Referendum in district’s future
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March 19, 2010 • Superintendent James Fitzpatrick
Filed under News
As I write this article I would rank these opening paragraphs as some of the most important I have shared with you since my appointment to the Fort Atkinson Superintendency in 1999.
As many of you are aware, we are about to embark on some very challenging fiscal times in the next twelve to eighteen months. Fortunately for the School Distict of Fort Atkinson we are in enviable fiscal shape in comparison with most districts in our state.
However, if we do not begin to act now in looking at ways to address the financial shortfall we anticipate in the 2011-2012 school year, we could face a very difficult crisis as it relates to finer education, a long standing tradition in our community.
The TaskForce and Board of Education of 2005-2006 understood that we would need to address a shortfall upon the expiration of the April 2006 sunset referendum for operations by the end of the 2010-2011 school year. Back in 2005, after the failure of a recurring referendum on October 18, 2005, citizen feedback overwhelmingly favored a sunset referendum. At that time citizens were wary that a recurring referendum would be perceived as a blank check.
The message we received was that we should hold the line on spending, work to increase revenues, and per any future referendums we should come back to the citizens. To that end we have worked hard to be creative and frugal in the use of our resources.
In April of 2006, along with the approval of geothermal HVAC systems, the citizens also gave us permission to exceed the revenue limits by $694,000 per year for five years, which take us out until the end of the 2010-2011 school year.
Given the nature of school financing and the reduction of state aid with the past biennium budget, along with the lowering of revenue limit increases, maintaining programs and services at current levels will be impossible without some help.
We are in year four of the five year sunset referendum. Like families and businesses working hard to endure the current economic difficulties, we too know as a learning community, that we must make sacrifices as well.
In June of 2011 we anticipate the deficit to be at $811, 941 based on the best information I have as of this writing.
In wanting to be proactive in addressing our issues before we are at a crisis point we have assembled a Citizens TaskForce, very representative of the constituency of our school district. Some were members on our last TaskForce of 2005-2006.
Like that group we hope the new TaskForce will be able to gain an understanding of our fiscal condition and collaboratively offer the Board of Education some options to consider in facing our challenges.
Our first TaskForce meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 16 at 5:00 PM at the Luther Administrative Center.
Listed below are the citizens who will serve on this TaskForce:
Carol Ward Knox – Facilitator. Members: Wava Austin, Kristin Baird, Tina Barnes, Robert Bell, Tim Carnes, Paul Hable, Maria Hametta-Perez, Bonnie Hamm, Chuck Jackson, Dean Johnson, Vince Kent, Larry Ketterman, Martha MacWilliams, Jim Nelson, Balys Platukis, Jamie Steffen, Michelle Stoutenborough, Ardell Wiederhoeft, and Marie Wiesmann.
We will keep our citizens informed of developments as we move forward.
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