Depending on how the vote goes and the financial numbers play out, November 5th could be one of the final times you will see a Washington Island School District operational referendum on the ballot for many years to come.

The district is asking voters to approve a $995,000 recurring referendum to allow them to exceed the revenue limit to meet the school's certain facility, equipment, and programming needs. This differs from past non-recurring referendum questions the district has posed to its voters 17 times since 2000. This will be a recurring referendum, meaning that it will not have renewed by voters every time there is a budget shortfall for operational purposes. The district has to go to referendums continuously because of its small district size of just over 60 students. Because the island generates so much in property taxes, the state contributes very little funding of its own. Superintendent of Business Services Sue Cornell says that it is important that voters know that their numbers will fluctuate from year to year and that they will only spend what they have to so they can retain staff, co-curricular activities, and programming.

Washington Island School District is planning an informational session on October 23rd from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. In November, 22 recurring referendum questions will be on the ballot. Eleven of the 22 recurring referendum questions on the ballot were successful in April.