MONROE — School District of Monroe voters will have another referendum choice to make on the November ballot. At their meeting Aug. 12, Board of Education members voted unanimously to put forth a four-year, non-recurring operational referendum worth $1.5 million per year to voters.
The process to get to this point was long, and included plenty of hearty discussions. At the meeting prior, on July 22, seven of the nine board members were in attendance and were split on whether to ask for the money to be recurring — meaning year after year — or non-recurring, meaning for a set time. The $1.5 million amount is the same that voters had agreed to in 2016 and 2018, which ran through this past 2023-24 school year, ending June 30.
Ending up in the budget hole Monroe currently faces is an even longer time coming. State aid began decreasing at a noticeable rate in 2011, and has only shrunk faster over the past five years.
“In previous discussions, administration did a great job describing the shortfalls that state legislators for the last 15-20 years have created for public schools and creating a funding crisis across the state — and in turn normalizing a cycle of asking local voter support to continue the same level of services as previous years, not necessarily to enhance them,” board president Rich Deprez said.
Former district superintendent Rick Waski attended the meeting at spoke during the early public comment portion, apologizing for his roll in the current situation. He said the 2018 extension of the $1.5 million referendum was expected to pass easily, and it did, to the tune of nearly 70%, and a recurring referendum could have just as easily passed at that time.
“I want to apologize to the board. My lack of vision as a leader has led you to where you are right now,” Waski said. “My apology comes from the fact that I didn’t ask the board for what we needed — and that was a recurring $1.5 million referendum. I was fully aware that nothing was going to change with state funding in education — that it would be funded at below inflationary levels. Quite frankly, the recurring referendum would have passed, and it would have passed quite easily that year.”
When board members opened up discussion on the topic, expectations were that another potentially lengthy conversation was about to be had. Instead, Deprez opened with his own opinion — flipping from his stance on the recurring side to join those in the non-recurring ranks.
“At our last meeting, I was fairly bullish … at the time, my rational was that there should be no reason to believe that school funding and shared revenue limits would change dramatically in the coming years. That was sort of gloom and doom, and it was frustrating,” Deprez said. “Despite that … reflecting on the meeting and the discussions we had here, a possible alternative path resonated with me — one that was a little more hopeful than trying to stay ahead of funding from the state.”
He said there is noticeable momentum in the community of growth.
“Despite some folks feeling that our community is on a path to contract, I see signs pointing all around us of growth. That growth is a possible path forward,” he said.
From the YMCA building, to multiple efforts on building new housing — including the school’s own partnership with Green County Development Corp. (GCDC) and the city — to the districts own work in raising their Department of Public Instruction report cards. Monroe has some of the best elementary schools in the state, he said, and when talking to other districts with freshly built schools, they have also seen a trend of enrollment increases “when communities make a once-in-a-lifetime investment like that.”
With a higher number of homes on the tax roll, the individual burden for taxpayers would go down. In order to prove itself to taxpayers, Deprez added that when compared to other Wisconsin schools — both local and of similar size — Monroe has consistently done a better job managing its budget. That gives him even more confidence to stick with a short-term plan as a way to show taxpayers the district is following through on keeping itself in budget.
“I’ve got hope that in four years’ time we’ll begin to see those investments made across our community have a positive effect, not only on the tax base, but also on overall enrollment — which also helps to relieve that deficit that we’re observing,” Deprez said. “I am willing to give it four years to observe that momentum and then reassess, especially if it makes it easier for the community to understand the need and the question before them.”
Board member Jim Curran commended Deprez for his open an honest reversal of opinion.
“I just want to say thank you for the words that you shared at the top of this and putting out a compelling and positive vision of the future of Monroe. Not everyone is willing to reconsider their position on something,” Curran said. “Because honestly, I’ve been thinking about it more from the sense of ‘What is going to pass?’ To hear you frame it the way that you did, maybe the opposite is true — maybe we are a community that is on the other side of some hard things with some brighter days ahead of us.”
Mike Froseth and Terri Montgomery each brought up talking and listening to constituents over the past few weeks, and many were in the same camp that Deprez switched to: If there is going to be an operational referendum question, it should be non-recurring.
Teresa Keehn and Nikki Austin both said that they would support whatever path was chosen.
“I said at the last meeting: We can all agree on the number, and we all agree on the need. If the ‘how to get there’ is non-recurring, then it has my support as well,” Austin said.
In less than five minutes, the discussion was over. In a voice vote, the decision was unanimous, 9-0.
“I think we should get sharp on what it is that would demonstrate to our community a strong return on investment over the next three years so that we can say … we delivered on the results we said we would,” Curran said.
Earlier in the meeting, the board approved the hiring of alumnus Eric Jubeck to take over as Athletics/Activities Director, replacing Jeff Newcomer.
Jubeck has been a special education teacher at the high school level for the past seven years and has nearly 20 years teaching experience. He has been the girls track and field head coach and has served as an assistant cross country coach.
“I’m honored to start working in this capacity in helping to support the students and staff of MHS to promote involvement in all of our top tier athletic and activity opportunities as we transition into a beautiful new facility,” Jubeck told the Times.
For the new MHS project, the board approved Parisi with a hard bid for site concrete and flat work. More bids on different areas of the project are expected to be complete and come to the board in the coming weeks for approval.
An amendment to the main access road was also approved, and the road will now be a full 80-feet wide, instead of 66 feet, matching the maximum city code. District administrator Rodney Figueroa also announced the road would officially be named “Cheesemaker Way.”
The next school board meeting is scheduled for Aug. 27. The operational referendum will be on the Nov. 5 presidential election ballot.
