Southern Door Considers Referendum for Capital Projects
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Voters in the Southern Door school district will have a referendum on the November ballot, but they might see two questions.
To avoid cuts in instructional staffing and programming, voters in 2020 renewed their approval for the district to exceed the revenue cap set by the state. The district will go to the voters in November to keep programming and staffing levels steady, but the school board this winter began discussing a possible referendum for capital projects, said superintendent Chris Peterson.
Last week, the board selected Miron Construction of Ashwaubenon and Bray Architects to help the board investigate projects for a possible referendum this fall. The board vote came after a closed session that was designated as a time to discuss personnel and presentations by possible consultants.
Peterson did not identify what capital project the school will address.
“We haven’t made any decisions,” Peterson said.
Resource Officer Renewed
The Southern Door school board this month renewed a three-year contract with the Door County Sheriff’s Office to provide a school resource officer. Peterson said he has been impressed with the work Deputy Blake Luebker has done with the students and for the school this year. That work ranges from serving as another adult mentor in the building to settling disputes to investigating and handling incidents that could be considered crimes or misdemeanors, even for low-risk first-time offenders.
So far in the 2021-22 school year, Luebker has successfully shifted 15 out of 16 cases into the youth diversion program rather than writing tickets or forwarding the cases for prosecution, the board learned this month.
Southern Door Board of Education has a policy requiring the district to have a school resource officer, so if the district did not renew with the county, it would need to look elsewhere. Peterson said the district’s cost is $68,095 in 2022-23, $69,247 in 2023-24 and $70,711 in 2024-25.
