Voters in the Sturgeon Bay school district will be asked to approve a revenue cap override referendum covering three school years during Tuesday’s election. The board of education is asking to exceed the revenue cap by one million dollars the first year, by $1.3 million the next year & by $1.6 million dollars the third school year. Business manager Tom Olson is well aware of the impact of budgets in Madison on the Sturgeon Bay school budget. Olson has participated in the school board’s efforts to deal with recent budgetary shortfalls caused by the state-imposed revenue cap & declining enrollments. During a visit to WDOR, he talked about the referendum as a means of creating some budgetary stability at a time when things are in flux…[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/N467.mp3|titles=Tom Olson]
Olson says the unknowns make the process extremely difficult at times, but the school board has worked to maximize the value of every dollar allocated by the voters. He noted that during the most recent referendum period, the board didn’t use every tax dollar available, but only taxed for the funding needed. Olson says cuts on the state level have not made the budgetary process any easier…[audio:http://wdor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/N468.mp3|titles=Tom Olson]
Sturgeon Bay is one of four Door County school districts who will seek voter approval Tuesday for future financing.
