Ongoing events highlight tax impact, reassessment, what’s on the ballot, and more
Following the Wautoma Area School Board’s unanimous approval of a not-to-exceed $39.8 million capital referendum on the November 5, 2024 ballot, the Board and Wautoma Area School District (WASD) have continued to prioritize communication and transparency surrounding the referendum and long-range facility planning. This referendum offers district-wide solutions and would impact every building and every child.
Board and district members have presented on the referendum at more than 25 events and locations, across district municipalities. Throughout these presentations, two key questions came up regarding property reassessments and community outreach.
PROPERTY REASSESSMENTS
Property reassessment and the potential tax impact was a common theme brought up at events and presentations. In the event of a reassessment, the tax impact depends on how your property value changed, on a percentage basis, compared to your municipality’s overall percentage change. Being reassessed means that the local assessor is adjusting the assessed values of the properties in your municipality to reflect current market conditions. The process is intended to bring the assessment in-line with the Fair Market or Equalized value of a property, is necessary to ensure fair distribution of tax burden, and means that your property taxes raise or lower in relation to the overall property taxes in the district.
In other words, if your property is reassessed and valued at twice its prior value, that does NOT necessarily mean your taxes will double. Your taxes will only increase if a property reassessment is above the average reassessed value, or someone’s “piece of the pie” in the overall district increases.
OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT
In addition to 25+ events and presentations at venues and groups such as Wautoma Rotary, Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce, the Waushara-Wautoma Senior Center, and more, WASD also hosted nine Referendum Info Sessions between September and October where community members learned about the project, tax impacts, financial history, and took tours of the schools that would be impacted if the referendum were successful.
The Board and district has been committed to sharing referendum information throughout the community in additional ways, including postcards and newsletters mailed to every household, yard signs, table tents and placemats at local restaurants, grocery bag stuffers at Stroneridge and Pick N’ Save, social media posts, emails, and more.
VOTING & GENERAL REFERENDUM INFORMATION
Community members are encouraged to vote for the November 5, 2024 election. Visit www.myvote.wi.gov to:
● Register to vote
● Request an absentee ballot
● See what’s on the ballot
● Find your polling place
The referendum would impact every building and every child, and would include closing Riverview and possibly restoring the property to greenspace, addressing necessary district-wide capital maintenance, constructing secure entries at Redgranite Elementary, Parkside School, and Wautoma High School, converting Parkside into an Early Childhood through 5th grade elementary school, and adding a 6-8th grade addition to Wautoma High School.
To learn more about the referendum, please visit https://www.wautomasd.org/page/wasd-referendum. The WASD referendum webpage contains answers to Frequently Asked Questions (as well as an FAQ submission form), a tax impact calculator, recorded presentations, virtual facility tours, videos from the Superintendent, and more.
Click here for referendum resources and to calculate your estimated tax impact.
ABOUT WASD
The Wautoma Area School District covers 182 square miles with four schools totaling 388,643 square feet and 81 acres. The current student enrollment is 1,349 and the number of staff employed by the district is approximately 237. Additionally, WASD encompasses the following municipalities: Town of Dakota, Township of Deerfield, Township of Leon, Village of Lohrville, Township of Marion, Township of Mt. Morris, Village of Redgranite, Town of Richford, Township of Warren, City of Wautoma, and Township of Wautoma.