Investing in the Future of Bangor Schools

     The School District of Bangor is the hub of our community and has a proud tradition of being a small school building big futures for our students. The ongoing support and investment by our community has allowed the district to prioritize attracting and retaining high quality educators while creating opportunities for our students to excel in the classroom, through athletics, and in the arts. Thanks to community support for our capital referendum in 2022, our outstanding facilities are ready to serve.

     This investment and support from the community has set a high standard for our schools and without continued support we face serious budget challenges that would make it difficult for Bangor Schools to continue meeting our mission, vision, and values.

      In Wisconsin, a combination of state aid and local property taxes are the primary source of funding for school districts. Each district has a revenue limit created by the state that caps the amount of money that can be generated through these sources. These limits were established more than 30 years ago and have created significant gaps between available resources and district needs. 

     As our district sees steady enrollment, the operational referendum support that our district has had in place since 2007 has become vital to bridging the gap between available funding and the needs of the district. That referendum supported revenue authority has been set at $900,000 per year since 2018 and without it, our schools would look and feel very different from what we have all come to know and expect.

Sound Financial Management and Planning

     The Bangor School Board and administration have a history of sound financial management and have pursued practical and cost-effective solutions that respect the needs of our property taxpayers while ensuring that our school district remains a destination for families and their children.

     As an example of the sound financial planning for the district, consider the use of one-time ESSER money along with the capital referendum projects and how they have positioned the district for the future. These resources and projects have allowed the district to address major needs and to plan for large cost items over time. Preventative maintenance, upgrades to our phone systems, HVAC systems, lighting and lighting control systems have and will allow us to control ongoing operational costs and still maintain our daily operations. Our transportation fleet has been updated to ensure the safety of our bus riders each day. While many school districts across the state used one-time ESSER funds to address operational costs and personnel, Bangor planned differently and avoided the fiscal cliff by using the funds for one-time purchases.

      In April 2021, our resident voters approved a non-recurring operational referendum for the school district that provided an additional $900,000 over a three-year period. This revenue limit authority will sunset at the conclusion of the 2024-25 school year.

The Proposed Solution

     While we are very proud of our financial discipline and decision making in the face of funding challenges, the loss of $900,000 per year in revenue limit authority for our district would have a significant negative impact on our programming for students and on staffing. 

     On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, our community will consider approving the renewal of a three-year, non-recurring operational referendum question for the School District of Bangor. If this measure is approved, we will have the ability to maintain our current $900,000 of revenue limit authority annually through the 2027-28 school year. 

• Continued community support would allow the district to continue our commitment to programs and opportunities for students including…. 

• Maintaining smaller class sizes at the 4K-2nd grade levels.

• Maintaining behavioral and academic support for students 4K-12.

• Continuation of Ag Education at the MS/HS level.

• Maintaining class sizes and academic offerings grades 6-12.

• Providing opportunities for our students without charging school fees. 

• Continued investments in the areas of personnel, transportation, maintenance, technology, and instructional resources as prices increase with inflation. 

     District forecasting shows that an approved renewal of the operational referendum is not projected to have a levy rate increase. In fact, if  projections hold in our modeling, the mill rate (or cost per thousand dollars of property value) will decrease each of the three years of the referendum from our current $9.39 to a projected $9.24.

As a District, we recognize that we must find a balance when funding our schools.

This graphic depicts the competing factors when prioritizing the needs of the District.

Please note that the question has been changed from recurring to non-recurring based on the feedback that we received following the November vote.

Shall the School District of Bangor, La Crosse and Monroe Counties, Wisconsin be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $900,000 per year for three years, beginning with the 2025-2026 school year and ending with the 2027-2028 school year, for non-recurring purposes?

What is an operational referendum?

An operational referendum provides school districts additional, voter approved, tax levy authority. Referenda have become essential for schools to successfully operate since revenue caps were put into place in the mid 90s. The need for an operational referendum has been created through the gaps in the state funding model.

All Wisconsin schools are subject to a revenue limit, which places a cap on the amount of money that can be raised through state aid and property taxes. This revenue limit is fixed and does not adjust to inflation rates. As a result, the School District of Bangor does not receive enough revenue to adequately fund programs and services for students. 

Is Bangor currently operating with referendum support?

Bangor is currently operating under an operational referendum and has been doing so since 2007. The current referendum amount is $900,000 per year. The current referendum was approved in the spring of 2021 and is set to expire June 30, 2025.

The district is not alone in recognizing and addressing these challenges through referendum. In the last five years, Wisconsin's 421 school districts have proposed 311 operational referendums to their communities. At this time, over 100 school districts in the state of Wisconsin depend on voter approved referendum support for at least 10% of their total operational budget.

What does the operational referendum fund?

After 18 years of operating with a referendum, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what the referendum supports. The District's total operational budget is roughly $11,000,000 per year. The District has begun the work of identifying areas where cuts could would need to be made and it will take far more than a little "belt tightening" to make up $900,000 per year.

A Failed referendum would result in a reduction of up to 11 positions throughout the district resulting in significantly larger class sizes and many lost resources and opportunities for students. Most impacted areas would likely include..

• Larger class sizes 4k-2

• Reduced behavioral and academic support for students 4k-12

• Elimination of Ag Education at the MS/HS level

• Increased class sizes and few academic offerings grades 6-12

• Reinstatement of school fees for all students. 

• Freeze or deferment of operational costs in the areas of personnel, transportation, maintenance, technology, and instructional resources resulting in deficits that will carry forward for years to come.

Didn't the community just pass a referendum?

The operational referendum that was on the November 5, 2024 ballot failed by approximately 50 votes. While that vote did not affect the current 2024-2025 school year, this April question will absolutely affect the 2025-2026 school year and beyond.

Our last operational referendum was passed in the spring of 2021 and is set to expire in 2025. The community also passed a capital referendum in fall of 2022 with the sole purpose of adding onto and remodeling our three district buildings. The funds from the capital referendum can not be used for operational purposes. One way that the capitol improvements have helped the most is that they have taken care of years of deferred maintenance that will provide annual relief to the operational budget for many years. While the funds and purposes are separate, the District has continued to plan for both the operational and capital expenses maintaining our commitment to a stable to declining mill rate.

How does the School Board and District insure that our tax dollars are being spent wisely?

The School District of Bangor has a long history of sound financial decision making that is a byproduct of ongoing planning for the future. While many school districts across the state used one time rescue dollars over the past few years to meet operational needs, Bangor used as much of the money as possible on one time purchases avoiding what much of the state has seen and referred to as a fiscal cliff. Looking ahead, planning for facility improvements when the timing was right to maintain the mill rate, and to avoid major expense in the future is just a small step in the stewardship of our community resources. The District has taken steps to control the ever rising costs of insurance, and has made purchases to improve the efficiency of our custodial staff so that they can cover the ground needed with our facility additions. It takes resources to provide a safe and functional educational experience for our students and our Board is focused on strategically prioritizing those resources at all times. Bangor Pride runs deep and drives our district to be the best that it can be each and every day.

How will continuing to support an operational referendum affect my taxes?

Below is a graph of the projected mill rate. In that graph you can see what we anticipate the mill rate (or cost per thousand dollars of property value) will decrease each of the three years of the referendum from our current $9.39 to a projected $9.24.

As a district, we have worked hard for many years, through multiple Board changes, and changes to administration, to maintain a stable to declining mill rate (cost per $1,000 of property value) for the community. Through multiple referendums the mill rate has continued to show a steady decline. The mill rate is the part of the equation that the District can control. During that same time, people across the state and in the Bangor School District community have seen their property values climb. Depending on your municipality and how re-alignment of fair market value of properties is adjusted, tax impacts fluctuate throughout the district. In addition to home sale prices, new properties being built in the district each year come in to play and help distribute the levy over all of the property value in the district. It is important to note that a successful referendum does not set the mill rate, instead it provides the district additional levying authority and ultimately the School Board sets the levy each year. As an example of the Board's commitment to a stable mill rate, the District under levied for the 23-24 school year by $150,000. By doing this we maintained the mill rate and still were able to meet operational costs for the year.

The slides below show district enrollment over time as well as the impact of open enrollment over time. These trends are headed in a positive direction for our district.