Board Of Education Receives Update On Referendum Focus Groups

The Appleton Area School District Board of Education met 01/10/2022. Chief Financial Officer Greg Hartjes provided a brief update on the referendum process.

The week before the board meeting, AASD held two focus group sessions with the purpose of gathering feedback from “representative parents and staff and community members” on the potential referendum. He told the board that, overall, feedback had been very positive.

Per Greg, three areas stood out…

1. The focus group felt the amount bring asked for in the referendum was very reasonable in terms of the cost to tax payers. He mentioned a tax increase of $30-40 per $100,000 worth of property. “That is definitely reasonable and perhaps we should be considering the more needs that we have in our district. Should we be adding something in terms of facilities or staff?” [Back in September, the cost of the referendum had been estimated to be approximately $25 per $100,000 of property, so I’m not sure why their estimates have now increased to $30-$40. Additionally, it had been previously explained that the full cost of the referendum were it to pass would be $125 per $100,000 worth of property (now presumably $130-$140) but $100 worth of that tax cost would be unnoticeable to taxpayers due to the timing of the referendum.]
2. The focus group was interested in moving 6th grade to the middle school level.
3. The focus group had a lot of positive comments about adding staffing at the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade levels to allow AASD to reduce class sizes.

He said there were also three areas about which there were a lot of questions.

1. The focus group had equity concerns regarding schools that have some challenges with their facilities based on the age or size of the building. They wanted to know how they could impact the students at schools like Badger, Columbus, Richmond, and Foster when those schools don’t have a lot of space to work with either inside or outside their buildings.
2. If 6th grade moved to the middle school level that would create some space in the elementary schools, but there was concern that adding staff at the kindergarten-2nd grade level would result in that new space being used up, leaving them to question whether there would be enough room left for a STEM space at each elementary school or for some of the other needs they have.
3. The question was raised as to why AASD would stop increasing staffing levels at 2nd grade. Could they do that for 3rd-5th as well? “The answer most likely is no, we can’t, just based on cost and space.” The focus groups then suggested adding paraprofessionals at those grade levels.

He noted that they would hold two more focus groups on January 18th and 20th at East High School.

Board member Jim Bowman asked about the staffing levels at the 1st and 2nd grade level.

Greg said they would look to staff at a 20 to 1 ratio instead of the current 25 to 1 ratio, such that 20 would be the average class size in all of their 9 non-AGR elementary schools. The District’s 7 AGR elementary schools already had a class size cap of 18.

Jim was pleased with the report but concerned that the staffing/operational costs portion of the referendum was the “heaviest lift.” He wondered if people understood that increasing staffing was an operational referendum and that those costs would be ongoing/indefinite year after year and that they would be relatively expensive.

Greg said the focus group understood that the recurring operational dollars would be on the tax roll every year and that they still felt it was worth pursuing.

Jim “If we could achieve that [operational funding] in a referendum it would be a wonderful gift to this district.” He hoped the ongoing nature of the operational referendum question would be clarified to the next focus group participants.

Greg said they would absolutely.

View full meeting video here: https://youtu.be/AAYdb6t-bAk