HARTLAND, Wis. — The Arrowhead Union High School District in Hartland is one of 81 Wisconsin school districts with a referendum on the April 1 ballot.
The district is proposing a $136.2 million plan that would consolidate the district’s two high school building into one. The proposed amount is nearly half the cost of what the district initially proposed in the November election.
In that referendum, the district asked voters for $261.2 million to fund a new high school.
Voters rejected that proposal and now board members are proposing a reduced version for the April election.
Arrowhead Superintendent, Conrad Farner, said having two buildings is unique but it poses safety and security concerns.
“It's really not the best for our students because it's not safe when they're exposed multiple times a day,” said Farner.
The distance between the North and South campuses is a quarter of a mile that hundreds of students walk every day.
Farner said securing the buildings is also tough.
“When you have two big buildings like we have, that just doubles the number of entry points into your school. So, if you think about it, every entry point is a potential access,” said Farner.
To get students under the same roof, the plan before voters is to renovate and expand the north campus building.
“Arrowhead is a very, very difficult community to get a referendum passed,” said Farner.
He said the majority of voters in November felt they could not afford what the district initially proposed.
He’s hoping this time around they will support the less costly plan.
Wisconsin Policy Forum Senior Research Associate, Ari Brown, has been researching referendum voter trends for the past few election cycles.
“When a referendum fails, in the majority of cases, districts do retry their referenda,” said Brown.
He said what the Arrowhead Union High School District is doing is not unusual.
“When they do retry their referendum, in general, the majority of the time they end up succeeding,” said Brown.
If the referendum passes, the money will also be used to upgrade school facilities, such as the cafeteria, pool and locker rooms.
“We've been great stewards for the taxpayers. It's just reached that point when you've got aging facilities that you need to give the community the opportunity to say, what do you want your schools to look like,” said Farner.
If approved, for every $1,000 in property value, taxes will go up by $1.02.
That means for a home with a property value of $100,000, taxes would increase by $102 dollars a year. For a $300,000 home by $306 and a $500,000 home by $510.
