Dell Prairie residents object to school borrowing
By Anna Krejci, Dells Events
Several Dell Prairie residents attending a town board meeting Tuesday objected to the school district borrowing $2.3 million for a building addition to Spring Hill School, an issue the public will be asked to vote on at a referendum Nov. 3.
District Administrator Chuck Whitsell made a guest appearance before residents and the town board. He stated the case that more space is needed at Spring Hill Elementary School now that the district has begun 4-year-old kindergarten, is using current classrooms that are too small and would lose $560,000 from the state if it remains out of compliance with a state program requiring maximum class sizes of 15 students in kindergarten through third grade.
The program is Student Guarantee in Education, or SAGE. The state pays school districts $2,250 for each student in kindergarten through third grade who is eligible for free and reduced price lunches. Whitsell said Wisconsin Dells has more than half of the student population at Lake Delton Elementary School eligible for the price breaks on lunches and nearly half of students at Neenah Creek and Spring Hill elementary schools are eligible.
Resident Ralph Jacobsen said the problems in overcrowding seem temporary. A few years ago the district predicted its enrollment would decline. Jacobsen said the district could still be able to comply with SAGE by having class sizes of 28 to 30 children with two teachers.
"You probably could do that. Educationally I don’t believe that that’s a very good solution," Whitsell responded.
Dell Prairie Town Board Supervisor Glenn Stanford compared the current educational system to the past and indicated children in the past succeeded in one-room school houses.
"The best educational system is 30 kids in one classroom and it was all eight grades with the older kids helping the younger kids," Stanford said.
Whitsell didn’t want to dispute that, but he did say family circumstances for children are different now, even from what his own children experienced 30 years ago when they were in larger class sizes.
He referred to the large percentage of students from low-income families who might also come from homes where the parents are divorced or separated.
Stanford also suggested discontinuing 4-year-old kindergarten, as did Jacobsen who said the district would better be able to continue in SAGE if it does.
One resident also suggested the district use portable classrooms and resisted the proposal to put extra tax burden on people, even though Whitsell said a homeowners’ share of the debt, if owning a $150,000 home, would only be $15.
Resident Dorothy Wick spoke in favor of the addition, saying the district could apply the money it spends in renting space for 4-year-old kindergarten at St. Cecilia Catholic Church — $400,000 over 10 years — to partially pay for the addition.
The district is renting space at St. Cecilia Catholic Church for classes that costs $40,000 a year.
Whitsell said members of the public have asked why not build a new school in Lake Delton, or add to Lake Delton Elementary School. He spoke against it, saying the land is limited and the playground is already small. And he said building an entirely new school there would be too great a burden on taxpayers.