Menomonie school superintendent presents $4.2 million referendum information to Dunn County Board
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The superintendent of the Menomonie school district presented information to the Dunn County Board last Wednesday about an upcoming referendum question on February 20 for $4.2 million annually in perpetuity.
Kristen Korpela, county manager, told the Dunn County Board of Supervisors at the January 17 meeting that she had been asked why she had invited Joe Zydowsky, superintendent of the Menomonie school district, to make a presentation when other school districts were also having referendum questions and had not been asked to address the county board.
The Menomonie school district “shares a tax bill with Dunn County,” Korpela said.
Readers should note that while all property taxpayers in Dunn County pay a school district property tax, not all Dunn County residents pay taxes to the Menomonie school district.
Therefore, a certain number of county board supervisors represent property taxpayers who do not pay property taxes to the Menomonie school district.
Boyceville
The Boyceville school district also is holding a referendum, but the Boyceville referendum on April 2 is for the amount of $18 million.
According to the Boyceville school district’s website, the Boyceville referendum is for school building improvements and will cost the taxpayers zero additional dollars on their property tax bills.
The reason the Boyceville referendum will add zero dollars to the tax bills is because the Boyceville school district has paid off previous debt, and the new debt will be replacing paid off debt at the same rate, so taxpayers will not see an increase for school district debt service for the $18 million building project if the referendum passes.
Operational referendum
The Menomonie school district’s referendum is an operational referendum for $4.2 million recurring, Zydowsky said.
Recurring means that property taxpayers in the Menomonie school district will be paying the additional tax forever.
An operational referendum means the money will be used for operating the school district and not for remodeling or updating buildings or constructing new buildings.
There has been a high rate of inflation, and the pandemic funding is expiring at the end of the school year, Zydowsky said.
The Menomonie school district has 3,300 students, and 43 percent of those students are economically disadvantaged. The school district also has special education students and English Language Learner students, he said.
The $4.2 million referendum would allow the school district to continue current operations. The school district will not be hiring additional teachers and will not be adding any new programs, Zydowsky said.
Enough money
Having enough money to continue operations is a state-wide problem, and 82 percent of the school districts have held operational referendums, Zydowsky said.
According to a report by National Public Radio dated April 5, 2023, 249 of the state’s 421 (59 percent) of school districts are running under an operational referendum, according to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
According to a 2021 report by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Boyceville had an allowable revenue limit per pupil of $10,178, while Colfax had a revenue limit per pupil of $10,627 and Elk Mound had a revenue limit per pupil of $10,178.
Menomonie had a revenue limit per pupil of $10,329, while Chippewa Falls had a revenue limit of $10,772 per pupil and Eau Claire had a revenue limit of $10,885.
In Dunn County, the Colfax school district, the Elk Mound school district and the Boyceville school district have not held operational referendums.
Colfax and Elk Mound’s recent referendums, as well as the upcoming Boyceville referendum, have all been for improvements to the school buildings.
Reducing operations
Without additional funding, the Menomonie School District will have to reduce operations, which includes closing schools and reducing programs, Zydowsky said.
State-imposed revenue limits, when indexed to inflation, show that Menomonie is receiving less money for the revenue limit than other school districts and less than the state average, he said.
According to Legislative Fiscal Bureau report in 2021, the state average for the per pupil revenue limit was $11,450.
Menomonie is falling behind other school districts, such as Hudson, Rice Lake, Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, Zydowsky said.
River Falls will be holding an operational and building referendum, while Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire will be holding referendums in April, and New Richmond will be holding a building referendum, he said.
If the referendum in Menomonie does not pass, the school district will have larger class sizes, will have less academic support, will have fewer qualified teachers, and will have reduced transportation with longer bus rides and fewer stops, Zydowsky said.
In addition, some elementary schools will be closed, there will will be fewer summer school classes, the district will have outdated technology, there will be higher fees, maintenance will have to be deferred, and there will be fewer extra-curricular activities, he said.
The Menomonie school district has five elementary schools, which includes two outside of Menomonie, one in Downsville and one in Knapp, as well as the middle school and the high school, Zydowsky noted.
Cost
The referendum would cost taxpayers $82 per $100,000 of property valuation, Zydowsky said.
The referendum would add 82 cents to the mill rate starting with 2024. For most people, the additional referendum amount would be $14 to $20 per month, he said.
An additional $14 per month would add $168 to the annual property tax bill, while $20 per month would add $240 to the annual property tax bill.
A property valued at $300,000 would be assessed about $250 more in taxes every year for the operational referendum.
The increase will not be for three years, or five years or seven years, but rather will be recurring every year, Zydowsky said.
“A short-term referendum would be a Bandaid on a long-term problem,” he said.
A short-term referendum would create a “fiscal cliff” three years, or five years or seven years from now, Zydowsky said.
Why February?
Larry Bjork, county board supervisor from Menomonie, asked why, with the cost of holding an election, the referendum was being held February 20 rather than during the spring election on April 2.
Bjork also wondered why people who are property owners have the responsibility for paying the referendum money and what about people with children in school who are not property owners?
Why are schools not funded with an additional sales tax? Bjork asked.
The school board has typically had a primary election in February almost every other year but not this year, Zydowsky said.
The referendum is being held February 20 because it is important to know what revenue will be available for the following school year. Students are already signing up for classes next year, he said.
By April, the employee pools will be dwindling, and Menomonie will need to know how much money is available to hire new teachers, Zydowsky said.
How schools are funded in Wisconsin is a problem, especially when the state is sitting on a multi-billion dollar surplus, he said.
Zydowsky said he has talked to the local state representatives about school funding and does not understand why the state is not funding schools and providing property tax relief.
Other business
In other business, the Dunn County Board:
• Amended the Dunn County supervisory district map for Districts 24 and 23 to reflect annexation by the City of Menomonie. On November 6, 2023, the Menomonie city council adopted an ordinance approving the annexation of one parcel of real property. The annexed portion of property has an estimated population of zero.
• Approved a plan for “enterprise resource planning.” Dunn County is working on changing or updating the current SAP computer system, said Vaughn Hedlund, county board supervisor from Boyceville and chair of the Committee on Administration. The system that runs the county’s SAP runs on a system that will discontinue by 2027, he said. KT Gallagher, director of the Dunn County Health Department, has agreed to manage the project to select and implement the new system over the next 18 to 24 months, and other employees in the health department will backfill her duties, Hedlund said. “Out of class” pay for three individuals will cost $19,143 for 2024, but a budget adjustment is not needed as the costs can be absorbed with existing funding.
• Approved amending the employee handbook regarding vacation time for new employees. In 2022, the vacation policy was amended to allow department heads to offer a bank of vacation time to new employees as a tool for recruitment. The previous amendment did not include language about the payout for vacation if the new hire left the county’s employment in good standing shortly after hire. The revision of the policy will not allow a payout of the initial vacation bank provided upon hire if the employee leaves employment within the first year.
• Adopted the 2024 legislative agenda with a list of priorities that will be communicated to state Legislators, such as increasing state funding for Aging and Disability Resource Centers, increasing funding for the Birth to 3 program, increasing funding for mental health services, increasing the property tax levy limit for programs that the state requires the counties to implement but for which the state does not providing full funding, and legislative reform of the funding structure of the Wisconsin Technical College System, which currently relies on local property taxes that are spent by boards of directors who are appointed and not elected by the local property taxpayers.
• Approved public participation procedures for the update of Dunn County’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan. State law requires that the comprehensive plans be updated every 10 years. The Planning, Resources and Development Committee will be working on updating the comprehensive plan. Public comment is welcome at all PR&D committee meetings. The county will be developing a survey to gather public opinion, and there will be several public hearings about updating the comprehensive land use plan.
The Dunn County Board meets next on February 21, beginning at 5:30 p.m. with a meet and greet with local state Legislators; a legislative agenda presentation at 6 p.m.; and the regular monthly meeting of the Dunn County Board at 7 p.m.
