Frequently Asked Questions

Shall the Madison Metropolitan School District, Dane County, Wisconsin, be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $30 million for the 2024-2025 school year; by an additional $30 million for the 2025-2026 school year; by an additional $20 million for the 2026-2027 school year; and by an additional $20 million (for a total of $100 million) for the 2027-2028 school year and thereafter, for recurring purposes consisting of operational and maintenance expenses, including for educational programming and employee compensation and benefits?

Beyond sustaining our current standards, which includes attracting and retaining world-class educators, the operations referendum will empower MMSD to invest in vital initiatives, such as:

• Expanding 4K and early learning programs, ensuring every child receives a strong foundation for their educational journey
• Strengthening multilingual education, embracing diversity and preparing our students for a globalized world
• Enriching middle school opportunities in career exploration and fostering well-rounded development through expanded extracurricular activities and either programming

Staff wages represent the District's most significant operating expense. Recently, the Board of Education approved a staff wage increase of 2.06% for the 2024–25 contract year, with an additional increase of 2.06% tied to the passage of the referendum.

Said differently: Staff are to receive a guaranteed minimum increase of 2.06%, with an additional 2.06% increase happening if the operations referendum succeeds, for a potential cumulative increase  of 4.12%, which is the maximum allowed by Wisconsin law.

If the operations referendum is successful, the anticipated impact on a Madison taxpayer in an average home (valued at  $457,300) would be increases of approximately $317 in year one, $632 in year two, $841 in year three, and $1,049 in year four. At the end of four years, in 2027–28, this fully annualized estimate is anticipated to be $87 per month.

The Board is scaffolding the operations referendum knowing that we need more significant, sustainable revenues in years one and two, to allow for continued investment in 4K and early literacy initiatives, as well as to retain our current staff and attract new staff to the district. 

Our employees deserve competitive wages, and we need to be able to offer attractive compensation if we want to both bring new staff in and keep the people we currently have.

Wages comprise more than 80% of our operating budget, and are by far our biggest expense. Money from the operations referendum will allow us to keep pace with neighboring districts in terms of overall employee compensation, as well as offset escalating healthcare costs and support equity projects like full-day 4K, mental health services, grow-your-own programming, and more.

Similar to the guaranteed 2.06% increase approved by the Board of Education, the additional 2.06% increase contingent on passage of the operations referendum would apply to all district staff, not just teachers.

The operations referendum will support programming across every school in the District. Whereas the facilities referendum applies only to the 10 schools listed in the question, the operations measure stands to impact things like full-day 4K, multilingual education, village builders, community schools, K-1 class-size reductions, culture and climate, and well-rounded opportunities across MMSD's entire portfolio of schools. 

No; though the referendum is for $100 million across four years, the Board is not able to increase its revenue authority beyond the scaffolded limits defined in the question. 

Our 4K program includes 27 sites, 15 of which are full-day. There are still certain areas of the city (the north and south sides, specifically) where needs are greater, and our operations referendum will allow us to address them. 

Shall the Madison Metropolitan School District, Dane County, Wisconsin be authorized to issue pursuant to Chapter 67 of the Wisconsin Statutes, general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $507 million for the public purpose of paying the cost of a school building and facility improvement project consisting of: renovations, construction of school buildings and/or additions, including air conditioning and heating improvements, and for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) labs and classrooms, the arts, libraries, cafeterias, and co-curricular, activity and shared community spaces at Malcolm Shabazz City High School, Milele Chikasa Anana Elementary School, Black Hawk Middle School, Cherokee Heights Middle School, Crestwood Elementary School, Samuel Gompers Elementary School, Orchard Ridge Elementary School, Ray F. Sennett Middle School, Sherman Middle School and Akira R. Toki Middle School; possible related demolition; district-wide accessibility, safety, environmental sustainability and building infrastructure improvements; and acquisition of furnishings, fixtures and equipment?

The 2020 facilities referendum focused exclusively on the four comprehensive high schools, as well as Southside Elementary and Capital High. Here, in 2024, we are prioritizing our middle schools and elementary schools with the most critical needs, specifically in the areas of heating, cooling, and plumbing.

Our annual operating budget for maintenance is about $5 million. It covers maintenance to keep buildings clean, safe, and in the best condition possible. With decreasing state funding and increasing pressure on our operating budget, like most school districts, we need to go to referendum to fund larger capital projects. Many of our surrounding school districts have also recently gone to facility referendums to invest in their facilities. 

In addition to factors like community and Board input, determinations regarding whether to renovate or replace buildings were made using a cost-to-replacement ratio analysis. 

Due to a variety of factors, renovating a building is not always the most long-term, cost-effective or prudent approach to achieving the ultimate needs of the district, students, staff and community. 

A cost-to-replacement ratio analysis considers both the long-term costs and qualitative impacts on student and staff experience, quantifying the tipping point where the costs
associated with renovation and/or additions are higher in the long-term than simply constructing a new building to replace the old. 

The analysis asserts that if the cost to renovate exceeds 60% of the cost to replace, then replacement may be more financially prudent.

Across our district, we have buildings with more needs than could be addressed by a single referendum. It was critical to weigh a number of factors in determining the selection of schools listed in the 2024 facilities question. Some of this includes heating, cooling, plumbing, accessibility and safety. 

While geographic location and other considerations factored into school selection, priority was given to those buildings with critical HVAC and plumbing needs. Some of the mechanical systems have reached their “life expectancy” and manufacturers no longer produce some of the replacement parts for them.

Two sites per year.

Construction would be expected to start in 2026. Regarding a full timeline, though, that determination has yet to be made; we will be able to share more details about the anticipated schedule once we have completed our community engagement sessions and brought on our partners, including an architectural firm, a construction manager, an owner's project manager, and other key members of the design and building team.

There is a direct connection between updated facilities and high-quality teaching and learning. Twenty-six of our school buildings are more than 60 years old—far beyond their intended lifespan. We can no longer sustain the infrastructure of these buildings. For example, replacement parts cannot be purchased because they are no longer produced and need to be created in house. 

In addition, materials used when the buildings were built do not meet today’s environmental or sustainability standards. 

It is difficult to cast a view too far in the future, because so much of why referendums are necessary is tied to state legislation, which is subject to change.

However, unless the state makes meaningful changes in the way it funds public education, districts like MMSD will continue to have to seek support for operational and facilities initiatives from the communities they serve.

We maintain policies and guidelines that dictate the decisions we make regarding requests for proposals and how we bring on partners for capital projects. We do not employ the workers responsible for the day-to-day labor involved in these projects. If there needs to be work on our policies in terms of hiring local and minority-owned businesses, that is something we will prioritize, and we value community input on the topic.

Our schools help to define the neighborhoods and communities they serve. Taking any of our schools offline has the potential to overburden other schools accommodating those displaced students, create districtwide transportation issues, and negatively impact taxpayers’ property values.

When considering potential capacities of our new spaces, we will work closely with our design team to ensure that we are not building in excess, but also that we are not limiting ourselves either.

When we get to that stage, we will have sessions where staff—as well as impacted students and their families—will be able to provide their thoughts on what they want the new spaces to include. 

When we renovated our high schools, we spent a lot of time working directly with the staff in those buildings, learning about what was important to them to preserve, and what they wanted to see changed. We will do the same with staff impacted in this referendum as well. 

The community sessions that we have been hosting to date, and that we continue to host, are a starting point for those discussions, but further forums will be scheduled after the vote in November. 

The good news is, we have significant recent experience on this front, thanks to our 2020 facilities referendum.

In short: This will be a coordinated effort that will require significant planning, but we will work with professionals to help us determine occupancy schedules, and we are confident that we’ll be able to manage the process well.

We last changed boundaries in 2008, when Olson Elementary School opened.  Going forward, we will need to review attendance areas, to gain further insights regarding enrollment projections.  We have engaged Vandewalle & Associates, a local urban and community planning firm, to examine anticipated enrollment trends for all of our schools, as well as expected housing developments, and will rely on the data they provide to inform our future planning.

Our 2015 facilities referendum primarily focused on schools with capacity and space issues. In addition to Van Hise/Hamilton, schools with more diverse enrollments, like Kennedy, Hawthorne, and Sandburg elementary schools, received additions to address these concerns.

Yes, spaces in our new/renovated schools will be available for rental, as others are throughout the district.

MMSD currently has 23 schools with fully functional welcome centers; of the schools that do not have these spaces, six will be addressed by this referendum.  

Every school has a controlled entrance that allows office staff to talk to visitors through a camera/intercom.  These exterior doors are secured and can be remotely opened once office staff know the purpose of an individual's visit.  

MMSD has been actively reviewing the schools that do not have fully functional welcome centers, and is exploring the feasibility of future projects that would allow us to convert the remainder of these schools if funding becomes available.

The numbers shown in the Facilities Condition Assessment are taken from a point in time that's now a year, give or take, in the past; as such, given fluctuations in material and labor costs, in they are not concrete.  Additionally, that report does not take into account the logistical considerations involved in the proposed additions/renovations—things like technology hardware, equipment, environmental services costs, move management, storage costs, consulting costs, and management services costs, as well as costs associated with demolition, asbestos mitigation, the use of potential swing spaces and transportation. 

Operations is a recurring referendum; once the base of $100 million has been achieved, the tax impact on the owner of an average-value ($457,300) Madison home will be approximately $1049, where it will remain from that point forward. 

Facilities is a non-recurring referendum; assuming that the projects cost the full $507 allotted, the owner of an average-value Madison home would be expected to pay an additional $27 per month, or approximately $324 per year, until roughly 2048.

Wisconsin school districts exist in an environment that is increasingly less supportive of public education. We are operating under a revenue limit formula designed by state government that sets a limit on the combined total amount of state aid and local taxes a school district may receive each year to operate. 

In recent years, the revenue limit has become increasingly restrictive. With annual revenue growth that does not keep up with the cost of living, school districts must turn to cuts in personnel, programs and services to students to balance the annual budget.

One question addresses operational items, which are important to keeping the day-to-day work moving forward. Examples include paying staff wages, funding curriculum and advancing equity projects, like Community Schools, Village Builders, expanded 4K offerings and reduced class sizes. 

The other question focuses on facilities, and seeks to fund the replacement of the buildings that house Shabazz City HS/Sherman MS, Black Hawk MS/Gompers ES, Toki MS/Orchard Ridge ES, Sennett MS, and Cherokee Heights MS, and the renovation of Anana ES and Crestwood ES.

The operations referendum is for $100 million to be spent across four years ($30 million in both 2024/25 and 2025/26, and $20 million in both 2026/27 and 2027/28). 

The facilities referendum is for $507 million over 23 years.

High-quality staff and programming are essential to providing a well-rounded education to students. Modernized facilities can help provide quality and innovative spaces where teachers can educate and scholars.

No, the city and school referendums are separate and unrelated, though both seek support from Madison taxpayers and will impact residents’ property tax bills. 

The district has a budget that it develops and manages responsibly each year. However, without changes to current legislation that translate to increased state-level support for public education, districts across Wisconsin, including ours, will have to continue to rely on taxpayer support to undertake large-scale capital improvement projects and make necessary investments in current and future generations of students. For additional context, there were 92 school referendums state-wide on the most recent (April 2024) ballot, including four in Dane County, with 66 percent earmarked for operational expenses. 

High-quality schools contribute to a community’s economic viability, including strong property values and livability ratings. 

Schools that are designed and equipped to support 21st Century methods of teaching and learning are a critical component to supporting Madison’s continued and projected population growth, which City of Madison planners estimate will include 100,000 additional residents by 2050.

Capacity and enrollment are terms that are important to define and consider separately:  

• Capacity is the available classroom space. Improving our educational facilities is an opportunity to provide much-needed, modernized learning spaces that benefit our scholars. 

• Enrollment refers to the number of students enrolled to learn in a school. Although we have had some fluctuations in enrollment, MMSD’s overall enrollment has held steady at approximately 25,000 students in our school buildings since 1980. 

Consolidating schools has often been offered as a solution. However, consolidation does not have the financial benefit many may perceive, and in some situations, may end up costing more. Closing schools can also have detrimental impacts on the communities where they are located. Schools are the heart of the community. Maintaining and upgrading these schools ensures they continue supporting the needs of current and future students and residents – and reinforces a school’s role as a vital community asset that helps enhance the overall quality of life.

School vouchers and independently authorized charter schools take more than $769 million annually from state education funds. As students shift from MMSD to independently authorized charter schools or voucher schools, there are decreases in the funding available to the district. 

Empirical evidence shows that public education, across the board, is underfunded in the State of Wisconsin. If we want to begin to address the variables that impact the success of students, sustainable state funding is of the utmost importance. 

The revenue limit for much of 2000 to 2010 was tied to inflation—specifically, changes in the consumer price index. In 2012, the revenue limit decreased, on average, approximately 5.5% across the state, and has not risen in line with the rate of inflation since. 

The district is in the process of paying off the 2020 referenda. Associated costs will be amortized over a 20-year period, roughly spanning 2020 to 2040.

Talk to your state legislators about fairly funding public education. A school district's ongoing costs (salaries, healthcare, curriculum, etc.) rise every year; its revenues do not. The way the law is structured, revenues can only go up if school boards ask their voters to approve increases, and that will continue until legislation changes.

Every year, we get projections from the UW Applied Population Laboratory, and they primarily base enrollments on birth rates, which have been down in recent years—fewer births means fewer future students. However, enrollment projection is an imperfect science.

For example, last year, we were expected to lose between 550 and 650 students; in reality, we gained students. Summer school this year was up approximately 18%. At the high school level, we have 335 more students at the start of 2024 than we did in 2023.

Right now, we’re not declining, we’re gaining or holding steady; for this year, specifically, we’ll know more when we get the confirmed Third Friday counts in October or November. 

As of Sept. 25, 2024, approximately 65% of District employees have a Madison address and pay Madison taxes.

As of Sept. 30, 2024, MMSD staffed 135 administrators, comprising approximately 2.1% of its total workforce. 

Yes, the operations referendum authorizes the Board to raise the revenue limit to $100 million at the end of four years, where it will remain from that point forward. That means that the tax impact would progress to approximately $1,044 (for an average-value Madison home) by the end of four years, and would remain there from that point forward.

The facilities referendum is for $507 million; once that amount is satisfied, which is expected to take approximately 23 years, that tax impact goes away. The facilities referendum is expected to cost taxpayers approximately $27 per month (again, for an average-value Madison home) over those 23 years.