Racine Unified superintendent asks voters to approve $190 million referendum to shore up school budget

Lauren Gajewski, superintendent of Racine Unified School District, told a town-hall audience the district is asking voters to approve a non‑recurring $190,000,000 referendum spread over five years to cover growing budget shortfalls and preserve current programs.

“This is it, right, plain and simple in front, is $190,000,000 over the next 5 years. This is a non reoccurring referendum,” Gajewski said, adding the measure is meant to sustain recent academic gains while preventing further staff and program cuts.

Nut graf: The referendum, which appears on the April 1 ballot, is the district’s response to a long-running gap between state funding and inflation that officials say has produced multi‑year deficits. Gajewski said the district faces roughly $24 million to $34 million in shortfalls in coming years and that a failed referendum would force deeper staffing cuts, larger class sizes and program reductions.

Gajewski framed the ask as a maintenance of current services rather than an expansion of programs. She listed the referendum’s intended uses as sustaining early-literacy instruction, keeping school safety systems and staff, preserving youth-apprenticeship and dual-credit opportunities, and maintaining compensation levels needed to attract and keep…