Read Elmbrook paid for some of Janesville's referendum? first.
Is this happening here? "School board & (Janesville) Gazette mislead voters"
In Janesville, the school district knew they were in serious financial trouble but promoted their building referendum anyway. Jim Bahler, a frustrated Janesville resident, told of the boards referendum tunnel vision in a recent letter to the editor of the Gazette “It was three short days after the November elections that will bring four gymnasiums, air conditioning and new science labs to the high schools, that Superintendent Tom Evert announced there would not be enough money to pay for the actual education of students.”
It sounds as if the majority of Janesville voters were unaware of the seriousness of the $1.8 million budget shortfall. “It appears that this impending problem was intentionally ignored so the building referendums could pass”, Jim wrote.
“A few days later, the Gazette (newspaper) editorialized that the public should have read between the lines and seen this coming.” The Gazette posted an Editor’s Note after Jim’s letter: The Gazette reported March 14, 2006: "The district's budget outlook is bleak for 2007-08," and "a projection based on current state law would require another $1.8 million budget cut in 2007-08."
"Our editorial (Gazette) April 13, 2006: 'District residents should realize program and staff cuts likely will get harder in the years ahead.' We quoted then-board President Nancy Sonntag as saying, 'Next year, we're going to be looking at cutting programs.'"
So what happened in Janesville?
Same thing that is happening all over: falling enrollments.
The Rocknetroots, a Janesville area blog reported,
“...budget debates are now over and with further cuts looming down the road for the next budget, its beginning to appear like the successfully passed $70.8 million referendum will hang around the necks of the school board and taxpayers for years to come.”
The Gazette newspaper blames the public for not reading between the lines and seeing this coming. The Rocknetroots says that April 13th of 2006 “was the last time the taxpayers saw any major article about the impending budget cuts” until the referendum vote in Nov. of 2006.
Rocknetroots also notes that on Sept. 26, 2006 the “Gazette ran a front-page story about the TLC group promoting a ‘yes’ vote”—“not one word was mentioned of budget shortfalls”.
Interestingly, the Gazette editorial prior to the vote encouraged a “Yes” vote, “Use vision to vote “yes” to better schools without a mention of the impending school budget short-falls.
If you really want to have the hair stand up on the back of your neck, read the entire Rocknetroots posting: School Referendum How-To, March 30, 2007
Note: “Officials of the Elmbrook School district visited Janesville ‘and reviewed plans and politics surrounding our November 2006 high school facilities referendum’ according to a memo from Superintendent Tom Evert to the school board.” (Rocknetroots quote from Janesville Gazette)
Point 1 in Rocknetroots how to: “If your referendum includes expanding your schools while facing projections of declining enrollment, never connect the two. Just talk about declining enrollment as the reason why teachers and special aide programs must be cut and blame state enrollment guidelines, BUT ONLY AFTER the referendum has passed.”
Point 4: “DO NOT give the voters any choice by breaking the referendum into individual projects. If you do, people will naturally assume then that something is wrong and only vote for the things that are really necessary. Play hardball politics with this, throw as much in the referendum as you can.”
Point 5. “Although this is about education, impress upon people that even if they don’t care about the schools, they should still be selfish enough to vote YES because it may increase their property values.”
The handwriting was on the wall in Janesville, the school district just hoped no one would notice. They didn’t. What about here?
Brookfieldnow Community Watch posted on March 13, that 14 Elmbrook teachers were getting layoff notices. This is a sign of declining enrollments. Many will be recalled, but it shows that numbers are that uncertain. “Staffing needs will continue to be assessed as more reliable enrollment numbers and final building schedules are determined.”, the assistant superintendent of human resources said.
Enrollments are declining. Bob Borch addressed this topic in a Q & A with an area resident: A: Borch, "Current enrollment is 1,413 students at Central and 1,391 at East (2,804 current total.) The district does not do 20 year enrollment projections. We do five year projections which shows high school enrollment at 2,510 students total for both schools in 2011-12."
The Elmbrook LINK
states, “There has never been a greater need than now to recruit all possible
resident-student enrollments into our schools, according to...Bob Borch...
Projections for enrollment and for operational revenues and expenditures show
the district needs to reduce the budget by about $1.5 million in each of the
next five years.”
One reader commented
about our district’s budget problems, “Well, notice that our board has
decided to wait until after the vote to begin discussing our cuts as well.
The district is already operating
at a significant deficit. The need to cut $1.5 million dollars from the
operating budget each year for the next 5 years means it may become necessary
for the district to ask taxpayers for the money needed to exceed current
revenue caps just to cover our basic needs. Taxing our residents to the
brink of what they can (or are willing to) afford does not leave room for
future wants or needs.”
You know how they
always say, Bricks and mortar don’t educate kids; teachers do? Janesville realized that
too late.
Are Elmbrook
residents savvier?
