A Summary of April 1 School District Referendums

George Hesselberg:

In what has become a semi-annual exercise in public solicitation — some might call it survival — scores of the state's 426 school districts will ask voters for more money April 1.

Forty-one districts will be holding referendums to issue bonds or exceed state-mandated revenue limits. The requests are in addition to the 14 school referendums in last month's primary. (Of those, six passed and eight failed.)

The districts are not just asking for money to build schools. They need it to fix roofs, update textbooks, upgrade computers and, in some cases, just keep up the upkeep.

Administrators have led citizens, some querulous, others just curious, on tours of buildings to point out the leaks, the rust, the crumbling concrete.

In southwestern Wisconsin, six school districts have the unfortunate coincidence of asking for extra cash at the same time as the area technical college.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 17, 2008 12:00 AM
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