Aug. 31 to get the ….

Aug. 31 to get the question printed on the next ballot. Lindner said holding a referendum on Nov. 8 would be helpful, as the Board could then use the April 2023 election as a “failsafe” in case a November question would not pass.

The Board will review the latest financial numbers at its Aug. 24 meeting, and will then decide if it will call a question yet this year. Odeen said the district has less debt and has seen other budgetary improvements since the last vote in late 2018.

“The positive thing is we’re in a much better financial position than we were five years ago,” he said.

This next referendum would be for operational purposes only, and is not related to the referendum vote that failed in April of this year. That question asked voters specifically for as much as $11.7 million to fund a school expansion/renovation project, and was defeated on a 514-305 count.

In other action at its July 27 meeting, the Board approved the addition of five minutes to the end of each school day’s length. The change means that the student day will begin at 8:05 a.m., as in the past, but end at 3:25 p.m. instead of 3:20. Lindner said the extra minutes will be added to the schools RTI (Response to Intervention) time, and will add a bit more flexibility to the schedule to get students in and out of the cafeteria at lunch time. Also, he said, by adding the extra minutes to each day, the district will gain enough instructional hours to give it an additional two inclement weather days that would not have to be made up.