Grace Kirchner, Leader Correspondent
Several residents told the Clintonville School Board on Monday why they thought voters rejected the district’s $24.9 million referendum in the April election.
The proposal to raze Rexford-Longfellow Elementary School and build a new school failed, 1,140-733, April 4 despite the support of a 31-member task force that spent months studying the issue.
Concerns focused on the decision to replace rather than renovate or repurpose the existing facility, communication issues with the public, the number of teachers and district employees on the committee, the proposal to pay interest-only for the first five years of the loan, and the plan to invest in facilities rather than teachers and student performance.
Mary Kautz, a member of the task force, urged the board to consider retirees who “have a hard time deciding to pay for medicine or taxes so they can stay in their homes” and to increase salaries to avoid losing good teachers. She also was not convinced the existing building could not be saved.
“I challenge you to go to the high school in Marshfield that is repurposed into new apartment buildings. It was not left empty or torn down,” she said. “There is a lot of good left in those buildings and some people resent spending millions to tear down.”
The task force found that the 154,000-square-foot Rexford-Longfellow structure is larger than needed, needs tuck pointing, the windows and doors need to be repaired or replaced, a portion of the roof needs to be replaced, the heating system is aging, parts of the building do not meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards or fire codes, and the infrastructure does not support modern technology.
Board members said they learned a lot through the referendum process.
“Maybe we need less administration on the committee,” board member Jim Schultz said. “Maybe we moved too fast. … We cannot give up. We must do what’s best for the district. We need to be more vocal about the needs. We have to do better next time and we need everyone on the board in favor.”
Board member Ben Huber opposed the referendum because of the financing arrangement that called for paying interest-only for five years, until the district paid off its high school loan. He said there are less expensive options than the one presented to voters.
The task force recommended the new school as the best solution in November. A month earlier, a survey conducted for the school district found more residents supported building a new elementary school than renovating the current school. The school board approved the referendum proposal in January.
“It astonished me about the confusion (on the referendum) right up to the end,” board President Jim Dins said. “Many did not get the survey that was supposed to go out to every taxpayer in the district.”
Superintendent Tom O’Toole defended the process, saying the committee, not administrators, came up with the plan.
“The needs are not going away,” he said, noting that the district needs to spend $10,000 to $20,000 to fix a boiler at the high school, and interest rates are likely to increase.
Greg Rose, a middle school teacher and member of the task force, suggested the district try another referendum, perhaps in a few years.
“I hope the committee will move forward and not be dissolved but will keep the ball rolling,” he said. “I hope they use the Elementary Facilities Task Force knowledge and move forward.”
The board is expected to continue its discussion of the referendum at its reorganizational meeting April 21.
A section of the Rexford-Longfellow complex was built in 1918 as a high school. Additional classrooms were added in 1956. Classrooms and a gymnasium were added in 1964. A cafeteria was added in 1992, and offices were added in 1996.