With spring referendum set, School District of Tomahawk shifts to community outreach

TOMAHAWK – With a funding referendum now set to appear on Feb. 18, 2025 ballots, the School District of Tomahawk is now shifting its focus to community outreach.

The district’s Board of Education gave the official thumbs-up to the spending request during its meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

In a Monday, Nov. 18 release, the district explained that the proposed non-recurring operational referendum is asking voters to authorize the district to continue to exceed its revenue limit by $3.25 million each year for four years, starting with the 2024-2025 school year and ending in 2028-2029.

Currently, the district is operating under a three-year, $3.25 million referendum that was approved by voters in April 2022 and will expire at the end of the school year.

The proposed referendum would replace the 2022 spending request and “enable the district to maintain its current programming levels through 2029 while making strategic investments to bolster learning and student opportunities,” according to the district.

With the same yearly funding amount being sought, the district doesn’t anticipate its portion of the property tax rate to increase.

“District leaders and the board estimated an average of a $5.59 levy rate per $1,000.00 of estimated fair market value with the passage of the Feb. 2025 referendum,” the district stated. “It is important to note that the levy rate may not be consistently applied in each township due to a variety of factors. However, the overall average levy rate is $5.59 per $1,000.00 of property value.”

The district said it is “facing the same challenges experienced by most Wisconsin districts,” noting that state aid to public schools has failed to keep up with inflation, “especially in recent years.”

“If revenues had kept pace with inflation since 2009, school districts like Tomahawk would receive about $3,300.00 more per student for the 2024-25 school year,” the district stated.  “Additionally, state aid is connected to property values. Because of the percentage of high-value lake property in the Tomahawk area, the district receives very little state aid.”

The district explained that while the average Wisconsin school district receives $8,060.00 per student in state aid, Tomahawk receives only about $3,300.00 per student.

The district also does not qualify for poverty aid, which aids districts where at least half of its students are economically disadvantaged; or sparsity aid, which is allocated to rural school districts with relatively small economies of scale.

District Administrator Wendell Quesinberry said that while the district is proud of its success, it still faces “significant financial challenges.”

“Most of these challenges are out of our control and largely related to the state’s school funding system and rising costs due to inflation,” Quesinberry stated. “We look forward to sharing more information with our community regarding our financial needs and the proposed solution on the ballot this February.”

Going forward, the district said it plans to launch a webpage with detailed information on the funding request, along with answers to frequently asked questions.

More information will also be shared on the district’s social media platforms and via other channels in the coming weeks and months, according to the district.