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Mixed support for school projects

Clintonville survey finds referendum would likely fail

By Bert Lehman


Community survey results indicate that a school spending referendum would likely fail at this time based on the projects and spending plans presented to residents in the Clintonville School District.

That was the message that Bill Foster, of School Perceptions, told the Clintonville School Board on June 22.

Foster said 1,055 of the surveys, which were mailed in May, were completed and returned to the district.

This put the participation rate at 22%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.

The last time the district conducted a spending referendum survey was in 2016, and the response rate was 21%.

“The bottom line is that we have very good data,” Foster said.

Of those returning the survey, 36% were 65 years old or older, while only 2% fell in the 18-25 years old range.

Foster said that difference is actually good.

“You’re actually overrepresented with the senior citizens, but when it comes to voting on a potential referendum your seniors will turn out at a much higher rate than your younger folks,” Foster said.

Residents of the Clintonville School District made up 93% of the respondents. The other 7% was comprised of employees of the district and parents of students who choose to open enroll into the Clintonville School District.

Foster said the 7% of respondents who live outside the district were removed from the totals for the funding support questions.
Regarding the funding support questions, respondents were broken into the following categories: district staff, parents of children in the district, and non-staff/non-parents.

When it came to the base plan of spending $37 million to renovate the current middle school into an elementary school, as well as construct a new wing at the high school to serve 6th through 8th grade students, 69% of district staff and 60% of district parents supported the plan.

But only 35% of the non-staff/non-parents group supported the plan, while 53% opposed the plan.
Foster said the non-staff/non-parents group was the most important because they represent the majority of voters in the district.

Those undecided equaled 13%.

The base plan would raise property taxes by $73 for each $100,000 of the value of a home.

Foster said about one-third of the undecided respondents would vote yes, and two-thirds would vote no.

Lower cost referendum less likely to fail

“If this referendum were held today, I would likely say it would not be supported, however, it’s close,” Foster said.

The survey also asked about support for other projects, including a $1.9 million addition to the Rec Center at Clintonville High School, $1.4 million to update the athletic fields, and $4.3 million to update major building systems.

Results showed that district staff was supportive of everything except possibly the improvements to the athletic fields, Foster said.

District parents were on board for all the projects.

Non-staff/non-parents were not as supportive of the projects, with updating major building systems receiving the most support.

The survey not only measured support for different projects, it also measured the tax tolerance of respondents, assuming the projects were acceptable to them.

Combining the three groups together, only 13% of all the resident respondents indicated they would support a $48 million referendum that included all the projects listed.

Foster said if a person would support $48 million, they very likely would support a referendum at a lesser amount.

“If it were up to just the staff, the staff would support $40 million, and the parents would support $40 million,” Foster said.

Foster said the most important group, though, the non-staff/non-parents residents would like to see a project less than $37 million.

“If the board decided to move forward with the referendum, it would need to be less than $37 million,” Foster said.

He added that 40% of the non-staff/non-parents group indicated they would not support any spending referendum. This was the same percentage as it was in 2016. The spending referendum in 2016 was defeated by district residents.

“That’s a fairly large percentage of your population that are saying no,” Foster said.

The three groups combined also were not in support of an $500,000 operating referendum for each of the next five years. Only 33% were in support, while 41% were not in support, and 26 were undecided.

Individual categories broke down this way: 66% of district staff supported the operating referendum, while 18% were not in support; 44% of district parents were supportive; only 24% of non-staff/non-parents were supportive and 51% said no.

“If the operational referendum were tacked on, that would likely not be supported,” Foster said.

The survey results presentation is available on the Clintonville School District’s website.

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