Representatives of a couple of firms that have worked with school districts to pass referendums told the Clintonville Board of Education it takes time to develop a successful campaign.
Matthew Wolfert, of Bray Architects, and Craig Uhlenbrauck, of Miron Construction, attended the Clintonville Board of Education meeting on Jan. 12 to discuss a process for determining facility needs in the district.
The board recently asked administrators to develop cost estimates to address facility needs at the Rexford/Longfellow School and the district’s 1918 school building.
“This is like putting the cart before the horse,” Uhlenbrauck said. “This needs to be a community-based local decision.”
Uhlenbrauck said his firm recently worked with districts in Black River Falls and Shawano on successful referendums and has a 87 percent success rate in the last six years.
The planning does not happen in a couple of months, he said. He said there needs to be a facilities study on plumbing and infrastructure, a survey of community residents, and a task force of 20 to 30 people that will develop budgets and options.
Uhlenbrauck said the district would need at least 400 responses to the survey to gauge how much the community will support in a referendum.
“You then need to listen to the survey,” he said. “Seventy percent of the community is non-parent, non-staff.”
Pre-referendum work, including the survey, costs less than $10,000, Wolfert said.
He said the process could be started now, with a survey in September and a referendum the following April.
“Referendums seem to pass easier when there is a presidential election, but go when you’re ready,” Uhlenbrauck said. “You want strong community support and a unanimous board.”
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