“Tell Me Sweet Little Lies…”

Community members are now receiving information from the district’s contract agency, School Perceptions, to elicit “community feedback” through what purports itself as a survey.

In truth, the survey is actually an effort to engage in push-polling: providing biased information within the context of a survey aimed at generating specific responses

In full disclosure, I want the best for the school district. I want a referendum to pass that properly funds a new middle school, a dramatic rehaul of Heritage Elementary, and most importantantly, funds proper pay increases for district staff. However, I anticipate that the referendums will fail.

If you can’t trust those who are spending your money, they don’t deserve to get it.

In short – this referendum started out badly. As I wrote last month, the district has probably wasted $20-$40M by waiting 2 years on this referendum. The only opposition to this wait is gone from the Board of Education (Dave Boetcher and myself). The stated reason for delaying at the time was the covid pandemic. That argument made no sense then and it makes no sense now. Madison Metro passed a huge referendum that fall. Racine passed a billion (with a B) dollar referendum that fall. There was no risk to that referendum failing, and the need for the referendum was known. In short – the district will cost local taxpayers $20-$40M extra in additional spending by waiting two years for no good reason.

They aren’t sharing THAT detail in this “survey”.

This recent “survey” is what was delayed in 2020. And despite a delay of two years, I’m perplexed at how transparently bad it is. Any data the district receives through the “survey” is likely worthless, as the answers are based on flawed data that is offered before the survey questions are even asked. From the outset, the district has chosen questionable information to share before questions are answered.

In short, the district is correct in that the student population will (likely) grow significantly in the next decade. However, what is concerning is the pitch that “The middle school has a capacity of 663 students” which does not include the “portables” (which is a nice way of saying trailers).

Despite repeated questions from BOE members from 2019 to present, the district has not identified what the original “capacity” of the current middle school was. While it may be said to be able to house 663 students, I toured the building in 2018 upon being elected, and the lack of space was already obvious. There is no way that building was designed to a capacity of 663.

The building’s former principal showed me closet and storage areas which had been converted to classroom space. Hallways into storage had been converted into make-shift coffee break locations. Special education classrooms were in windowless hovels not designed for regular habitation, much less for safe and effective learning environments for the most challenging learners. I have worked with dozens of children who have attended the middle school.

When asked to describe the Waunakee Middle School, students usually choose one word: prison.

Hardly the modern learning environment that an affluent school district is going for. To conclude, the district obviously needs a new Middle School. It has needed a new Middle School for over +5 years, and the rate the district is going and how poorly it is pitching the idea, it might not have one until 2025, if at all.

However, these are the “Pathways” proposed:

The district has not explained the claimed price tag of “$99.7 million” for a new middle school, and has therefore has built this misleading pitch based on false presumptions:

1. The middle school must have adjacent athletic fields.
2. The middle school will not fit on land the district owns near the Intermediate School.
3. The middle school will not fit on land the district owns on Woodland Drive (south).

The district has declined to explain why the 24 acres it already owns on Woodland Drive is insufficient. More on that absurdity later. The district has not explained why its own previous plan for building the new Middle School directly next to the new Intermediate School is now no longer feasible. If the district is asking voters to trust its planning, why is it hiding the fact that the “plan” as pitched in 2014 has already been tossed out the window? Up until 2020, the plan to put the new Middle School next to the Intermediate School remained in place.

So what changed?

For starters – growth in Waunakee has changed. Plans to build out housing developments around the Intermediate School are much further along. It certainly couldn’t hurt home sales in that area if there was a brand new elementary school within walking distance. And there is simply no money to be made for developers in building a new Elementary school in “Old Waunakee” downtown on Heritage’s current site.

When I was on the Board of Education, the price tags were far smaller:

At the time of selecting Vogel Brothers (general contractor) and EUA (design/architecture), the numbers were far different, and the district had continued to advocate for placing the new middle school next to the Intermediate School (which had been the plan since 2013-ish). As you can see, the proposed new school is literally drawn next to the intermediate school.

So how did a $67M middle school for 800 kids on a site the district already owned (and planned on using up until 2020-21) turn into $100,000,000 for a 900 student school on new land in under 2 years?

How is it possible that the district has mismanaged a plan so spectacularly?

The Middleton-Cross Plains School District had its own construction challenge 7 years ago. Kromrey Middle School in Middleton was aging and needed replacement to increase space for growing enrollment. The district passed a referendum and it was then built for… $44 million. It is located on a 13.1 acre parcel (not 40), which includes a full turf field, a forest, ample parking, and currently enrolls about 1200 students, with space for more.

Here’s the ugly truth: The district doesn’t need new land for a school. It wants land for a new school, despite the fact it literally owns two parcels for such a new school.

And guess who gets to pay for it?

I think the district wants the responses to its “survey” to conclude that it makes more sense to just move Heritage and build a new middle school downtown. After all – why spent an extra $11M just to have the Middle School go somewhere else? This survey can then be used to justify depriving the downtown of a local elementary school.

The idea that the district needs to move Heritage, taking away the downtown’s local public elementary school, in order to save $11 million is a simple, elegant lie.