Dear Editor,

We are writing to you as the seven elected members of the New Glarus School Board to urge our community to support the April 4, 2023, operating referendum. Our school district faces financial challenges because the state has not increased per-pupil funding support for the past two years despite significant inflation. At the same time, state teacher shortages have created intense competition for the best educators and staff. We are not alone in these challenges. In 2022, 92 school districts had operational referenda on the ballot with 82% passing, and over 80 more are on the ballot in April.

To respond, we are asking district voters for permission to shift money from paying off low-interest debt early (some as low as 2.0%) in order to repurpose those dollars to operating expenses, while also reducing the school tax rate. The tax rate reduction is intended to balance the April referendum’s impact to taxes, minimizing it as much as possible. We know community members - including School Board members - saw a 2023 school tax increase despite action we took last fall to reduce the school tax rate. Low interest rates and intense housing competition led to the higher than expected area home valuations. This, in turn, led to higher taxes. We have been advised area home values are not expected to increase as significantly this year due to rising interest rates. This gives us the opportunity to offset the referendum’s impact by decreasing the tax rate.

If the April 4 referendum fails, the School Board will likely need to make significant spending cuts that will likely reduce the quality of education New Glarus School District students receive. We will also likely need to short-term borrow as we spend down our reserves. This would be a very unfortunate outcome. The New Glarus School District is one of Wisconsin’s highest performing school districts and our goal is to achieve an even higher performance in the coming years.

Finally, the referendum is non-recurring. This means the impact will not be permanent, but rather, will last for three years. We would have to come back to the voters in 2027 if we sought further funding.

We will hold a referendum information session on March 14, from 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m., in the High School Auditorium. Additional details about the operating referendum can be found on the district website at https://www.ngsd.k12.wi.us under the “Referendum” tab. In the interim, we welcome your questions and comments. Thank you for your consideration and please vote on April 4.

Sincerely,

Bill Oemichen, President; Larry Stuessy, Vice President; Travis Zimmerman, Treasurer; Corrine Hendrickson, Clerk; Cari Ann Muggenburg, Director; Casey Umhoefer, Director; Ron Roesslein, Director