixing a roof or replacing teachers who have retired or providing more educational opportunities for students.

“You can have the attitude that it was good enough yesterday, it’s good enough today, and it will be good enough tomorrow. But the problem is (the maintenance) tends to sneak up on you. Then you don’t have a few things, you’ve got everything to fix. And with the budget we have, there is no extra money for any of these items. We do have to take care of some of the things on the list,” he said.

Consider school buses 

The Colfax school district has 18 school buses.

Each bus costs about $75,000, so one school bus is replaced every year.

“If we replace one school bus every year, that bus has to last 18 years until it comes around again to be replaced. How many people drive the same car for 18 years? Some people do, but you have to do maintenance and upkeep,”  Yingst said.

European countries tend to think of education as an “investment,” while the United States thinks of education as a “cost,” he noted.

Mill rate

Colfax High School was built in 1978, and the main portion of Colfax Elementary was built in 1963.

The bus maintenance garage also was built in 1963.

The mill rate in the Colfax school district has remained in the range of $8.67 per $1,000 of property value for a number of years.

For the 2015-2016 school year, the mill rate in Chippewa Falls is $9.06. In Elk Mound, the mill rate is $9.24. Menomonie’s mill rate is $10.09, while Boyceville’s mill rate is $10.83, and Bloomer’s mill rate is $11.54.

The last school referendum in the Colfax school district was more than 20 years ago.

To complete the Colfax school district survey on-line, visit www.survey2000.com.

Enter the survey access number of SK5D-NRH2-M4XP-97T5.

In addition to the survey results being presented to the Colfax Board of Education on March 21, the results will be available on the school district’s website at www.colfax.k12.wi.us.