
The Manitowoc Public School District is putting a referendum up for the Spring 2025 election.
The school board voted 5-2 on two separate resolutions to put the $25 million referendum on the ballot and to be able to borrow the money if it passes.
The money would go toward numerous facilities upgrades throughout the district. Some school board members, including Matthew Spaulding, had issues that language that wanted didn’t show up in the resolutions.
The board voted 6-1 during a special meeting in November to make sure the issue doesn’t affect the tax levy.
Interim Superintendent Lee Thennes (Tennis) told the board that there will be a commitment to have no impact on the levy, because the school board controls the levy in their budget.
The motion is also in the previous meeting minutes. Spaulding still had some concerns.
“We really haven’t acted on anything as far as saving any of that money with this building,” he said. “Consolidating, whatever we are going to do, we haven’t done anything. The only thing were doing is going for more money and I will not be here to make sure that it’s not going to affect our tax levy.”
Board Member Matthew Phipps was also against the referendum.
He said while he’s in favor of facility upgrades, no action was taken to lower the budget with declining enrollment.
“There is no actual tangible way to hold the members of this board or the future boards or the district administrator accountable to save the money or spend it accordingly instead of just trying to continue to meet the needs of the facilities that are already existing,” he stated. “I believe that we need to have some kind of consolidation.”
Thennes said that the district is going to fix issues they’ve been facing in the next budget.
In 2024, the district got a facilities audit that says they need to invest $161 million for upgrades for all the schools in the district.
Some would include student pick-up and traffic safety improvements, LED lighting and security cameras, and electrical main services including generators and fire alarm upgrades.