When it Comes to RUSD Referenda, Local Voters Are All Over the Map

Voters in the Racine Unified School District have responded to 13 school spending requests since 2000. Nine times they said yes; four times the answer was no.

But voter response differs—sometimes significantly—among various municipalities within the school district, according to a Patch analysis. That may be a consideration next Tuesday, April 5 when three school spending questions totaling $128.5 million are on the ballot.

Here’s a sampling of voter response to RUSD referenda during the past 11 years:

• Village of Wind Point voters have been the most supportive at 13-0.
• The City of Racine is close behind at 12-1.
• The record for Mount Pleasant is 10-3.
• Caledonia’s voting record is 7-6.
• Referenda voters in the Village of Sturtevant are 3-10.

Past and present School Board members say that attitudes toward RUSD and general political leanings are factors in how local voters respond in referendum elections.

“It may be demographics or it may be local politics,” David Hazen, RUSD’s chief financial officer, says of Caledonia where a majority of voters turned down a five-year, $16.5 million facilities maintenance referendum in April 2008 and a $6.45 million operations referendum in June 2006. Both of those questions were approved district-wide.

Hazen, who was a School Board member for nine years and once represented a portion of Caledonia as Racine County supervisor, adds that Caledonia’s 2008 split with the majority of district voters was followed by a move by some residents to create a separate Caledonia school district. Organizers have indicated that they intend to continue to pursue that schooling option later this year.

 “The potential of the secession has perhaps permeated the community,” says Bill Van Atta, current RUSD School Board president and a Caledonia resident. “But, the elegance of our “American way is the opportunity to vote our conscience.”

One former School Board member thinks that Caledonia’s votes may be ideologically driven in some cases.

“Caledonia, for the most part, is Republican and those voters tend to be careful with a dollar,” says Bill Schalk of Wind Point, a School Board member from 1997 to 2006. “They’ve sometimes been reluctant to buy into educational concepts but they understand bricks and mortar.”

Russ Carlsen of Caledonia, another former School Board member, points to Sturtevant’s focus on its nearby schools—Schulte Elementary and Case High School—as a factor in its largely independent referendum voting history. He says he is also aware of resentment over school boundaries, established many years ago, that sent students living north of Highway 20 to Gifford Elementary instead of Schulte.

“There’s more rural area versus city than there once was. That’s a tough thing to fight,” Carlsen says of suburban voter response.

Schalk, who was among the organizers of a marketing effort that promoted the successful 2008 referendum, hopes that voters will again see the need to invest in better school buildings and educational services.

“It’s a good thing that people are careful and cautious about money, but they don’t always get the big picture,” he says. “Some people say that times are difficult but that’s been the excuse every time.”

Carlsen also supports the upcoming referendum questions, but is doubtful they will be approved.

“It’s not as unified as back when the district was first created,” he says.