BRILLION (NBC 26) — Brillion voters approved a new school referendum that will bring in $1 million per year for the next five years, starting this school year. The decision is a reversal from April, when a larger funding request failed at the polls.
Watch the full broadcast story here:
After that first referendum failed, the district cut about 13 staffing positions, put a salary freeze in place and raised student fees.
Last April, the district asked voters for $2.275 million per year for three years. When that request failed, a new group called Vote Yes for Brillion formed with the idea of getting more people connected to the schools out to the polls.
"You can't blame the voter for not liking it, nobody like this. It's a universal feeling," Gordie Gasch, a Vote Yes for Brillion member, said. "This is our one shot, we need to make it count."
This time, voters said yes. The new referendum will bring in $1 million per year for the next five years, starting this school year. But the district still has around a half-million-dollar deficit to make up.
"The permission the community gave us is to cover that deficit for the next five years and use the remaining 500,000 to maybe bring back some staffing, maintenance repair, technology," Superintendent Corey Baumgartner said.
There's also some good news for taxpayers. When I asked whether people would see an extra amount of money on their tax bill, Baumgartner said no — it's going down.
Even with the referendum in place, the district expects its school tax rate to go down from $7.37 to $5.84 for every $1,000 of property value. That means about $450 in savings on a $300,000 home.
"This feels good. At least. Be on steady ground for 5 years," Gasch said.
The district says it will continue looking for ways to be more efficient, while also looking at what staffing and other needs it may be able to bring back.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
