Waunakee Referendum Fact Check

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Waunakee Referendum Fact Check A place to serve as a resource from an informed citizen about WCSD and Village of Waunakee tax and r

WCSD is an outlier. Support or oppose as you like, but don't think what we are being asked to support is typical.From Ja...
09/22/2026

WCSD is an outlier. Support or oppose as you like, but don't think what we are being asked to support is typical.

From January 2023 through the end of 2026, four years, there have been 42 recurring (forever) referenda passed in Wisconsin, and 8 additional are on the ballot in November.

Combining the 42 in existence plus the 8 proposed, the top 10 districts for total dollars are listed at the bottom. We are 4th. Waunakee is also the ONLY district in the state to pass a recurring referendum and go for another in this four-year window.

Ignoring the 1 of 1 second bite at the apple, Waunakee is in a group of 49 districts out of 421. 372 school districts (88.4%) have not gotten funds from a new recurring referendum in the last four years.

Moreover, the Top 10 districts below account for 84.8% of the total amount received & requested this November*. The 39 districts that went to referendum and aren't listed are seeking amounts many times smaller than WCSD.

Top 10:
Milwaukee $252,000,000
Madison $100,000,000
Sun Prairie $25,000,000
Waunakee $19,600,000
Marathon City $16,000,000
Stevens Point $14,000,000
Monona Grove $13,800,000
Oconomowoc $12,200,000
DeForest Area $7,900,000
Fort Atkinson $7,100,000

*Top 10 equal $467.6 million which is 84.8% of the $551 million statewide. (Referendum Results courtesy of the Wheeler Report, the best impartial publication on Wisconsin government since 1972). The URL I used to grab this data directly from DPI (linked in prior posts) has been shut down by DPI.

This picture shows the text of the resolution passed by the WCSD Board of Education. It also shows both the amounts of r...
09/19/2026

This picture shows the text of the resolution passed by the WCSD Board of Education. It also shows both the amounts of recurring (forever) taxing authority requested each year and the cumulative total. (Shout out to the Wheeler Report for publishing this information)

Some commenters who do (or possibly don't but should) know better have criticized this page for reporting the operational referendum figure as $10.5 million. Advocates of tax increasing referenda and car salesman both like to talk in terms of payments instead of the actual cost.

Since $10.5 million is the legally binding number, and was expressly stated in the BoE resolution, I hope it can be acknowledged by everyone that a 'yes' result on this referendum grants WCSD the power to raise $10.5 million more than current law allows?

There are eight recurring referenda across Wisconsin this November, totaling $40.62 million of taxing authority. Waunake...
09/18/2026

There are eight recurring referenda across Wisconsin this November, totaling $40.62 million of taxing authority. Waunakee, by asking for $10.5 million, accounts for over 25% of all recurring referendum tax dollars being sought in the ENTIRE STATE this November.

WCSD is a major outlier. Its never-ending desire for permanent, increased taxes is neither normal nor a necessity.

At this minute 25 years ago the first plane struck the North Tower. I encourage you to take a moment to think about that...
09/11/2026

At this minute 25 years ago the first plane struck the North Tower. I encourage you to take a moment to think about that day, honor the heroes, and remember the victims.

It is also helpful to remember that whatever disagreements we may have about local taxing and spending, we are all Americans and comparably little divides us.

WCSD set the rules by choosing what increased taxing authority it asked for, when, and how it chose to portray things to...
09/08/2026

WCSD set the rules by choosing what increased taxing authority it asked for, when, and how it chose to portray things to the public. In 2024 it chose to make the argument that, using a series of assumptions (if the great recession never happened and state policy went unchanged from 2009 through 2027) it would have had many millions that it has been denied.

These assumptions had some issues (did not consider savings from pension and other labor law changes, it did not include all new spendable state resources in its calculations, etc.) but for the sake of argument, let's grant the premise. WCSD wanted a catch-up of $9.1 million in recurring (forever) tax authority. It passed.

Months later WCSD began planning for the current $10.5 million recurring (forever) referendum, using largely the same historical funding grievance argument that it used in 2024.

Either: 1) the 2024 referendum was at least partially dishonest in that it did not "catch up" WCSD for the alleged deficiencies as was communicated to us and it was always their intention to cynically come back quickly for even more, or 2) the current referendum is at least partially dishonest in claiming poverty when the 2024 referendum did, in fact, address whatever historical arguments there were and now WCSD just wants to be free of any practical spending restraint for the future.

10 similar districts and their K-12 mil property tax rates:Monona Grove - 9.64Oregon - 9.44WCSD - 8.90New Richmond - 8.4...
09/03/2026

10 similar districts and their K-12 mil property tax rates:
Monona Grove - 9.64
Oregon - 9.44
WCSD - 8.90
New Richmond - 8.41
Middleton-Cross Plains - 8.32
Hudson - 8.21
Howard-Suamico - 7.99
Kettle Moraine - 7.07
Mequon-Thiensville - 6.97
De Pere - 6.85

Above are ten school districts, including WCSD, that are affluent suburbs with a similar enrollment (Middleton is larger but included for local context) and are considered high quality. We are, before any additional referendums, on the higher tax end compared to other districts with somewhat similar profile.

WCSD can produce a high-quality education without another gigantic forever referendum. It is choosing not to. See the map of all district's mil rates in the link below.

https://wi-dpi.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/portfolio/index.html?appid=3c52702365214e32a0d935595e0cf628§ionId=8f174648ec464ff5ba9c5d08b00e732c¢er=-89.8356;44.7837&level=6&hiddenLayers=19a556bbcfd-layer-44;19645933fda-layer-65

Since the bogeyman of school choice has been raised to defend the gigantic operating referendum this Fall, it is importa...
08/31/2026

Since the bogeyman of school choice has been raised to defend the gigantic operating referendum this Fall, it is important everyone know an important number... 13.

The number of students in the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program from our geographic area in the '25-26 school year was thirteen. That was equal to 0.3% of our aided enrollment. Eight K-8 participants and five 9-12 participants means an aid reduction of $153,871. That aid reduction was not a drop in actual resources WCSD could spend, but rather what WCSD can choose to levy from local property taxpayers to replace the state funds if it wishes (despite no longer needing to educate those students).

The debate about school choice, whether private school, charter school, open enrollment, can be long and complex. Happy to have those discussions long form. However, the idea that school choice is impacting WCSD's aid or taxes in any significant number when contrasted with WCSD choices about tax hikes sought by referendum since 2020 is laughable.

School Perception Services, who ran the 'survey' from earlier this year, had this slide in its report to the BOE in May....
08/28/2026

School Perception Services, who ran the 'survey' from earlier this year, had this slide in its report to the BOE in May. This is a document to the BOE, if it were about simply recording data and not framing a political narrative, why would this slide be in here?

It opens with a comparison statistic that is almost meaningless, over 15-years 72% of districts have gone to a referendum. It omits what I documented here that about 1% of districts have gone to referendum with the frequency of WCSD since 2020.

Second, it portrays an escalating forever referendum that climbs to $10.5 million as "asking the voters to consider renewing our operational referendum at a slightly higher rate." when the expiring referendum it references was a final total of $2.1 million.

What does it say about WCSD's stewardship of our taxdollars if a 5x increase is "a slightly higher rate" to them?

Wisconsin has a dashboard of public K12 data. It is run by the Department of Public Instruction, headed by an elected of...
08/26/2026

Wisconsin has a dashboard of public K12 data. It is run by the Department of Public Instruction, headed by an elected official. Before being Governor, Tony Evers was Superintendent of Public Instruction. It is far from perfect but the data on it is the responsibility of an elected official and all schools recognize it as the official statistics.

WCSD preferred to have narratives its way, so they went to a private firm (ECRA Group) and PURCHASED an AI generated personalized dashboard to sell its referendum. Not convinced ECRA is a marketing firm that caters to school districts to provide campaign materials? I recommend going to their own website to see the testimonial "Using Data to Build Trust During a Winning School District Referendum Process" (https://ecragroup.com/2025/09/29/using-data-to-build-trust-during-a-winning-school-district-referendum-process/).

WCSD has an extensive administrative staff and a full-time communications official, yet it decided to use their existing operational budget to hire an AI-driven marketing/campaign dashboard.

The fact WCSD cut a check instead of doing whatever communications work they believed important themselves shows the mindset of the WCSD. No need to consider cost... we can have boutique contractors convince our voters to approve escalating, forever referendums any time we please.

In the Superintendent's email, she claimed that the board would only use the escalating forever taxation authority "if f...
08/24/2026

In the Superintendent's email, she claimed that the board would only use the escalating forever taxation authority "if future state budgets do not provide funding for staff compensation to be maintained at the average of Dane County comparables to Waunakee."

There are several problems with this plan and mindset. The first problem is this: State aid given to school districts is largely uniform. Whether the state gives $1 or $2000, everyone gets it. No matter how well or poorly we are aided, we will not close the "gap" through state aid.

By setting the alleged political trigger for raising taxes under the new authority a RELATIVE measure (that state aid won't change) the decision, or at minimum the intention, is already set. She might as well of said she'll only raise taxes until your younger child catches your older child.

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