Waterloo School District will go to referendum again this spring

In November, voters rejected a similar question for taxpayers to fund $700,000 annually over five years.

The school district faces a $527,000 budget deficit for the 2022-23 school year because of the failed November referendum, and has already made 14 different budget cuts across departments to make ends meet for the rest of the school year, totaling about $146,000.

Should the April 2023 referendum fail, the district would need to find more than $100,000 in additional cuts.

Board members had reason to be optimistic at the meeting, receiving a report from a consultant hired to conduct a survey on the terms of the new ballot question. That poll projected that the new question would gain about 58% of the community’s support.

“You’ll probably squeak by, but it’s not a slam dunk by any stretch,” Bill Foster from research firm School Perceptions said. “You’ll have to work very, very hard.”

The survey, which was mailed to every household in the school district and received 508 responses, a response rate of about 19.6%.

In addition to gauging support for the new question, it asked residents to say why they had voted against the previous referendum, and what school services they would support cutting if the April referendum does not pass.

The top two reasons for voting against the November ballot question were the size of its tax impact—58% of parents and 61% of non-parents said it affected their decision—and a lack of trust in the district’s budgeting process, which 53% of parents and 47% of non-parents expressed.

Survey takers were asked to rank, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much they supported cutting certain school services if the new referendum does not pass. None of the options received an average score higher than 5.27.

“The takeaway here is folks really don’t want you to make cuts,” Foster told the board.

Athletics and co-curricular offerings were the top ranking option for cost-cutting, followed by facilities and transportation. The option with the lowest support for cuts was learning support, followed by course offerings.

Following November’s failure at the polls, the district has already made$146,600 in budget cuts for the 2022-23 school year.

The biggest-ticket items include cutting the district’s HVAC service contract for $31,800, eliminating some staffing of the district office for $25,300, cutting the athletics supply budget for $18,004 and reducing the number of varsity and junior varsity sports contests, saving $16,000.

Other changes include eliminating field trips for the rest of the year, lowering the building temperatures to reduce heating costs, eliminating summer school for high schoolers and limiting the hours district buildings are open outside of school day hours.

If the April referendum fails, Superintendent Brian Henning has said further cuts will be made.

Some of the cuts that could be considered in the future include freezing classroom supply budgets, cutting middle school sports, reducing contributions to staff health savings accounts, limiting the use of school buildings outside school hours, eliminating bus routes and eliminating staff positions.

“Whatever we say we’re in a deficit, we’re going to find it dollar for dollar to cut it until there’s a balanced budget,” Henning previously said. “Then, you’d have to find those cuts.”

School district residents will vote on the new referendum question on election day, Tuesday, Apr. 4.