A recent survey of Ellsworth Community School District residents revealed that a majority of voters would not support a $34.3 million referendum plan.
According to Superintendent Barry Cain, 938 …
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A recent survey of Ellsworth Community School District residents revealed that a majority of voters would not support a $34.3 million referendum plan.
According to Superintendent Barry Cain, 938 residents completed the survey, administered by School Perceptions, which measured community support for various proposed facility projects. A School Perceptions representative presented the survey results at the Nov. 13 Ellsworth School Board meeting.
“Overall, it was reported that many of the trends we saw in our current survey are not unique to us and are being seen statewide in surveys conducted by School Perceptions,” Cain said in a letter to parents.
The results show the community doesn’t support all projects as a whole, including a proposed childcare center.
“In particular, the athletic facilities projects did not test well as a whole and the tax impact of the overall package of projects was seen as too high,” Cain said. “The updates to our middle school and high school building systems along with the expansion of the Career and Tech Ed areas saw significantly less opposition. As noted by the School Perceptions representative, people seem to better understand the need for these projects and are interested in them.”
A facilities study has pinpointed the following prioritized projects in a potential April 2024 referendum:
Ellsworth High School ($17.784 million)
Ellsworth Middle School ($8.167 million)
Phy ed/athletic outdoor spaces ($8.351 million)
At the high school, building systems need updating, though the district has done a lot with ESSER funding and Fund 46 (capital savings account) dollars, Cain said in a September interview. The current tech ed area has old, outdated, cramped shops from the 1970s. The hope is to create better spaces that promote kids going into manufacturing and industrial careers.
A fitness center addition would provide an expanded weightroom and fitness classroom, essentially doubling the current space. It would also be open to the public before and after school and on weekends.
EMS is approaching its 30th birthday and with that, new doors, floors, and windows are needed, along with an updated career/tech ed area, better configured locker bays and science lab adjustments.
The outdoor facilities would have included a turf football field, replacing the bleachers and the 1980s lights. The hope was to add an artificial turf baseball/softball complex south of the middle school.
“Many springs they can’t play on our fields because of the weather, and they’re unusable for our phy ed and youth,” Cain said. “A flexible turf field would allow us to use it for practices, youth, the community. We would also make improvements to current fields for better drainage and soil conditions.”
The survey also asked one more question: Whether the public would support a $6.1 million childcare addition to the elementary school.
In 2022, a report released by the St. Croix Valley United Way showed that St. Croix and Pierce counties are lacking 1,422 childcare spots; the 54011 zip code alone is short 240, Cain said.
Fifty-two percent of parent residents who responded said they would support a $34.3 million referendum to fund the entire plan, while 13% were undecided and 35% said they would not.
Thirty-one percent of non-parent, non-staff residents said they would support the referendum as a whole, while 16% were undecided and 53% said they would not.
As for the childcare addition, 54% of parent residents said they’d support the $6.1 million project, while 15% were undecided and 31% said they would not support it. In comparison, 37% non-parent, non-staff residents said they would support the childcare addition, while 20% were undecided and 43% said they would not.
The top five reasons given for not supporting projects included:
Staff were buoyed by the fact that residents’ perceptions of the district were positive, with the district scoring above average in keeping the public informed.
“It was ultimately the opinion of the School Perceptions representative that the district consider going to the voters with a referendum package that focuses on the building systems and the Career and Tech Ed area expansion with further consideration and refinement of the fitness area,” Cain said. “This package was seen as having a greater level of support than the outdoor athletic facilities while also decreasing the tax impact substantially.”
The Ellsworth School Board will hold a special meeting at 5:45 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Ellsworth Elementary School Community Room to further consider the survey results and discuss possible referendum models for April 2024.
“Thank you once again to all who participated in the community-wide survey,” Cain said. “The results provide the district with valuable information that assists the decision-making process greatly while also ensuring that referendum projects brought to the voters reflect the wishes of the community as a whole.”
