Original Story URL: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=403283
Mequon - Voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum Tuesday that would have raised taxes in the Mequon-Thiensville School District by $2.5 million for each of the next three years.
Fifty-seven percent of those who cast votes opposed the measure, which sparked one of the highest turnouts - 37% - among Tuesday's primaries in the metro area,3 according to unofficial results.
Officials had said the referendum was necessary to offset a $6.5 million budget shortfall the district faces in the next three years. It would also have funded $1 million in technology upgrades and maintenance repairs.
"It's a simple yes or no question," said Robert Slotterback, the district's superintendent. "Should we cut things out of the district? The public is saying we should."
The referendum's defeat comes four years after voters rejected another request by the district to exceed its state-capped revenue limits, that time by $9.5 million over five years.
Bruce Duncan, treasurer for a group that opposed Tuesday's referendum, said the defeat signals that the district is out of touch with its residents.
"I hope they go back and re-evaluate what they're doing," he said. "They need to sit down and start having some real discussions about where they have their priorities. That's all there is to it."
Duncan is treasurer of the Mequon/Thiensville Property Owners - Keep Our Schools - Save Our Homes, a group that distributed literature and yard signs urging residents to vote down the measure, he said.
Officials have said the district faces a $1 million shortfall next year, a $2.2 million shortfall the following year, and a $3.3 million shortfall the year after. The shortfalls occur as the district's expenses, particularly the increases in teacher compensation resulting from the state's qualified economic offer law, increase faster than its revenue, officials have said.
Mithra Ballesteros, co-chair of the Save Our Schools advocacy group, said she was disappointed with the outcome of the election but said she was "thrilled that the turnout was so high."
"I think it shows that everyone got the message," Ballesteros said. "There's no way that anybody didn't know what was going on in the community. . . . We're going to keep working."
Board President Peter Stone said he also was disappointed but not surprised at the measure's defeat. The board's job is now to minimize the educational impact of cuts it will make in coming years, he said.
Slotterback said the district will cut teaching positions and teaching assistants in order to negate those shortfalls. He has told the board that cuts would include 15 teaching positions and 11 custodians.
"The referendum is saying that we want higher class sizes and fewer options for our students," Slotterback said. "That's what we're going to do."