PESHTIGO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – For now, the decades-old middle and high school building in Peshtigo will stay as-is.
Mark Konrad says he’s among those who voted no.
He tells FOX 11 the price-tag for the project is way too high.
“$32 million is a lot for a community of 1,500 people, the population of the students in that school has really not grown over the last 20 years.”
The district had two questions on Tuesday’s ballot.
Question one asked voters for $29.96 million to build a new middle and high school building.
55-percent of voters said “no.” Question two, which also failed, asked for $950,000 for a new gym.
The district’s previous referendum in 2016, asked voters for $33.9 million.
Peshtigo District Superintendent, Kim Eparvier, sent a statement stating in part….
“The question of “What’s next for the district now that the referendum failed” is one that must be contemplated by our Board of Education and other stakeholders in the community.”
Jim Koronkiewic, who is on the citizen’s building committee, also commented…
“This shows that the Peshtigo community and surrounding School District taxpayers do not support advancing the educational infrastructure to keep pace with and promote economic development in the area.”
Wendy Holmes voted in favor of the referendum, saying the school needs improvement.
“The kids need a new school, I think this one has seen better days, it’s shabby, it definitely needs a lot of money to upgrade it.”
District officials say they are not giving up on the project.
But there’s currently no timeline of what exactly will be next for the project.
