NEENAH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Just under 500 votes is all it took for one of the largest school referendums in Wisconsin’s history to fail.
This spring Neenah residents decided the $130 million request was too much.
But the district is not giving up.
Tuesday night was the first of four open public forums Neenah’s Board of Education has set. These meetings are to prepare for yet another possible referendum, this time in 2020.
If your vote was one of the more than 6,600 “NOs” in April, the Neenah School District wanted to hear from you Tuesday.
The District wants to know what will take to turn your “No” vote into a “Yes.”
“We’re going to have to think differently,” superintendent of the Neenah Joint School District Doctor Mary Pfeiffer said. “We’re going to have to learn and understand why people voted ‘No,’ why people voted ‘Yes.’”
District leaders got right to work on a new referendum almost immediately after April’s vote failed.
“Our kids depend on us – our future depends upon us, and so we can’t waste any time,” said Pfeiffer.”
Most of the nearly $130 million Neenah asked for in 2019 was aimed at replacing Shattuck Middle School – money that the school’s principal Stephanie Phernetton says is long-overdue
“We just can never lose sight that every single day that we’re moving toward a solution, our kids are going to school in conditions that we wouldn’t put prisoners in,” she said.
The referendum was one of the biggest in state history.
One Neenah resident said it wasn’t about the money, though.
“Yes, it would’ve cost us over $10,000 over 20 years, but we think good public schools are worth it.”
Still, replacing Shattuck Middle was a low priority for many other voters.
“Part of the problem in this process is that you’re not listening to the citizens,” resident Ted Galloway told the Board.
Dr. Pfeiffer said something the district learned that they should’ve talked about before was the elementary schools in the school district.
“We did not go to our public prepared enough to answer some of those questions, and so we’re going to have to do that.” she said.
More than 30 people attending this first meeting that pertained to the potential 2020 referendum, including principal of Tullar Elementary School Diane Galow.
Galow presented a memo to the Board, on behalf of the elementary’ s administrative team.
Written in the memo is what Galow said the team unanimously feels is the best direction the District should go.
“I’m asking you to be courageous tonight and to make a decision to listen to your elementary team and do what’s right for our students,” Galow said. “Be courageous and seriously look at larger elementary schools.”
Neenah resident Joe Nemecek agreed.
“You can forget everything else,” he said. “If this issue does not get resolved, your referendum is not going to go anywhere – you might as well go home right now.”
The public meeting focused on the Neenah School Board’s vision.
That didn’t seem to sit well with some locals there, either.
“I think talking about what the board wants 10, 20 and 30 years from now, versus listening to the public and working on the public’s action, and then deciding on what the District would look like would be much better,” Galloway said.
The District also introduced a timeline for the possible referendum in 2020.
Neenah Schools says it hopes to use lessons learned by the failed referendum to craft a plan that can pass.
“Hopefully, turning those “NOs” into “YESES,” Pfeiffer said.
Three more meetings are scheduled through June 20th.
District leaders plan to review surveys and community feedback, then start making plans about what to push for in the possible 2020 referendum.
