Colonial School District residents OK’d a revamped version of the district’s operating budget referendum Tuesday.
Voters narrowly said “yes” Tuesday to the district’s plan to raise taxes an additional 35 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The measure passed by just 67 votes.
It was major turnaround from February’s referendum vote when a 47-cent tax increase was rejected. In that vote, only 925 people voted yes. Yesterday’s revised plan received 3,005 votes.
Colonial superintendent Dorothy Linn says better community outreach influenced the result as much as scaling back the tax increase.
“We went out to the community. We were very visible. We put out a lot of information and we were just relentless in reaching out to our community. And anytime had any feedback, we took it and readjusted again," said Linn.
The referendum will add $9.6 million to Colonial’s operating budget.
Linn says that means instead of cutting 81 jobs and up to 59 teachers the district will likely need to cut 29 positions, including 8-12 teachers.
Linn adds it will also give the district some flexibility with curriculum and programs.
"We need to look at other options for our programming, so we can reinstate our programming in a different way, but have everything there for our kids,” said Linn.
Linn notes that approving a smaller tax increase means the district will need to seek another referendum in 3-to-5 years, but it will be a smaller request than this plan, which is the first Colonial operation referendum since 1993.