January 19, 2008

Referendum is All or Nothing
Unified members answer residents' common concerns

By Gary Kunich
Kenosha News

If the referendum for a new $52.5 million high school fails at the polls February, there is no Plan B.

Kenosha Unified members brought their push for a new high school to a breakfast with business leaders Friday morning, and answered some hard questions from those on hand.

Interim superintendent Joe Mangi, facilities director Pat Finnemore and members of the School Board spoke to a filled room of members from the Kenosha Area Business Association at the Kenosha Public Museum and laid out their points for building a new comprehensive high school onto Indian Trail Academy.

Voters will get their say Feb. 19 when they will be asked two questions: if they support the building of the new high school, and if they support the operating expenses that come with it. If both questions pass, construction will begin in 2009 and most likely open during the 2010-11 school year. Taxes will not go up further to build the school, and then will increase only when it opens to cover the annual $2.3 million oper ating expenses. That works out to about $22 in additional taxes for someone who owns a $200,000 home.

Business leaders wrote down questions that were asked by a moderator. One person wanted to know what the district would do if one of the questions in the referendum passed and another one failed

"If the first one fails, we're not going to tax people for a school that's not going to get built," Finnemore said. "What do we do if the first question fails? Depends on how badly it fails. If it fails miserably, the School Board and all of us have to revise the plan and look at it. If the first one passes and the second one fails, more than likely the board will have some tough decisions. We would probably start designing the school and the School Board would probably go back with the second question (for another referendum). But it's going to lead to a lot of tough discussions."

Dave Fountain, School Board president, added: We really have not had discussions about that. We're just trying to be positive and proactive, and don't know what the ramifica tions will be if this is not approved."

The new proposed school doesn't have a pool planned, Finnemore answered in another response. There has been talk about sharing expenses with the YMCA over a new pool at the Callahan Branch, but he said the School Board tabled that discussion and is first focused on getting the referendum approved before looking at the matter again.

School Board member Marc Hujik said he and other officials have to be careful when giving out information about the pro- posed school, and can only give out facts, not tell people how to vote. "We're consciously not putting out billboards and banners because we have limited resources. No. 1, we're not allowed to do that, and No. 2, it's not a good use of funds."

However, he added, a private citizen's group called "Vote Yes For The Community" would soon take up that cause with ads in the media in coming weeks, and he invited anyone who supports the referendum to donate $50 to $100 to the cause.

"As a School Board member, I can't say that, but as a citizen I can, and as a citizen, I think it's a good idea," he said.

When someone asked why the district doesn't just shift ninth-graders back to a junior high concept of sevenththrough ninth-grade, officials said it would just make other, more expensive problems because several middle schools and grade schools are also at or over capacity. Nash Elementary School, for example, has a capacity for 600, but had 654 students the first day.

"Just shifting one class back doesn't change the fact that we're still growing," Hujik said. "Pushing everything in that direction, we'd have seventh- through ninth-grade together, then push sixthgrade back to elementary. Instead of one high school, we'd need four new elementary schools, and with the grounds and administrative costs, it would be substantially higher."

Mangi said a district report comparing the last year KUSD had junior high schools - in 1997-98 - to three years later, showed that by 2001 there was an increase in attendance, a more than 10 percent decrease in truancy, almost 5 percent reduction in suspensions, and math and reading scores both went up.

Kenosha Unified is the third-largest district behind Milwaukee and Madison, yet other districts with less students have three or more comprehensive high schools. "We're only 2,000 behind Madison and pushing them pretty fast," Mangi said.