Hencsik presents referendum to Gillett council

Gillett District Administrator Todd Hencisk presented the proposed referendum to the Gillett City Council during their council meeting on March 3.

It will be on the April 5 ballot.

Gillett community members and voters approved an operational referendum in 2018 that provided three years of additional funding for the school district. The operational referendum ends at the end of the 2021-22 school year. Hencsik and the school board are asking voters to consider supporting an extentsion of the operational referendum for an additional three years.

“The reason that we are asking our community to exceed the revenue limit is because of a few reasons,” said Hencsik. “Number one, the state has not increased the revenue floor so that we can continue to offer the prgrams that you have come to expect from us. We want to continue to have small class sizes. We want to continue to offer CTE (career and technical education) classes, including ag classes, as well as traditional shop classes. We want to continue to offer our best elective courses, including Spanish and fine arts.”

The school district is asking to exceed its revenue limit by $450,000 each year for the next three years.

“This referendum will allow us to maintain the current programming and services within the school district,” said Hencsik. “This will all happen while also lowering the mill rate from the $9.17 that it is right now.”

Hencsik also went over the options that the school district would have to consider if the referendum fails.

“We will have to look at cuts to the current programs and services that we have within the school district,” said Hencsik. “While we are not endorsing any cuts, we did give out a survey to our taxpayers in our community. We will look to that and look to those ideas, but the reality is, we will need to trim our budget with some difficult decisions.”

Council member Matthew Stroik asked why the school district isn’t looking at asking to exceed the revenue limit by $600,000, like they previously did in 2018.

“We did not use all of that money,” said Hencsik. “We thought that we would go for $450,000 because that is a more reasonable amount based on what we have spent in the past.”

Mayor Josh McCarthy said that Gillett is looking into getting more housing available in the area to help boost enrollment in the high school, which could help increase the revenue limit.

If voted for, the referendum will go into effect for the 2022-23 school year.

Questions regarding the referendum can be answered by emailing TigerPride@gillett.k12.wi.us or by visiting the school district’s website and viewing the frequently asked questions page.

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com