Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 9, is the date of the partisan primary election in Wisconsin. Voters will choose the party nominees for the Nov. 8 general election for a variety of statewide offices, including U.S. Senator, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state treasurer and secretary of state.
In addition, nominees will be chosen for other partisan races, including all Assembly seats and 17 of the 33 seats in the Wisconsin State Senate—the odd-numbered districts. This will be the first primary election to take place after redistricting following the 2020 United States census.
Three school referenda asking voters for permission to exceed the state-imposed revenue limits will be on the ballot, including one in the Independence School District and two in the Monticello School District.
In Independence, district voters will be asked to approve a non-recurring referendum to exceed the revenue limit by $900,000 for the each of the next three school years, beginning with the 2022-23 school year.
In Monticello, district electors will be asked to approve exceeding the revenue limit on a recurring basis by $820,000 in the 2022-23 school year and will also be asked to approve a non-recurring referendum to exceed the revenue limits by $280,000 in each of the next four school years, beginning with the 2022-23 school year. If approved, the funding will be used for operational expenses, including Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and other educational programming, bus garage upgrades, acquiring vehicles, classroom equipment, maintenance and repair projects and remodeling classrooms.
A much larger number of school referenda are expected to be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Already, at least 16 referenda have been reported to the DPI as scheduled for Nov. 8. Reminder: The deadline for school boards to adopt referenda-related resolutions and file those with the person responsible for preparing ballots for the Nov. 8 election is August 30.
The WASB recently hosted a two-part webinar on school referendums. Information about that webinar can be found here — look for “School District Referenda (Two-part) (July-Aug. 2022)” — or in the WASB online store.
