Unofficial Results: Voters Say “YES” to Marshfield School Referendum

0
1232

Marshfield Referendum Passes, Early Results Indicate

OnFocus – Early reports from Marathon and Wood Counties report that School District of Marshfield voters said YES to a $3.5 million recurring referendum Tuesday. This referendum is recurring and permanent – meaning that the district will receive $3.5 million each year on a recurring basis. In the past two decades of elections, voters have only passed non-recurring referendums.

Property owners will see the school district portion of their tax bill go up by 21 cents per thousand of assessed value. After Wisconsin capped levy limits in 1993, referendums have been enacted to exceed state-imposed revenue limits.

At their October 14 meeting, Marshfield school officials identified which items would have been cut if the November 3 referendum were not approved.

The budget cuts would have included 37 budgetary line items, amounting to $3.5 million (which is the amount of the requested referendum). Administrative and District level staff would have had wages frozen. Cuts included removing the district’s gifted & talented coordinator, a full-time social worker, a full-time school counselor, drivers education, the foreign language with the lowest enrollment (French), plus reductions to the Family and Consumer Education and Career and Technical Education departments.

If the referendum had failed, middle school sports would have been replaced with an intramural program. Low-enrollment AP and honors classes would have been consolidated by one FTE. The cuts would also have reduced the technology budget by $70,000 and the athletic budget by $25,000. See the chart for the full list:

Editor’s Note: Results are unofficial until the canvass is complete on Tuesday, November 10, 2020.

We welcome your stories! Contact us at [email protected]!

News Desk
Author: News Desk

This piece was posted by our news team! Contact us or submit stories at [email protected].