School officials hopeful for scaled back referendum

School leaders are hoping a slimmed down referendum request will be more palatable to voters.

On April 5, voters in the Medford school district are being asked to approve a slimmed down $29.91 million referendum for work at the high school campus to expand classrooms particularly in the technical education and science areas as well as address safety and access concerns with the current building’s layout.

Medford Area Senior High School is the oldest school building in the district and opened its doors in 1968.

This is the third time in as many years that the district has brought forward a request for a referendum. Voters narrowly rejected it in fall 2020 and defeated the identical plan when it was brought back in April 2021. This prompted school officials to make drastic changes to what was being requested and focus on priority areas.

What’s different?

After a referendum attempt was soundly defeated last spring, school board members and administration sought out feedback from voters about why they opposed the plan.

They used that feedback to refine the project, eliminating the request for a new gym and theater, removing the proposed library expansion and reducing the amount of parking.

At the same time, the district included plans to build a new access road connecting the elementary school parking lot to CTH Q to alleviate traffic congestion on Hwy 64 and make dropping off and picking up students at the school safer and easier. For years, the state department of transportation has called on the district to eliminate a driveway entrance onto Hwy 64. The current access road to the high school parking lot and elementary school routinely gets backed up from the elementary school to Hwy 64 with times when vehicles have had to wait on Hwy 64 to turn into the driveway. Routing that traffic from CTH Q will reduce congestion.

The other major change for this plan from past proposals is to remodel, the locker room space at the high school to provide a team locker room for the girls sports teams to match the additional locker room space for the boy’s teams. This is being done within the footprint of the existing spaces by reconfiguring how the showers are set up.

These changes resulted in $10 million being cut from the referendum request compared to last time around.

What is in the project?

The project as proposed includes additional educational spaces connecting the high school to the technical education building to eliminate students having to go between the buildings. In addition it will expand the space in the area for additional technology and engineering classes focussing on skills which are in high demand for area industries and businesses.

The project also includes an addition on the southeast corner of the building creating new science classroom spaces. The current science classrooms are outdated, have accessibility issues and lack adequate storage for the equipment being used. The addition would also provide an accessible entry and exit from the lower level of the building without needing to go up stairs.

In the process some of the smaller existing classrooms would be converted into storage or combined with other spaces as breakout spaces.

One of the challenges of the existing building is for visitors to actually find the front entrance and the lack of security of that entrance accessing directly into the main hallway of the building.

Plans call for expanding the office area and have foot traffic enter directly into the office before getting access to the rest of the building. This would reduce the potential risk of an intruder being able to access students as easily.

The office expansion would also address the shortage of office needs for professionals to meet confidentially with students. Schools in Wisconsin serve as the conduit to provide a range of services

to young people and it is routine to have counselors, law enforcement, court representatives and service providers meeting with students. Current spaces are in storage rooms and other areas where there are concerns about lack of confidentiality.

The project also addresses the cafeteria area expanding the floorspace of the cafeteria and incorporating the “Raider Cafe” into the area. Raider Cafe is a student run store giving students retail job skills. The project would include redoing the serving line areas and give more space to accommodate additional lunch options. As noted by residents in listening sessions, the student enrollment at the school is lower than when the school opened five decades ago. In that time, the expectations of meals at the school have changed with families demanding more options. There has also been a reduction in the number of lunch periods in the day.

Beyond the strictly school use, the cafeteria area is heavily used by community groups for events such as Kiwanis Big Ticket Bingo, Tavern League Light a Light dinner and the Boy Scouts Pancake Supper.

Student enrollment in the Medford School District has remained steady for about the last two decades and is projected to remain at current levels for the foreseeable future. This could be impacted, however, by planned housing efforts in the Medford community as civic and business leaders work to address a labor shortage in the area.

In addition to these major project areas, the referendum also includes $5.3 million for capital maintenance projects on the district’s long-range maintenance plan for the high school including mechanical, electric and plumbing, interiors and asphalt improvements.

What will it cost?

After holding the school portion of the property taxes steady for several years to aggressively pay off a large portion of the district’s debt last spring, the school portion of the tax rate dropped significantly last fall to the current tax rate of $6.07 per $100,000 of equalized value. This is well below the state average for K-12 districts of $8.67 per $1,000 of value.

If approved, the referendum is projected to have an impact of raising taxes by $148 per year on a home valued at $100,000. This is based on a conservative projection for the interest rate the school would be able to get. A lower than projected interest rate could reduce that amount significantly.

Medford School District Curriculum Director Laura Lundy highlights the tax impact of the proposed referendum. The District paid off previous debt last year and dropped in tax rate significantly. Even with the additional debt from the proposed referendum, district tax rates would remain lower than they were in the 2020 tax year.BRIAN WILSON/THE STAR NEWS