On Tuesday, April 2nd, Seymour Community Schools are asking residents to head to the polls and cast an informed vote on the district’s operational referendum question. The operational referendum is for three years and a total of $15 million dollars without raising the tax rate. We will share the details of the operational referendum in a moment, but first let’s take a look at how schools in Wisconsin are funded.

Public schools have three main sources of funding: federal, state, and local taxes. Federal funding makes up a small portion of a school district's overall revenue and is often targeted for specific programs, such as the Title I funding. State Equalization Aid, money allocated to school districts from the state of Wisconsin, and local property taxes are the two primary sources of funding for schools.

All Wisconsin school districts' revenue limits are controlled by the state. In the revenue limit
formula, state aid and local property taxes combine to equal the revenue limit. More state
aid means less property taxes as a whole, not more money for schools.
In the 2021 to 23 biennial state budget, the legislature allocated more state aid. This
provided lower property taxes. It did not provide more funds for schools.

If our district’s referendum passes, there will be no increase in the mill rate. This is because we restructured some existing debt, as well as paid off some debt early. (Show mill rate graph) In 2017, the mill rate was at its highest point in the last 10 years at 9.70. Even with a successful referendum, the district’s mill rate for the next three years will not exceed 8.19.

The district has already reduced costs going into this current school year. We reduced our material expenditures by 32% and kept the increase in overall staffing expenses to 1% due to reducing positions through attrition and retirement.

We know that our community recognizes the importance of keeping high quality staff in our district’s classrooms. A successful referendum will allow us to maintain current class sizes, and offer a competitive compensation package to attract and retain high quality staff members.

It would also ensure that we would not have to delay purchases of materials, technology, or training to support student learning. All of our schools showed improvement on this year’s state report card–we want our students to continue to make strong academic progress.

We are so appreciative of the strong partnerships that we have within the Seymour school community that allow us to provide wonderful learning opportunities for the students that attend our schools. A successful referendum will reflect our communities’ support for our schools and for our students, and help us to continue to be Seymour Strong.

For more information, please visit our referendum information page on our district website at www.seymour.k12.wi.us.
https://www.seymour.k12.wi.us/distric...