Oshkosh board schedules referendum outreach, orders methane testing at Shapiro site and coordinates with city on zoning

The Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education on Jan. 29 outlined outreach plans for an April referendum, said officials will perform methane testing at the Shapiro site and described a new pre‑submittal coordination process with City staff after a recent zoning miscommunication.

District administrators said the referendum team will hold 10 community information sessions and a website with FAQ and session dates is live; the district will also mail a referendum flyer to all households. The sessions include six formal presentations with Q&A and four informal coffee‑shop question‑and‑answer events, staff said. Superintendent Dr. Davis and staff said the goal is to give residents the facts they need ahead of the vote.

Administrators said they met with City staff John Fitzpatrick and Kelly Nyforth to improve project and zoning communications after the South Park Avenue property purchases and subsequent public questions. The district said it has created a pre‑submittal meeting process that will bring district designers together with city staff to review plans before formal filings to reduce future misunderstandings.

On specific site safety concerns, staff said the district performed due diligence on the Shapiro site and found no prior methane documentation, but “out of an abundance of caution” will do site‑specific methane testing. Those tests, staff said, will take about a month and the district has contingency costs built into the project scope should mitigation be needed; results will be shared with the board and the community when available.

Why it matters: The referendum would authorize facility work across the district and has drawn community questions about tax impact, project timing and site conditions. Board members and staff emphasized transparency through the FAQ website and multiple session formats to help residents evaluate the proposal.

District administrators and board members also said they will continue to update the FAQ as new questions arise, and that information about methane testing and zoning coordination will be posted once available.

Quotes from the meeting are limited to those speakers recorded in the transcript: District staff said, “we did our due diligence and there was no known documentation of methane on the Shapiro site” and that testing “should be about a month to be able to complete and get back.” The district added it “has contingency costs built in to cover the cost of mitigation within our project scope.”