West Bend policy committee opens formal review of high-school consolidation, asks for legal guidance on nonbinding referendum

The West Bend Joint School District No. 1 policy committee on Feb. 25 opened a formal review of its high-school configuration policy and asked staff to seek legal guidance about adding a nonbinding referendum that would not be limited to gubernatorial or presidential election cycles.

Superintendent Dr. Wimmer told the committee the district has long retained the question of whether to operate two high schools or a single high school outside facility-referendum discussions and that the topic resurfaced during recent facilities planning and co-op athletic discussions. "They're saying there's nothing really specific in school parts of the statutes," Wimmer said of preliminary counsel the district has received about referenda authority, and he asked the committee for direction to pursue a more definitive legal opinion.

The committee agreed to advance the issue as a discussion item before the full school board, build a representative task force and pursue more robust community engagement similar to the facilities referendum process. "I would look for a really intense engagement, just like we had with facilities where we're really asking for not just representation with a task force, but then we're going into community meetings," Dr. Wimmer said.

Members stressed that the district should prepare administrative analyses before convening a public task force, including athletic and conference implications, program impacts and projected operational changes. "What I would want to know is if we're gonna do something like this ... what would that look like for us athletically? ... Does it change funding for us?" said a committee member, asking for the data the board would need to inform public conversation.

Committee members also discussed timing for any referendum question. Several said the original policy tied a nonbinding referendum to gubernatorial or presidential elections to maximize turnout, but they heard community interest in starting the process sooner. The superintendent said he had asked the Wisconsin Association of School Boards' legal counsel about the district's authority and received ambiguous guidance and recommended the committee obtain a specific legal opinion before removing the time-frame restriction.

The committee did not take a final vote but gave staff direction to draft a formal discussion item for the full board that: (1) requests a legal review of whether the district may place a nonbinding referendum question on ballots outside of gubernatorial or presidential elections; (2) outlines the scope and composition of a representative task force (including students, parents and community stakeholders); and (3) compiles administrative analyses of athletic conference placement, programmatic implications and fiscal consequences to inform that public process.

The superintendent said he will return to the board with legal findings and a proposed matrix of information so the full seven-member board can decide whether to convene the task force and whether to pursue a referendum question.