ECASD committee discusses referendum basics

Eau Claire (WQOW) - Several school referendum questions appeared on Tuesday's ballot, and voters approved more than half of them, including in the Altoona, Osseo-Fairchild and Mondovi school districts. This has the Eau Claire Area School District looking at its future.

There are over 11,000 students in the Eau Claire Area School District, and those students have growing needs.

That's why the district is discussing major projects now, like overhauling heating and cooling systems and repairing roofing. Richard Spindler, the school board president for the Eau Claire Area School District, said, "This first meeting is really just a discussion. Certainly a demographic of trends might affect that discussion if we should move forward with any facility changes."

One school that has been in need of significant repair is South Middle School. Last year, the district said the work could cost up to $22 million. One way to pay for those repairs could be through a referendum. Spindler said, "South (Middle School) has a number of facility needs that we need to be looking at."

Daniel Van De Water, the executive director of business services for the Eau Claire Area School District, said, "The district certainly wants to plan for the future. And, at some point in the future, it's going to be necessary to seek referendum dollars in order to do major project work, really in all the buildings in the district."

And, the school board president said the discussion needs to happen now. Spindler said, "Those discussions take a long time. You know, I don't want to suddenly decide, 5 months before an election, 'Oh, we need to do this'. We need to talk about it now, and see how it plays out over time and how the community feels about it."

In 2011, voters approved a nearly $52 million referendum. Much of that money went to expansion and improvement efforts for Delong Middle School.

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ECASD committee discusses referendum basics