The Mercer School District has a number of needs and funding is not keeping up with them, in fact it’s been declining.
“We're seeing declining revenue limit authority, which means taxes decreasing in our area due to declining membership,” said District Administrator Renae McMurray. “It means fewer students are living in our area, and we're receiving less funding. We're anticipating that between last year and next year we'll see a decline in revenue of about $500,000.”
The district needs additional funding to maintain its current level of staffing, add additional staff, keep programming offerings, and make sure class sizes stay small.
It also needs to make updates to its HVAC and electrical systems. Both of the district’s boilers are past their life expectancy.
“It's very hard to teach in Wisconsin without heat on during the winter,” said McMurray.
The referendum question on April 2nd asks voters in the Mercer School District if they approve increasing the revenue limit by $800,000 and maintain that level for five years.
The current mill rate is $3.72 per $1,000 of equalized property value. If the referendum passes, McMurray says it would increase to $4.84 per $1,000 of equalized property value. That comes to an increase of about $112 for every $100,000 of equalized property value.
Voters last passed a reoccurring referendum for the district 11 years ago.
“Money doesn't have the same value as it had 10 years ago. With inflation going up the costs of things increase, and there's usually a need for additional funding,” said McMurray. “What we've seen is pretty flat school funding for a long time with no increases over time, while expenses have been increasing.”
A referendum last year failed by about two dozen votes. That led the district to eliminate some staff positions and made other changes to cut the budget by about $300,000.
The district will be looking at more cuts if the referendum fails again on April 2nd.
“My biggest message to people is to make sure they go out and vote April 2nd so the school district knows what the community would like to see for its local school. Again, we're looking at supporting facility improvements, making sure that we can hire key staff, and attract and retain the staff that we have,” said McMurray.
You can find more details about the referendum on the Mercer School District website.
The district is one of 85 statewide going to referendum this election.
