(Hustisford) The Hustisford School District will have a referendum on the upcoming April ballot asking residents to fund facility upgrades to bring all grades under one roof. The improvements would include a 22-thousand square-foot addition to the current Middle School/ High School building, unifying the pre-K-through-12 campus and realizing savings with modern technological efficiencies.
“The kids (would be) separated from each other,” School Superintendent Heather Cramer says. “So, the elementary students are within their own area of the building and the junior/senior high students are within their area of that building.”
The total cost of the project would be $19.5-million-dollars, which also includes the construction of a new gymnasium. If the referendum question is approved, the mill rate is projected to increase by $3.57.
A caller to the program who indicted opposition to the referendum stated that the range of the mill rate increase was $3.57 to $4.19. Cramer says there were other options discussed that could have resulted in a projected mill rate increase of up to $4.19 but the school board chose the option with a projected mill rate increase of $3.57.
“At one point, the three different bonding options that were given to us, had different mill rate impacts,” Cramer says. “This is the mill rate impact the board has chosen to go with.”
If the referendum passes, construction is scheduled to begin next April with an estimated completion date by December of 2025. The Hustisford School District is in all or parts of the towns of Rubicon, Clyman, Lebanon and Hubbard along with the town and village of Hustisford.
