Eau Claire Area School Board approves timeline for referendum

During a meeting Monday, the Eau Claire Area School Board approved the timeline for asking voters to approve another referendum.

Money from the referendum would go towards necessary building updates at five elementary schools and South Middle School.

Three timelines were suggested, and the board unanimously approved the referendum to be on the April 2021 ballot.

No dollar amount is set yet for the referendum, but Superintendent Mary Ann Hardebeck says South and Roosevelt were not part of the previous referendum in 2016.

"We want to be good stewards of our facilities. We want to be good stewards of our resources. We're a little bit of a victim of the funding model in Wisconsin in that each school district is not funded and inequitable way, and we're funded lower than other school districts are. So we depend on the support of our community," said Supt. Mary Ann Hardebeck.

Planning and listening sessions are scheduled through the next few months.

A fact sheet on the referendum would be drawn up by January with it going to the voters in April 2021.

If the question passes, construction could begin as early as summer 2022.