Voters in the Oconto Unified School District will decide Nov. 4 whether to OK funding for fire sprinklers, educational needs, and building maintenance and renovations at the district’s three schools.
Two referendum questions with costs totaling $9 million will be on the ballot.
Oconto Superintendent Aaron Malczewski said the referendum proposals grew out of a facility analysis performed in 2012 that identified $50 million in necessary and wish-list projects. A community advisory team whittled the list down to $12 million, and the community was surveyed to gauge its support.
Ultimately, the School Board and administration decided on the $7.6 million proposal. The second question, for $1.5 million for sprinker systems, was recently added by the board.
“I’m very confident the process that was taken was very transparent to the public,” Malczewski said. “They knew where we were going, and we took their input. We based our questions on that input.”
He said the School Board has developed a “very purposeful plan” that addresses the needs of aging facilities and equipment and avoids a crisis situation in which costly emergency repairs would be necessary.
“We know where our needs are. Our goal is to create a plan that we can do these projects on our terms,” he said.
The first referendum question asks for $7.6 million for a long list of building upgrades: replacing the heating system at the high school, repairing roofs, upgrading the middle school fire alarm system, renovating the high school and middle school kitchens, upgrading the high school and middle school plumbing, electrical, heating and ventilation systems, replacing the high school lockers, updating the high school auditorium and replacing the elementary school boilers.
The upgrades will result in energy efficiency at all schools in the district. For example, replacing the 1969 high school heating system is projected to save 20 to 25 percent is energy costs annually.
In addition, Question 1 would supply students in grades five to eight with individualized computers and students in kindergarten to fourth grade with computer stations. High school classroom renovations are proposed for the tech ed department and science classrooms. The referendum would also fund the development of health care classrooms and an online learning lab.
Question 2 asks voters to approve $1.5 million to retrofit the elementary, middle and high schools with fire sprinkler systems. A fire at the high school last spring prompted the School Board to add the question. The fire sprinkler issue was not a part of the community survey, so the board added it as a stand-alone question.
“We did not know what the community would say,” Malczewski said. “We did not want the whole thing to fail as the result of that question.”
A lower tax rate approved Monday by the School Board means taxpayers would pay about 23 cents less per $1,000 of equalized property value, or $23 on a $100,000 home, in school taxes for 2015 if neither referendum question is approved.
If voters approve both referendum questions, the additional tax rate would be 48 cents per $1,000, or $48 on a $100,000 home, for 10 years, according to the district. Question No. 1 would require a tax rate of about 35 cents per $1,000 equalized property value, or $35 on a $100,000 home, for nine years. Question No. 2 would yield a decrease compared to last year’s rate of about 7 cents per $1,000, for six years.
The district proposes financing the referendum proposals with long-term bonds.
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