The West Bend School District is holding a crucial referendum on November 5, 2024, seeking approval for $106.25 million in funding to address urgent facility needs across the district. Superintendent Jennifer Wimmer joins me to discuss the details of this referendum, including significant upgrades to school safety, infrastructure improvements, and the closure of several aging schools. The proposed plan aims to enhance security measures, such as secure entrances and updated fire alarm systems, while also addressing classroom sizes and outdated facilities. Jen explains the financial implications for taxpayers, highlighting that the projected mill rate will remain lower than in previous years, making this a timely opportunity for taxpayers in the district. Join Jen and I as we dive into the specifics of the referendum and explore how it will impact students, families, and the broader West Bend community.

Links referenced in this episode:

• wbsdreferendum2024.org
• fuzzmartin.com

Hello, friends, and welcome to another wonderful edition episode, whatever you want to call it, of 15 Minutes with fuzz.

My name is Fuzz Martin, and this is a show about the positive things happening in and around Washington County, Wisconsin.

And while this show does not do politics, every so often, usually about twice a year, I speak with local officials about referendums that will be on your local ballots.

Why?

Because it's important that you know about them.

No, I do not talk about strictly political referendums, not the statewide referendums.

I talk about local referendums that have a direct effect on your community, school safety, taxes, et cetera.

And this week is one of those weeks.

You may have seen an ad or two on tv, or maybe you've gotten a text message from your favorite flavor of politician asking for money.

Well, on the ballot in the West Bend School district will also be a referendum question regarding facility needs in the district.

And this week, Jennifer Wimmer, West Bends school superintendent, joins me to explain the need for the referendum, discuss what is in the referendum and what to expect if it passes or if it doesn't.

And with that, here are 15 minutes on the West Bend school District facilities referendum with Jen Wimmer on 15 minutes with fuzz.

Jen, thanks for joining me.

So first, can you please read the exact wording of the referendum before we start anything so that listeners know exactly what to expect on the ballot on Tuesday, November 5?

Happy to.

The exact wording will include, shall the West Bend Joint School District number one, Washington County, Wisconsin, be authorized to issue, pursuant to chapter 67 of the Wisconsin statutes, general obligation bonds, in an amount not to exceed $106,250,000 for the public purpose of paying the cost of a district wide school building and facility improvement project consisting of construction of a new Jackson elementary building on district owned land renovations and construction of additions, including for safe and secure entrances at East west high schools renovations, including new safe, secure entrances and grade level configurations at Greentree and McLean schools, renovations and grade level reconfiguration at Silverbrook and Badger schools.

District wide capital maintenance and site improvements and acquisition of furnishing fixtures and equipment.

So that's exactly how people will see it when they see it on the ballot on November 5 for those in the West Bend school district.

And then there's also a financial disclosure statement, right?

Is that, yeah, we have a little.

Bit more information that we provide to our community.

So while you won't see some of that text on the ballot, that ballot focuses on exactly the dollar amount being borrowed.

So we are estimating the tax rate impact of the referendum repayment will be $1.02 per thousand in property value, which will cover the $165,450,000 total debt service, including the 106.25 million of principal and the estimated 59.2 million of interest at 20 year rate borrowed at 4.75%.

So the interest rates are trending better and may result in lower interest costs over time, but we make sure and have all that information available.

So we do have some estimates around the number of years and the interest rate.

So our preliminary tax impact estimates are based on a 2% annual market property value growth.

So we always make sure and include some of those estimates and they can be found on our website as well as the mailing that our family should have received.

Very good.

So we've got the, the actual words that are on the ballot and we've got the financial disclosure out of the way.

I know there's a lot involved with this, so it involves a number of the schools and facilities and some closures, some upgrades.

Can you talk about that?

I sure can.

So I would just want to remind everyone that they should have received a mailing that provides the financial information we covered as well as the key components that I'm going to address today.

Sure.

If you didn't receive that, that's also found on our website.

Biggest pieces in the proposal include closures.

So for our closures, we have Decora elementary, fair Park elementary, and the current Jackson elementary schools would all be closed, with Jackson Elementary School being rebuilt on property that the district already owns, the Rolfs Education center and the Education Service center, if people aren't familiar with them.

Right across the street from Badger is our education service center that serves as our district office, has some additional programs in it.

So that's the district operational building.

And then behind it is that Ralph's education center that has a couple classrooms of our early learning program.

So our early learning program is embedded throughout the community.

So I'm not talking about closure of that program, just moving a couple of those key classrooms.

So then after closure of that early learning property, those would go to McLean and Greentree.

Okay.

And Silverbrook would be converted from grades five and six campus into a larger elementary campus for the future.

Okay.

And then how does that then affect Badger and such moving forward?

So we would have additional reconfigurations.

Badger was always designed as a grade six through eight middle school.

So we would restore that, so we would have that key piece, so those configurations, those closures would occur.

And then in addition, we would have renovations for safety improvements for all of our remaining campuses.

They would receive safe and secure entrances at East west high schools, McLean, Greentree.

They already existed at Silverbrook and Badger, but we could take care of that and then we would simply be able to avoid costs of future capital improvements on those campuses that we would close.

So safety is that big focus, one of the big focuses of the referendum.

What specific issues have you identified at the schools that need those upgrades and how does the referendum address those issues?

Sure.

So one of the largest things that we talk about, maybe the most visible that you can see or feel is when you walk into a school and you have immediate access to the full school.

So if you were walking into McLean, once you get buzzed into the office, then you have full opportunity to go anywhere with the building.

We're counting on our visitors to go to the office versus what we call a secure entry sequence.

So if you visit Badger or Silverbrook, you get buzzed in.

You can go right just to the office suite where you're in that locked office suite of, it's there where you're asked to produce an id.

You get scanned through our raptor system, you get your background check, and then you are authorized to have access with your visitor badging to certain areas of the campus.

So right now, again, if you are at the high schools, we have central office operations.

You get buzzed in at a kiosk and then you have to make your way all the way to the middle of the school to attend those offices.

So that's the largest piece, safety and security.

Another fundamental piece are upgraded upgrades to our fire alarm systems, our public address systems that allow us to do alerts, notifications, all of those.

Those are some of the most critical safety pieces included in the referendum.

Sure.

And then these are meant to then help secure the buildings for years to come then, right?

Correct.

If this referendum goes through, a number of your buildings are going to be remodeled.

What will the plan for the remodeling of those schools look like?

Will that be a big disruption in those schools, in those classrooms and such?

Well, we try not to disrupt class.

So if you are a school and you're receiving some upgrades, some pieces of that referendum.

We would plan for that in the summer or breaks or things of that nature.

So we would look at that.

So it's quite a large Runway.

When we think about the changes associated with the referendum.

They're in three years time, because we're going to be designing, Jackson, putting shovels in the ground, doing that configuration when that school is complete and ready to come online.

So then when we do that, so again, the other phases we will stage, whether it's summer, whether it's part of a building that got closed, those pieces.

So we kind of do it.

So it's staged.

Yeah.

So, okay.

Navigating the school calendar that we have.

Right, exactly.

Okay, great.

So, Jen, obviously, a lot goes into developing a plan that is, you know, 100 million plus in a referendum.

What kind of input goes into this?

How does designing a process like this come to be?

What all went into putting this together?

So this is a culmination of over a year's work.

We launched with a full process that included a comprehensive assessment with our partners from EUA, cost estimating from Findorf, and we worked with our financial advisors from RW Baird.

So all of those components, and we had robust community engagement.

We had community engagement sessions in person.

You had an opportunity to provide information via survey.

And we worked with those groups to, again, kind of bring all that information together to make a recommendation of what could or should be included in phase one.

Again, hearing and reinforce from our community around, attend to safety, security, as well as the most critical needs first.

So that's what brought us to identifying.

Phase one from a timing and financial perspective.

The district had some recently had some debt come off.

If I'm saying this incorrectly, please let me know.

And so when we talk about the financial implications of this referendum, there's the mill rate, right?

And now the mill rate is much lower than it had been, and now this only adds a dollar back to that.

Is that correct?

Can you tell us about the financial implications of the referendum for the taxpayers.

A mill rate, as you talk about, is a taxation rate.

So when community members open those tax bills, there's several taxing authority, whether it's the government, the schools, any technical school that is in their boundaries.

So that's establishing that taxation rate.

So we still have to write the final checks.

They're sitting in interest bearing accounts.

But we did that last levy.

I believe it was 632.

I'd have to double check on that piece.

Just last year, the mill rate was 520 and this projected year, because again, that falling debt is projected at 485.

So that dollar two then is added back.

So we're looking at 587 as a projected mill rate, which is much less than just over a year ago that our taxpayers experienced.

We're one of the few districts that is debt free.

So taking on the debt to look into the future of the school district and getting the school district right, that you saw this as the right time for a referendum of this magnitude, I guess.

Well, what you learn is that all construction costs and the costs of maintenance, they never really get to go down.

So waiting may increase our costs over time.

So we looked at the timing of and sensitive to, you know, inflation hitting homeowners in those pieces.

But again, we have a high rating, which means we can borrow at good rates.

Those rates are still favorable and falling.

And then again, that larger picture, it was at 637 in the past.

This is still delivering, this referendum, its principal plus its interest, at a rate less than just over a year ago for our community members.

So again, looking at a 587 projection is one of the lowest in the county and one of the lowest in the state.

Great.

How will the referendum benefit the community as a whole here in the district, the area served by the district, both in the short term and the long term of this referendum?

Short term, you look at those safety pieces.

So those are an immediate impact for us, for our students, for our families, for people who use our buildings long term.

You know, I talked about that impact of taking a lot of square footage offline.

You know, we're reducing from ten buildings down to six, which means I avoid $51 million in capital maintenance.

So the dollars that I do have allocated stretch further faster in those future years.

And you talked a little bit about its impact on the full community, whether or not you have students.

In our schools, we are associated with our private and parochial partners.

So we provide clubs, co curriculars, transportation, and then as well as community members.

So the community, they really are the community schools, and we want them to be well maintained and take us into the next step of the future.

Sure.

Speaking of that, I skipped over something I was going to ask you earlier.

Sure.

You're building a new elementary school in Jackson.

What led to the decision to build a new school in Jackson over the current facility?

What's the need for the new facility in Jackson?

Sure.

So the facilities that we identified, foreclosure, specifically the three schools, were some of the lowest rated schools as far as their mechanicals, site, amenities, all those pieces.

So then they factored what would it cost per square foot to invest in those, to bring those up to speed, some of the highest costs at whether it was Decora, fair park or Jackson specifically, why rebuild Jackson versus not rebuilding the other two?

It's because of the we serve over 105 sq mi with our geographic footprint.

So the reality of putting four and five year olds on a bus to travel much farther distance would result in a bus ride that would be an hour and a half.

So maintaining a footprint in Jackson, which is part of our school district, it's also one of the fastest growing communities in which we serve.

Can you elaborate on the timeline for these projects?

So if the referendum is approved on November 5, when can the community expect to see the first changes come to light?

If approved, we go into the design phase of Jackson.

So that work still needs to be done for the remainder of this year.

But kind of where you feel that difference is when that new school opens and all those grade level configurations occur.

Very good.

If the referendum does not pass, what does that mean for students, the community, the district as a whole?

One of the pieces that we would need to attend to is closure of Fair park and Decorah schools one year earlier.

The board just had this conversation at their last Monday meeting and just talked about the significant of dollars that we would have to invest in some of the other schools needing capital maintenance and making that work out of our current budgets.

So beginning with the 26th, 27th school year, that's when we would close out Fair park and Decorah because we wouldn't have to wait for Jackson to get built.

So we can take care of that closure a little bit earlier and then garner those dollars so that we don't have to contribute towards some of that capital maintenance.

So additionally, then all the grade six, eight kids would attend Badger and then Silverbrook would be brought online as part of that in that 26, 27 school year.

It's just that we would then follow a year later with our district office operations and the Rolfs Early Learning center.

So we would take care of those pieces because again, we're trying to offset having to invest in the schools out of our regular operating budget.

So getting through that closure plan.

So we just need to look at how we allocate that and what we're going to really need to address the infrastructure and capital improvements at Jackson.

Sure.

Okay.

And then those schools have some, like, very old infrastructure.

I mean, if you look at it, it looks like, like an old school, like almost Willy Wonka kind of style.

I said, I'm not sure if it's on our website exactly, but the fair park boilers look like a scene from Freddy Krueger movies.

It's got that old.

And they're just getting to the point where you cannot continue to maintain the H Vac, those roofs, some of those sections, so those kinds of things.

But we would make sure and still move forward with closures.

Sure.

If community members want to learn more about the referendum and its potential impact on the district, their taxes, those kind of things, where can they learn more?

Absolutely.

If they were unable to attend an open house or a coffee with us, go to our website.

So if you go to the school district website there on the far right hand side, there's an isolated referendum tab.

Or you can just type in wbsdreferendum two zero two four dot org dot that takes you right to that site.

It will have that mailing that went out and additional information that comprehensive facilities assessment I'm talking about.

All right.

Well, Jen, thank you very much for coming in and explaining it to everyone.

I appreciate your time.

I know you've been talking a lot about this, so to talk about it one more time, I appreciate your time.

I appreciate it as well.

Thank you again so much to Jen Wimmer of the West Bend School District for joining me on this week's episode of 15 minutes with Fuzz.

Always nice to talk to Jen, and she's always very informative.

Again, the referendum is on Tuesday, November 5, and early in person.

Absentee voting starts on Tuesday, October 22.

At least in the city of West Bend.

Check with your local clerk to find.

Out when and where you can vote.

If you ever have an idea for the show, you can hit me up.

Fuzzmartin.com that is fuzmartin.com.

you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and on fuzzmartin.com.

or if you prefer, the show's pretty much available on any podcast platform you could possibly imagine.

We're everywhere, baby.

Thank you so much for listening.

And I will talk to you next week right here on 15 Minutes with Fuzz.