By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The Burlington Area School District School Board got down to the details Tuesday night, finalizing the resolutions that will go to referendum on the April ballot.
The board passed three different resolutions for three different projects and amounts – a new Karcher Middle School, additional athletic space and a new performing arts center – but adjusted the numbers downward on the first two projects.
In addition, a motion for the district to post a referendum question regarding a joint facility with the City of Burlington, Racine County and Burlington Public Library died for lack of a second.
All three motions that passed were adopted by 5-1 votes, with the lone “nay” vote each time coming from Board Member Phil Ketterhagen.
Ketterhagen raised objections to the total cost of the project, contending that Town of Burlington residents (where he lives) could be paying a huge increase in taxes.
Numbers are not yet confirmed. BASD Superintendent Peter Smet expects to have exact tax rate effects for each of the three referendum questions from Lisa Voisin of Baird and Associates by next week. The cost estimates originally quoted would be at total of about $1.25 to $1.50 per $1,000 of property value.
The questions
The three referendum questions that were approved at the meeting, which was postponed from Monday due to weather, are:
- A not-to-exceed amount of $68.3 million to construct a new Karcher Middle School and perform other district-wide maintenance and facilities projects;
- A not-to-exceed amount of $11.7 million to construction additional athletics space, including a three-station auxiliary gym, a weight room, gymnastics space, wrestling space and coaching spaces/locker rooms at Burlington High School;
- A not-to-exceed amount of $14.4 million to construction a new, 750-seat performing arts center, including a theater and orchestra pit, stage, lobby, storage, dressing and makeup rooms at Burlington High School.
The fourth referendum question, a not-to-exceed amount of $3.5 million for the district to pay its portion of a joint government facility as mentioned earlier, got a motion but not a second, and it died without discussion.
However, the first two questions garnered a great deal of discussion. The original number for the Karcher project was $74.4 million, which included a 20 percent soft cost contingency as well as a 5 percent number for fixtures and furniture. It also included the cost of constructing flexible learning spaces, which wasn’t originally figured into the $68.3 million.
That number drew criticism because it was higher than the $68.3 million floated to the public in a community survey completed in December. As the board tossed numbers back and forth, including asking Jim Scherrer – in attendance from Scherrer Construction – for possible compromises, an amendment was made to the motion to bring it back down to the $68.3 million number.
Scherrer said later in the meeting that it would then be Scherrer’s job to make the project costs fit into that not-to-exceed number on all of the projects.
The athletics space was originally quoted at $13.92 on the draft of the referendum question proposed Tuesday. Again, it was brought back down by asking Scherrer to tighten up the numbers to what he said he felt comfortable with.
That included cutting the contingency back to about 10 percent.
The performing arts center number was not changed, however, as Scherrer said there were “too many moving parts” to accurately reign in the amount any further.
The three questions, as well as a 21-page referendum resolution will now go to the county clerk to be placed on the April election ballot.
-
-
-
-
-