Prairie du Chien school denied referendum for second time
By Steve Van Kooten
The Prairie du Chien School District failed to obtain an operating referendum for a second time, according to polling data from Crawford County and the Prairie du Chien School District.
Voters shot down the referendum by less than 100 votes. The district now faces a projected $11 million deficit by the 2029–30 school year.
By municipality, Eastman and the town of Prairie du Chien defeated the four-year, $7 million non-recurring operating referendum, while the majority of voters in the town of Bridgeport approved the measure, according to unofficial voting results.
Numbers showed that voters in the city of Prairie du Chien were split depending on the district. Overall, the referendum failed 1,554 to 1,467, according to the Prairie du Chien School District.
Voter turnout was significantly lower than in November, with nearly 1,000 more votes cast this past fall across the entire county. The school first requested a four-year, $10 million non-recurring referendum.
The Board of Education will meet on Monday, April 14, to discuss options going forward for the school district.
On Jan. 13, the Board of Education considered the school’s financial status with either no referendum, a four-year $6 million ($1.5 million per year) referendum or a four-year $7 million ($1.75 million) referendum.
The $7 million option would have “spiked” the district’s mill rate to 7.22 per $1,000 of taxable property during the 2025–26 school year, but the rate would have gradually decreased to 4.21 by 2029–30.
That night, the board unanimously adopted two resolutions: one to authorize the school district to exceed its revenue budget by $1.75 million each year for four years and another to go to the spring election with the four-year $7 million referendum on the ballot.
The district has attempted to streamline their budget. District Administrator Andy Banasik previously reported that, in the past three years, the district saved $700,000 through “tough decisions,” such as changing or consolidating staff positions. The savings come from fewer employee costs (benefits, etc.). Those cost savings did not result in any programming reductions.
For the 2024–25 school year, the school district helped balance its budget by drawing approximately $1.1 million from its general fund. Banasik said the district can’t do that a second time because it would leave the school without any fund balance remaining.
The district also planned to drop its mil rate in 2023–24 to 6.11 from 10.66 in anticipation of a referendum and to curb the effect of increased property values in the community. The referendum would have increased the mil rate to between 7.0 and 8.03 in 2025–26. But, on Oct. 28, the district held their annual budget hearing and announced that the 2024–25 mil rate would decrease even more than expected. The board unanimously approved the revised budget, which lowered the mil rate to 5.94 per 1,000 of taxable property, which is the lowest mil rate the district has approved in at least five years.
The revised budget also decreased the school’s 2024–25 levy to $5.2 million, approximately $150,000 less than the original number.
