April referendum would benefit the district

CLINTONVILLE –The Clintonville Board of Education continues to discuss an operational referendum in anticipation of asking the school district’s residents to approve an operational referendum in April.
At the Oct. 13 board meeting, Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn stressed the financial importance of asking the referendum question in April and not waiting until November.
Kuhn told the board that if the district’s residents approve an operational referendum in April, the district can start using those funds to cover the projected $1.5 million deficit in the 2025-26 district budget. The district could also fund some athletic projects and hire district staff.
If the district waits until November to ask district residents to approve an operational referendum, Kuhn said the district would encounter a second $1.5 million deficit, even if district residents approved the referendum.
“That would be a total of $3 million (deficit) over the last two years,” Kuhn said.

Under the scenario of an operational referendum being passed in November, Kuhn said the first $2 million collected from the referendum would need to be put in the district’s Fund Balance, per district policy, before any referendum funds could be used for district projects or hire district staff.
“Essentially we would be paying ourselves back to maintain our fund balance, and we would probably have to cut some of the things that were in our ideal referendum,” Kuhn said.
He added, “I want to be really clear on that timeline. So, I would say we have to go for April or we’re going to be shooting ourselves in the foot another $1.5 million.”
Board Vice President Kris Strauman said the board has been discussing “if” the district goes to referendum in too many meetings. She said the board needs to make a decision as to if it is going to ask the district’s residents to approve an operational referendum.
“It’s very frustrating because it’s if, if, if, and we get nowhere,” Strauman said.
Kuhn said the district was working on finalizing the questions that would appear in a community survey regarding the referendum.
He told the board that it must decide if the survey is going to focus only on referendum items, or if the board also wanted to include questions about the expenses in Fund 80.
“I think the best way to lower Fund 80 expenses is to pass a Fund 10 referendum,” said board member Ben Huber.
Kuhn said that was correct, adding that some of the Fund 80 expenses, such as middle school athletics could be moved to Fund 10, and then the district would be able to collect school aid on those expenses.
“If a referendum doesn’t pass, I can’t move middle school athletics over to Fund 10 because that’s going to be a teacher and a half that I’m going to have to cut in order to do that,” Kuhn said.
Board President Glen Drew Lundt said if the district expects its residents to pass an operational referendum; the board needs to show the district’s residents that it is getting better at handling the district’s finances.
“Which, in my opinion, is balancing the budget,” Lundt said.
Kuhn countered, “Balancing the budget, in my mind right now, is going to cause detriment to this district in more ways than one.”
He added that the district has shown financial responsibility in many other areas. In addition, the district could have asked for approval of an operational referendum four years ago, but the district was able to postpone that by four years because it was fiscally responsible.
“We did balance the budget last year, and the year before, but at the expense of certain things, cutting positions, cutting this,” Kuhn said. “… If we want to add these positions back. If we want to start putting these long-term maintenance [projects] into our budget, passing this referendum is being fiscally responsible as well.”
Huber added that the district wouldn’t be asking residents for more funds, rather it would be asking to reallocate funds.