West Bend, Wi – Voters in the West Bend School District (WBSD) – please soundly reject the $165.45 MILLION (with interest included) referendum, which would seriously waste our money, on Nov. 5.
For full disclosure, I served two terms on the WBSD Board (2011-17) and was an officer all six years. (I chose not to seek a third term, so I could earn a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership, finish & publish my poetry book, and start a high-quality, classical public school from scratch.)
Between 2018 and 2023, WBSD state report card scores declined nine (9) percent – from 75.4 to 68.8. So, our kids are now performing at a D+ level, on average! Also, the WBSD lost about 1,000 students during this same time.
Some of it may be due to the “baby bust;” however, many area private schools are increasing their enrollment of students. In fact, several have added on or are in the process of expanding to accommodate their higher number of students.
This shows me many parents are taking their kids out of West Bend public schools. This is directly because of WBSD’s lower quality, declining standards and achievement, and the huge increase in Extreme Radical Leftist/Woke indoctrination being committed against our kids.
Instead of educating our youth with rigorously objective truth, actual knowledge, facts, real science (vs. their Leftist/political/junk “science”), and wholesome, virtuous, age-appropriate, and high-quality books, the WBSD continues to Left-indoctrinate our students in so-called “social-emotional learning” (SEL, or Communism), untrue, racist and divisive “critical race indoctrination” (some call it ”CRT”), Woke/Leftist lies, Green New Deal Communism, and highly objectionable and often perverted books (yes, please do not deceive yourselves; they are now in our schools).
What would this financially burdensome, families-hurting, monstrous $165,450,000 tax-increase referendum really buy us? Not much. The “Value of Good Design Study” used to push the soundly rejected $205 MILLION referendum in 2007 states that elementary students’ school performance really only suffers if there is less than 100 square feet (SF) per student.
So, by the WBSD’s own measure, the Taj-Mahal of a new Jackson Elementary they want to build – at a families’ budget-busting cost of $48,000,000 – would provide almost 200 SF per student! That is roughly a master bedroom (MBR) amount (i.e., 14’ x 14’) of space for each kid!
Yet many of the families who are being asked to foot this exorbitant, grossly overpriced school don’t even have an MBR that large. Further, when I was last on the board in 2017, we were talking $25 million for a new Jackson that would accommodate the same number of students as the oversized building you’re being asked to pay for now.
Yes, inflation has gone up a horrible 23% since Biden-Harris were installed, but it averaged only 1.9 percent per year during President Trump. That means inflation might have added up to 30% total during the last 7-8 years, so why has the price of that school almost doubled?
Also, the WBSD deliberately, seriously, and repeatedly violated the intent and/or letter of its own policy 615, Disclosure of Financing and Total Costs of All Referenda. That policy requires “genuine transparency” in consistently disclosing the principal, interest, and total cost of any referendum, yet the WBSD has constantly hidden in much smaller print, tiny italics, many screens down on its website, etc., that actual total cost of $165,450,000. Why?
If this referendum monstrosity is such a good idea, why would the WBSD have to resort to playing such despicable and deceptive policy-violating games on the taxpayers? Answer: because this $165,450,000 referendum is a horrible idea, but the WBSD wants to sneak it by you. Please don’t fall for that.
Besides rampant inflation, other costs on each of us have gone up sharply – all local taxes, energy costs, insurance expenses, interest rates (and the higher interest costs we then have to pay as a result), and on and on. Plus, the city of West Bend’s roads are in such bad shape in many places, I would not be surprised if they try to force a referendum on us for that – for their poor planning, budgeting, and maintenance. The exact same fiscal mismanagement is true of the WBSD.
Remember, too, that neither the WBSD superintendent nor the finance director live in our school district, so they would completely escape the huge $165,450,000 tax-increase referendum they are pushing on the rest of us!
Bottom line: If we are actually, truly honest and reasonable about it, none of us would reach into our own pockets for another $165,450,000 for a failing enterprise (the WBSD) that is losing customers (students), has declining quality and results, and has mismanaged the upkeep of its facilities. The WBSD has been a bad steward of the highly generous resources the taxpayers already provide. Let’s not set a bad example to our kids by rewarding this irresponsible school district with even more of our hard-earned money. Please vote NO to the WBSD referendum on Nov. 5th. Thank you.
Most sincerely and very respectfully [signed],
Bart Williams
West Bend, WI 53090
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