Oakfield School Board asks residents to approve $5.3 million referendum on April 2

OAKFIELD - Ongoing additional funds are needed to keep schools operating in the Oakfield School District, its school board has determined.

District voters will decide at the polls on April 2 whether to support a $5.3 million operating referendum, spread over five years.

The referendum question asks taxpayers to approve exceeding state revenue caps by about $1 million for three years, beginning in 2020, and by about $1.1 million the final two school years.

Oakfield Superintendent Vance Dalzin said this referendum replaces a current $6.6 million referendum approved in April 2014 that will expire in June next year. Those funds were used to replace floors, lockers and bleachers, windows, roofs, parking lots, a fire alarm system, entrances and add science labs and updates to the media center.

Oakfield joins 47 Wisconsin school districts in placing referendum questions on the spring ballot. The highest price tag comes from Sun Prairie Area School District, asking for $164 million to build a new high school. Oakfield's neighbor —  the Fond du Lac School District — has scheduled a $98.5 million referendum to pay for capital maintenance and improvement projects.  

Since 1993, the Wisconsin legislature has limited the revenue a school district is entitled to receive each year through state aid and local levies. These monetary restraints have forced school districts to turn to taxpayers more and more for the money needed to maintain staff and programs and address aging schools. 

In a community survey sent out late last year about 63 percent of Oakfield School District residents indicated support for another referendum if it helps maintain the same level of staffing and programs, Dalzin said.  

"We've worked hard to try to be as efficient as possible when it comes to using taxpayer money, and I think it shows in our tax rate, which went down significantly from last year," he said. 

The decrease was due in part to an increase in state aid and 122 additional students coming into the district through open enrollment.

The mill rate for the school portion of Oakfield's property taxes was $11.43 per thousand of property value in 2018 and $10.22 in 2019. That rate should drop to $10.01 in 2021, if the referendum passes, Dalzin said. 

"If it doesn't pass, we will have to find ways to reduce costs through cuts to staffing, academic program or extracurriculars," he said.  

Last year the school district shined on its state report cards, earning the highest rating by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: “Significantly Exceeds Expectations." The rural school district had the highest student achievement out of 11 surrounding school districts. 

With a small operating budget of $7.5 million, the loss of $1 million annually would make a big impact, Dalzin said. 

Since 1995 the Oakfield School District has held 10 referendums, with six passing a total of $15.8 million in additional money for the district.  

The district is hosting informational sessions that can be found on its website. 

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