Muskego district schools itself on facilities options

Muskego - With the loud "no" from voters still ringing in their ears from the failed $29.9 million refererendum, the Muskego-Norway School Board decided this week to see how it can make do with the current elementary schools.

The staff was directed to come back with a prioritized list of projects that need to be done in summer 2012 and over the next five years. The board also wants to make sure the schools are doing as much as they can to keep the school buildings secure.

The list of projects will probably include significant catchup work at the two schools - Tess Corners and Muskego elementary schools - that had been targeted for closing, resulting in some deferred maintenance for the past three years. Even so, officials still want to do a minimum amount of work in those schools because they may still be closed in the years ahead.

The tentative plan, as it emerged Monday night, was to keep the buildings in use until the public decides the district should do otherwise.

Election realities

Some said the $29.9 million plan - voted down by nearly a 2-to-1 margin on Nov. 8 - to close the two schools, build a new school, add onto a fourth and improve two others fell victim to a hostile political climate.

People just don't want higher taxes, said School Board member Dean Strom. The plan would have added just over $100 to the average property tax bill, the district estimated.

The $29.9 million borrowing should have attracted more votes than the larger $34 million version that rather narrowly failed in November 2010, Strom said.

"It shouldn't have been a blowout," he said.

Among the residents who offered input Monday on why the referendum failed was Charles DuPont.

DuPont said people who felt uneasy with the proposal realized they can't easily control federal or state spending, but they can control local spending.

And even though he voted for the referendum this time, the district's contention that the schools are inadequate did not line up in some people's minds with unprecedented academic success, he said. Also, people look at buildings in Europe that are 300 years old and they're still functioning fine, he added.

School Board member Brett Hyde said he had gotten a lot of feedback after the referendum from some people who said the district has too much debt, while others said officials should go at the plan one school at a time, rather than all at once. Still others wondered why Muskego could not be like New Berlin that saved up for its building projects and paid for them out of its operating budget, he said.

Another try?

Despite the disappointing outcome, two residents strongly urged the board to try again, rather than make do.

Anthony Scalzo, an educator himself, said the district is at a crossroads and that the board should use fund balance to bring the cost to taxpayers down and go to another vote.

Eric Loferski urged a referendum at a regular election to get a more "natural voter turnout."