Colfax school referendum passes with 70 percent of the vote

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  A referendum question to authorize the Colfax school district to spend $7.2 million for school improvements passed with 70 percent of the vote in the November 8 election.

All together, the referendum received 1,690 “yes” votes to 720 “no” votes, reported Bill Yingst, school superintendent, at a special meeting November 9 of the Colfax Board of Education to certify the referendum results.

The school board is required to canvass the ballots and to issue a Certificate of the Board of Canvassers, Yingst said.

“This is excellent … the students, the parents and the community are the winners. This is something for our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren,” he said.

Ken Neuburg, Board of Education member, asked if Yingst had any information about the percentage of voter turnout in the school district.

Yingst said he did not have statistics about the Colfax school district in general but that the Town of Colfax had reported an 80 percent voter turnout.

“People voted and were supportive of us,” Yingst said.

Lynn Niggemann, village-administrator-clerk-treasurer reported at a village budget meeting November 10 that voter turnout in Colfax had been 78.6 percent.

News sources have reported, however, that overall, the turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest point in 20 years.

The Certificate of the Board of Canvassers states, “A referendum election was held in the District on November 8, 2016, on the question of whether general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $7,200,000 should be issued for the public purpose of paying the cost of a District-wide school improvement program consisting of additions, renovations and remodeling for classroom space and technical education/Science, Technology, Engineering and Math expansion; safety, security and building infrastructure improvement; demolition of temporary classrooms; construction of a bus maintenance building and replacement of buses; and acquisitions of furnishings, fixtures and equipment.”

The Board of Education unanimously passed a motion to approve the referendum based on the vote tallies from the November 8 election with 1,690 “yes” votes and 720 “no” votes.

Vote tally

Here is the tally of the 2,410 votes from the municipalities in the Colfax school district for the referendum question:

• Village of Colfax: 419 “yes” and 105 “no” (80 percent yes).

• Town of Colfax: 415 “yes” and 105 “no” (80 percent yes).

• Town of Cooks Valley: 24 “yes” and 10 “no” (71 percent yes).

• Town of Elk Mound: 18 “yes” and 3 “no” (86 percent yes).

• Town of Grant: 153 “yes” and 79 “no” (66 percent yes).

• Town of Hay River: 1 “yes” and 1 “no.”

• Town of Howard: 127 “yes” and 58 “no” (69 percent yes).

• Town of Otter Creek: 137 “yes” and 88 “no.” (61 percent yes).

• Town of Red Cedar: 29 “yes” and 13 “no” (69 percent yes).

• Town of Sand Creek: 60 “yes” and 18 “no” (77 percent yes).

• Town of Tainter: 229 “yes” and 85 “no” (73 percent yes).

• Town of Wilson: 78 “yes” and 69 “no” (53 percent yes).

Tax levy

The Colfax Board of Education approved two tax levies at the October 24 board meeting for the 2016-2017 school year — $2.9 million based on approval of the $7.2 million referendum question and $2.6 million based on the referendum not being approved.

The tax levy set by the Board of Education if the referendum question was approved is $250,000 more for debt service at $2,874,162.

The tax levy for the 2015-2016 school year was $2,569,128.

What’s next

“We cleared a big hurdle yesterday (November 8),” Yingst said.

The next step in the process will be for the school board to select an architect for the construction projects, he said.

Yingst said he had spoken with Tom Twohig of SDS Architects the day of the special school board meeting and that Twohig would be unable to attend the the board’s next regular meeting on November 21.

The school board “will have to hold some extra meetings as we go through,” Yingst said.

The Colfax Board of Education set a special meeting for November 17 at 6 p.m. to listen to a proposal from SDS Architects and to obtain information about timelines and the bid process.

Other referenda

Yingst distributed information to the Colfax Board of Education about other school referendum questions in the November 8 election from Baird Public Finance, the school district’s financial consultant.

In all, 47 school district went to referendum November 8 that included 42 questions asking to issue debt totaling $1.1 billion; 14 questions asking to exceed the revenue limit on a non-recurring basis in an amount totaling $158 million; and 11 questions asking residents to exceed the revenue limit on a recurring basis in an amount up to $40.26 million per year.

The result was that referendum questions were approved in 42 school districts: 34 debt questions passed totaling $804 million; 11 non-recurring questions passed totaling $143 million; and ten recurring questions passed totaling $40.09 million.

During the November 8 election, all together, voters in Wisconsin approved an additional $988 million in spending for their local schools.

Eau Claire

A school referendum question in Eau Claire asking for $5.86 million more per year for the next 15 years, for a total of about $88 million, to cover operating expenses and building upgrades was approved with about 27,000 “yes” votes to about 15,000 “no” votes.

Chippewa Falls

Two referendum questions totaling $159.2 million in Chippewa Falls both failed.

Question 1 would have replaced Stillson Elementary and upgraded and expanded other schools

Question 2 would have built a new high school, turned the present middle school into an elementary school and turned Hillcrest Elementary into an alternative high school.