MARATHON CITY, WI (WSAU) — School leaders in Marathon City are in the process of gauging interest in a building referendum that could go to voters in November.
“A little over a year ago we contracted with PRA architects to do a K-12 facilities study. The results showed there is a need for space for classrooms, upgrading some things in regards to maintenance, as well as some security and safe entrance things we have talked about,” said District Superintendent Richard Parks. After receiving that information, a committee developed a community survey sent to voters to see if the idea would pass.
Consultants are expected to get the results of that survey back to the district in mid-June, at which time they will determine their next course of action. Parks says he does not have a specific dollar amount attached to the referendum, instead, they’ll determine that once they see the results. “The survey is broken into a few different groups. One is a question regarding operational dollars to exceed the revenue limit.” He says that means the excess tax dollars would be used to run the day-to-day operations of the district.
The second question on the survey involves possibilities for facility remodels or upgrades. “There are actually four general areas that are addressed in the survey, each one of them comes with varying dollar amounts. So I don’t have a sense of where things may end because there are so many options in the survey.”
Parks adds that many of the space challenges facing the district come in two forms. First, they are seeing a slight uptick in open enrollment in certain grades. They’ve also been transitioning from traditional classroom settings to a more open-collaborative setup, which allows for fewer students per classroom.
Should the district choose to move forward with a referendum it would be voted on during the mid-term election in November.
