When the state of Wisconsin hands out its school report cards, the School District of Iola-Scandinavia lands near the top of the class. On the latest report cards from the Department of Public Instruction, both our elementary school and our middle/high school earned four-star ratings and were officially rated as “exceed expectations.” Our middle and high school students’ academic growth ranks among the fastest in the entire state. Our children are not just keeping up; they are gaining ground faster than nearly any other public school in Wisconsin. Our elementary composite score jumped more than nine points in a single year.
That did not happen by accident. It happened because this district hires and keeps good teachers and staff, keeps class sizes workable, and runs its buildings and buses day in and day out. Those are not luxuries. They are the ordinary, unglamorous machinery of a good school.
On Tuesday, Nov. 3, voters will be asked to approve a four-year, non-recurring operational referendum allowing the district to exceed the state’s revenue limit by $1.2 million in the first year and $1.5 million in each of the following three years — about $5.7 million in total. This is operational money: heat, buses, teachers, textbooks, maintenance. It keeps what is working working.
Some background for those new to this fight. In 1993, the state capped how much money districts can raise per student, no matter what it actually costs to run a school. Costs have nearly doubled since 2000; the caps have not kept pace. Our state aid has been frozen or flat for years. If aid had simply tracked inflation since 2009, this district would have roughly $2 million more to work with this year alone. Instead, we face a $1.1 million deficit this school year, and the operational referendums voters approved in 2016 and 2020 (which carried this district for a decade) expired at the end of last school year.
Now let us be honest about the other side, because the objections deserve honest answers.
Nobody likes higher property taxes. We hear you. But consider the size of the ask: roughly $25 per year for every $100,000 of fair-market value — about $62 a year on a $250,000 home. And here is the larger truth: the district’s school tax rate has actually fallen from $11.05 per $1,000 of value in 2019-20 to $6.98 today, even while we relied on referendum funding. Rising assessments redistribute who pays; they do not fatten the school’s budget.
Voters already said no in April by a narrow 176 votes. But the board listened. The district surveyed the community, cut $500,000 from its own budget first — two teaching positions gone through attrition, technology funding reduced, fewer coaches, fewer field trips, delayed maintenance, a wage freeze for every employee — and then trimmed the request by nearly $2 million, from a $7.6 million package to $5.7 million. That is a school board doing exactly what taxpayers asked it to do.
Some folks question past district spending decisions, including talk about district assets like the bus garage. Fair enough. This district’s answer is its record. It has gone to referendum only when it had to, and it kept every promise made in 2016 and 2020. It reduces staff through attrition rather than layoffs, and it posts its budget publicly and reviews it at monthly meetings. Stewardship is best judged by track record, and this district has one.
Finally, some say Madison should fix school funding, not local taxpayers. We agree. The state surplus should make these referendums unnecessary. But Madison’s failure is not a reason to close the gap on the backs of our own children. Hundreds of Wisconsin districts are in this same boat because the law leaves them no other legal path. A “no” vote does not reform state funding. It only cuts the local school. The referendum is the only tool the state gives us.
And think about what our schools mean to Iola and Scandinavia. Villages and townships without a strong school do not keep their young families, their volunteers, or their Friday-night crowds for downtown businesses. Our local Chamber of Commerce surveyed its members and found strong business support for this referendum. The people who make their living here understand that the school is the anchor. Homes in towns with declining schools lose value, and declining value means higher rates for everyone left. Paying a little now to keep our schools strong is cheaper than paying later in lost population and lost property value.
Our students are outperforming nearly everyone in the state. Our board trimmed the ask, cut its own budget first, and has a decade-long record of keeping its word. The vote is Tuesday, Nov. 3. We urge a yes vote.
