FAQ

The district’s facilities are aging.  Our 20 school facilities have an average age of 63.  We’ve identified $578 million in capital maintenance needs, including $137 million in immediate, high-priority projects.  In addition, we face millions more to renovate and modernize our facilities so they better support today teaching and learning.  Given these needs, we have initiated the long-term facilities planning process.

Capital maintenance is the repair or replacement of the major building systems that make allow our schools to function.  These systems include: Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing equipment; windows; roofs; and other elements of building and site infrastructure.

Facilities and custodial staff in Janesville do a wonderful job given the resources available for capital maintenance projects.  However, the state-imposed revenue controls limit funding available to Wisconsin school, including the School District of Janesville.  These revenue controls make it difficult to use our operating budget to meet our capital maintenance needs.  Large operating projects are often deferred into future years.  The result:  a growing list of high priority maintenance needs.  Janesville, along with many other districts, rely on voter approved facilities referenda to fund large capital maintenance projects.

A referendum is a vote on a policy or financial question.  Wisconsin school districts are permitted to seek two primary types of referendum questions:

• A facilities referenda is used to seek voter approval prior to borrowing money to pay for building projects such as school renovations or capital maintenance projects.  .  
• An operational referendum is used to seek voter approval to set a tax levy in excess of the state-imposed revenue limit.  If approved by voter these additional resources are used for day-to-day operating expenses like academic programming, student services, and other expenses.  Operational referenda can either be recurring (increased levy authority is ongoing) or non-recurring (increased levy authority sunsets at some point in the future, as specified in the referendum language.)

Yes.  In 2020, district electors approved a NON-RECURRING $14.5 million operating referendum.  This operating referendum is expiring June 30, 2025.  In other words, the district will no longer have authority to spend $14.5 million in the 2025-26 budget year.  The district is considering placing a replacement $14.5 million referendum on the November 5, 2024 General Election ballot.  The replacement operating referendum  would not impact the district’s tax rate.

The district held three staff informational sessions and three additional community conversations in winter 2024 to provide information and gather feedback from our stakeholders.  In addition, the district is provided a community-wide survey to every household in the district.  The survey result were used to help further inform the planning process.  Information from these meeting can be found on our website.

The district is awaiting community feedback prior to finalizing its plans.  Due to the size and complexity of our needs, we know our plan must be phased - or implemented over multiple cycles.  After seeking community feedback on elements of a potential first phase, the district is focusing on our most pressing needs through a $151.8 million plan:

• $124.5 million to repair or replace high priority capital maintenance needs.
• $11.1 million to enhance safety and security
• $16.2 million to improve special education classrooms

Yes.  However needs vary from school-to-school.  Therefore, individual schools may not receive an equal shares, if a referendum is approved.

After considering community feedback the Board of Education approved two referendum questions for the November 2024 ballot.

The first question will ask voters to consider renewing an operational referendum the community approved in 2020. This would be a $14.5 million non-recurring, two-year operational referendum that would expire on June 30, 2027, rather than June 30, 2025. This would enable the district to continue leveraging available funds through an increased revenue limit authority. If approved by voters, taxpayers are not expected to see an increase over the school district’s current portion of the mill rate. 

The second question is a capital referendum question, not to exceed $151.8 million, to address the district’s prioritized facility needs. The district had considered a larger amount for the first phase but considered feedback obtained through community engagement, ultimately falling on the lower $151.8 million for the most essential needs.

If approved, the district would move ahead on the first phase of its long-term facilities plan. The initial phase includes:

• $124.5 million to repair or replace high-priority capital maintenance needs;
• $11.1 million to enhance safety and security; and
• $16.2 million to improve special education spaces.

Several tax impact benchmarks have been calculated to help community members better understand the financial implications of our planning work.

The public school funding system in Wisconsin is complicated and has not kept up with the annual rising costs due to inflation. For a brief explanation of the funding system, watch this Public School Financing Video.