MANITOWOC – The Manitowoc school board will be asking voters to approve allowing the school district to borrow up to $25 million for urgent building maintenance and upgrades.
The referendum will be placed on the April 1 ballot, which also features a hotly contested race for three seats on the school board and the race for Manitowoc mayor.
The school board approved the referendum at its Jan. 14 meeting.
If approved, the referendum would add $16 in property taxes for a $100,000 house or $32 for a $200,000 house.
In a news release Jan. 15, Interim Superintendent Lee Thennes said he and the board members are committed to making cuts to the district’s operations budget in hopes of offsetting the borrowing costs and keeping next year’s tax rate as low as possible.
Lee Thennes
“We have aging buildings that were built in the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘50s and ‘60s,” Thennes said in the release. “Under state revenue limits, we have had to prioritize staffing and student programs over facilities, but many building components are at the end of their useful life.
“We need to make these improvements for the safety and security of our students, staff and families,” Thennes said.
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The $25 million is only a portion of the $47 million in urgent facility repairs the school district needs. Those repairs, and $114 million in additional non-urgent repairs and upgrades, were identified in a district-wide facilities assessment that was completed in March 2024.
Board member Matthew Spaulding said he’d like to see the district’s commitment to cutting current budget costs to accommodate the borrowing included in the resolutions passed Jan. 14.
“What you have is our commitment that there will be a neutral impact on this borrowing and what will be proposed in a budget, but there’s no guarantee, though,” Thennes said. ” … This body (school board) would be the one to approve the budget, which has the levy in it, so you are able to, as a body, make that decision.”
Spaulding also said the board has come up with a number of money-saving measures since they became aware of the urgent repairs needed to many facilities, but have yet to act on any of them.
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Thennes said the reason it seems like no savings have been acted on is because there hasn’t yet been a new budget to do it with.
“What we have been telling you is that that is what we’re going to do,” Thennes said. “… You’re right, we haven’t made any changes yet, but we haven’t had a new budget cycle to make the changes in.”
Board member Matthew Phipps and Spaulding both voted against the resolutions approving the referendum.
Contact Alisa M. Schafer at aschafer@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc schools put $25 million referendum on spring ballot