We hear about layoffs left and right, but one school district is trying to avoid that, by asking it's taxpayers for a referendum.

Loyal is a small town of around 1,300 people, and for the last five years its school district has experienced a declining enrollment. The school district's Superintendent Graeme Williams says the district has laid off several teachers and staff through attrition, but in order to maintain services as they are, it’s asking local taxpayers for $1.5 million in the form of a referendum over the next three years.

Loyal taxpayers seem split on whether they'll support their local school district's request for money. One local Loyal man says, “I don't have any kids in school anymore, but older people paid for my education when I was in grade school, so I think it’s my obligation.”

A local woman says, “I think we have to cut, I think we have to hold the line, I think we got to cut spending.” And another local man says, “I think it's stupid as far as I’m concerned, we got too many schools that they ain’t using anyway.”

Superintendent Williams says he knows the school is important to the people of Loyal, and despite the bad economy, believes they will come through in the end. He says, “I'm optimistic, I think that the community of Loyal prides itself in the education of its schools and I think we all want to continue that.”

However, Williams concedes, he hasn't heard much sentiment one way or the other around town, and that worries him. He says, “We've had informational meetings from the board and we've had low turnouts, and that kind of makes me nervous, because I don't know if people have made up their mind for it and they're just definitely gonna vote for it, or if they’re against it, or apathy, I just don't know.”

Williams says he hopes people living in Loyal will come through for the district, he says if they don't, things at their schools, will only get worse.

Williams says enrollment is projected to continue to decrease for at least the next 3 years, which means a possible loss in state aid dollars of nearly a quarter million dollars. That’s the same amount of money the district will be in debt next year if it doesn't get this years referendum passed.

And if the referendum does pass on April 7, the property taxes for the owner of a $100,000 home in the Loyal school district would go up about $133 the first year, and then decrease for the following two years.