Almond-Bancroft School District

I have an old car, a 1947 De Soto.  It has been in our family for many years.

Though it is not the fanciest car, I cherish all the fond memories the De Soto has given to us.    I want to make sure the De Soto continues to run well and keeps its value. 

When the body of our De Soto begins to show signs of rust, I don’t hesitate to take care of the maintenance because our De Soto is an investment. 

Our upcoming operational referendum on April 3 is much like our De Soto.  It is an investment in our school and community.  We will spend some money on upgrades to our educational system, but that guarantees our district will be able to provide quality education for years to come.

The referendum calls for a $525,000 annual reoccurring addition to the operational budget to pay for those educational improvements.

The good news is that addition won’t call for any increase in school taxes.

This spring we are retiring our annual $451,000 debt payment for our 1998 building addition.  The $75,000 annual five year technology referendum that was passed in 2013 will also expire at the end of this school year.  That is a total of $526,000 that will be eliminated from our tax levy. 

This means the proposed $525,000 annual recurring referendum will result in a 0% school tax rate increase.  Funds that were being used to pay off debt can now be used to address the needs of our students, families, community and staff.

This gives us a unique opportunity to use those funds to invest in our school and provide badly needed funding for our curriculum, technology, teacher recruitment and maintenance needs that have been neglected and need to be addressed.

As one looks closely, they will find our school district has worked in a very fiscally responsible manner and used best the funds we have.

It is not often a school can ask for additional funding and not have a school tax rate increase. That is the case for this referendum.

If you would like more information about the upcoming vote on Tuesday, April 3, go to our website or Facebook page.

You may also contact Rich Hanson, District Administrator at 715-366-2941 ex. 418 or at rhanson@abschools.k12.wi.us, or one of our School Board Referendum Information Committee members, Bonnie Warzynski, (bwarzynski@abschools.k12.wi.us), Debbie Bradley (dbradley@abschools.k12.wi.us), or Kim Weiss (kweiss@abschools.k12.wi.us).