The Shawano School Board is going back to the drawing board as the $54.5 million referendum failed by 75 votes earlier this month.
Representatives from Hoffman Planning and Design, which has been working with the school district for over a year to plan and sell the referendum to voters, spoke to board members about the loss and what needs to be done to present a revised proposal to voters when the November election comes around. Jody Anders, Hoffman’s school specialist, noted that there was lower voter turnout than expected on April 2 in the area, blamed on two key factors — a winter storm that started on the afternoon of Election Day and the fact that the schools were on spring break the week of the election.
“That was tough. We knew it was going to be close, but obviously we were hoping it would be the other way,” Anders said.
During the last presidential primary, the turnout at the polls was around 45%, according to Anders. The two biggest voter strongholds, the city of Shawano and the Town of Wescott, had voter turnout hovering this month on either side of 36%. District-wide, the voter turnout in April was about 40%.
“If you’d been in that 40% range for Shawano and Wescott, you would have had another 200-300 votes,” Anders said. “You can safely say there were some people impacted by the timing of the referendum.”
More voter turnout is a definite in the November elections, with some municipalities seeing voter turnout as high as 90%, according to Anders, who suggested that brings a better likelihood that a second kick at the can would be successful. To do that, however, he recommended taking another look at the proposed projects that could be paid for under the referendum and making sure voters understand exactly why those projects are designated as needs and not wants.
“Having the message out there and getting people to the polls and help them to make an informed decision becomes a little bigger task,” Anders said. “Statistics have shown that the more people you have show up, like at a presidential election, the higher your odds for being successful.”
To do that is going to require a lot of information gathering, Anders noted. The district has three listening sessions this month to get public input on what needs to be altered to make the next referendum a successful one. There are at least two workshops planned between Hoffman and the school board to fine tune things, and another survey is planned to go out in mid-June to gauge what the public will support.
Board member John Arens dismissed the idea that the listening sessions would move the needle on the district’s plans for the future.
“I think they’re going to be a total waste of time,” Arens said. “What we’re going to see here is the same outcome seen in Shiocton. There’s a silent majority out there. They’re not coming to these listening sessions. They’re not going to give us their opinions, and they’re not going to tell us why.”
He also criticized Hoffman’s marketing efforts, which didn’t include making sure that department heads at the schools had all the information on the individual projects and mailings that didn’t reach everyone in the district.
“We did not consult the department heads that were affected by the changes we were going to make, or the additions. They had nothing to tell people,” Arens said. “The community really looks to them. They should have been in the know.
“We hired a company who was supposed to be able to do this, who said they are going to help us with marketing, and the best that we get is a half-sheet of paper when we call for a postcard.”
Board member Jeana Winslow disagreed that Hoffman’s marketing efforts fell short of expectations.
“All of the information I received in the mail, my husband was very happy with it,” Winslow said. “I felt it was very well written, and it was timely. There was enough space in between the information coming out.”
Board member Bobbi Lemerond noted that one flaw in the marketing was that some of the postcards were sent to Gresham addresses, even though Shawano and Gresham have had separate school districts for more than a decade. She suggested that the next information campaign should explain why projects are needed.
“People were saying, ‘You should focus on the needs, not the wants,’” Lemerond said. “People didn’t realize that the addition for the performing arts wasn’t a want. It was a completion of a project that was never finished. The way it was presented, it looked like we were asking for something extra.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
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