Kenosha school board narrows referendum options after heated public comments, hears pollster on community sentiment

The Kenosha Unified School Board opened an extended discussion of a potential operating referendum Tuesday after staff presented a projected $17.6 million shortfall for the 2026–27 school year and a menu of possible cost reductions.

Superintendent Dr. Weiss told the board the presentation was intended to create “open conversations about the district's financial situation” while emphasizing the discussion was exploratory rather than final. District staff outlined options that had been costed out, including increases to class sizes, changes to health insurance, and potential program reductions that administrators had been asked to price for board consideration.

The board heard from Peter Leatherman, managing partner of the Morris Leatherman Company, who explained telephone-survey methodology and recommended a sample of about 400 respondents to achieve a margin of error near ±5 percent. “A 400 will give you an accurate snapshot,” Leatherman said, adding that the firm could field a survey on the district's proposed timeline and return results in mid-July if launched at the end of June. He estimated the contract at about $26,000 for the sampling and analysis.

Public comment filled more than an hour as parents, teachers, students and residents urged the board to preserve programs such as the Roosevelt enrichment classes, arts and athletics and to improve transparency before asking voters for more money. “This is not transparency,” parent Ben Kamistra told the board, criticizing the district's outreach materials as hard to navigate and asking the district to invest in clearer communications and community engagement.

Several speakers urged an independent external audit of district spending before placing a referendum on the ballot. “If you want us to raise our taxes, you must first prove that you are managing our current dollars responsibly,” Amanda Meyer said.

District staff also presented a detailed staffing analysis in response to public claims of administrative bloat. The analysis showed about $61 million in salary and benefits associated with 800-series location codes but staff said much of that total represents positions housed centrally but working across buildings (custodial, food service, maintenance and itinerant specialists) and that a narrower subset of positions would be appropriate to consider for reductions.

Debate among board members centered on timing and strategy. Some trustees said a near-term phone survey would keep the community conversation going, while others said the district needed to simplify and publish its data, hold town halls and rebuild trust before polling voters. A motion to remove a set of high-profile cuts from consideration passed by voice vote; those items included proposals to close or absorb Reuther High School, eliminate the Roosevelt enrichment program, drop middle school sports, discontinue five‑grade elementary music lessons and eliminate high‑school athletics. The board later voted in a roll-call motion to shift its planning timeline toward an April referendum target (not a binding ballot resolution). The roll call recorded four yes votes (Tierney, Cullen, Price, Bridal) and three no votes (Madder, Stevens, Landry).

Next steps: staff said polling questions and the district’s data visualizations would be prepared for board review in July and that any final decision to place a referendum on a ballot would require a subsequent resolution and ballot-language approval. The board recessed further decision items to a special meeting scheduled for July 16.