Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

An operational referendum provides funding for the District’s day-to-day operating expenses. This includes costs such as teachers and staff, student programs, instructional materials, transportation, technology, utilities, building maintenance, and other expenses necessary to operate our schools each day.

A capital (facilities) referendum provides funding for major building projects and long-term facility improvements. These funds can only be used for capital expenses, such as constructing, renovating, or expanding school buildings, improving safety and security, updating infrastructure, and making major facility improvements. They cannot be used to pay for everyday operating expenses.

Think of a capital referendum like a mortgage: the District borrows funds for major construction and pays them back over time with interest. An operational referendum works more like a household budget: it uses a pay-as-you-go approach, with funding levied each year to cover ongoing operational needs.

The Lake Mills Area School District is seeking an operational referendum because the cost of maintaining our current staffing, programs, and services is greater than the revenue the District is permitted to generate under Wisconsin’s revenue-limit system.

For more than a decade, LMASD has managed this challenge through conservative budgeting, controlling costs, maintaining lower-than-average teacher salaries, and refinancing debt. However, those strategies are no longer sufficient to close the gap. The District ended the 2025–2026 school year with a $705,000 deficit, and current projections show a $1.2 million deficit for 2026–2027 while maintaining current staffing and educational programs.

At the same time, the District is experiencing increases in several essential operating costs, including:

• Employee health insurance and benefits
• Transportation and maintaining our bus fleet
• Utilities and other operational expenses
• Technology replacement and infrastructure
• Mandated curriculum and educational requirements
• Competitive compensation needed to recruit and retain high-quality staff

Wisconsin's revenue-limit system restricts the amount of revenue school districts can raise through state aid and local property taxes. The District's current revenue does not keep pace with the cost of maintaining the educational programs and services our community expects.

If approved by voters, the operational referendum would provide the Lake Mills Area School District with $2.9 million annually for four years.

The funds would support four primary priorities:

• Protecting student learning by maintaining current staffing levels, class sizes, educational programs, and opportunities for students.
• Investing in our staff by helping the District retain and attract high-quality teachers and staff through more competitive compensation.
• Maintaining essential operations including our transportation fleet, buildings, and other critical infrastructure needs.
• Replacing outdated technology so students and staff have reliable technology to support teaching and learning.

The goal is straightforward: to protect the quality of education we provide today while ensuring LMASD can continue to meet the needs of students, staff, and our community into the future.

If approved by voters, the operational referendum would allow the district to increase its revenue limit by up to $2.9 million annually, with the increase phased in over four years beginning with the 2026–27 school year.

• 2026-2027 school year
• 2027-2028 school year
• 2028-2029 school year
• 2029-2030 school year

Lake Mills Area School District has taken a number of steps to control costs and manage the budget before seeking additional operational funding.

These efforts have included keeping employee compensation below neighboring districts, freezing unfilled roles, and restructuring employee benefits. The District also increased health insurance deductibles to $4,000/$8,000, reduced cash-in-lieu-of-insurance options, and scaled back other compensation costs.

Additional savings have come from consolidating elementary class sizes, reducing nursing expenses and professional development, and asking staff to limit everyday spending. The District has also used a zero-based budgeting approach, reduced printed newsletters, and secured energy-efficiency grants through programs such as Focus on Energy to help lower utility costs.

These measures have helped the District manage costs, but available revenue has not kept pace with ongoing expenses.

Selling district-owned land would generate a one-time source of revenue. While those funds could temporarily reduce a budget deficit, they would not address the ongoing gap between the District's annual revenues and the cost of providing current programs and services.

Using a one-time asset sale to pay for ongoing operating expenses would essentially use a finite resource to fund recurring costs. Once the land is sold and the proceeds are spent, that revenue is gone—but the underlying expenses continue into future years.

For example, if the District used $1 million from a land sale to offset a $1 million deficit, the budget could appear balanced for one year. However, if the District continues to face a $1 million deficit the following year, the same problem returns—with no additional land-sale proceeds available to address it.

A more financially responsible approach is to use one-time revenues for one-time purposes, such as capital investments, debt reduction, or other expenditures that do not create an ongoing financial obligation.

The District's goal is not simply to balance one year's budget. The goal is to create a sustainable financial plan that allows the school district to continue providing high-quality educational opportunities for students year after year.

In short: One-time money can solve a one-time problem. It cannot sustainably solve an ongoing structural deficit.

Wisconsin public schools are funded primarily through a combination of state aid and local property taxes, along with federal funding and other revenues.

Wisconsin law limits the amount school districts can raise for ongoing operations. When the cost of providing educational services increases faster than the revenue available under those limits, districts must either reduce expenses or ask voters for permission to exceed the revenue limit through an operational referendum.

One of the most important things to understand is that LMASD cannot simply increase property taxes by whatever amount is needed to balance the budget. Wisconsin’s revenue-limit system restricts the amount of revenue a school district can raise for ongoing operations through property taxes and state general aid.

When the cost of operating a school district increases faster than the revenue available under those limits, a budget deficit can develop. LMASD has made numerous reductions and cost-saving decisions, but the ongoing costs of staffing, programs, transportation, technology, benefits, and other essential services continue to exceed available revenue.

Wisconsin public schools are funded through a state funding formula that applies to all districts. To generate revenue beyond the state’s limits, a district must ask local voters to approve an operational referendum.

The estimated tax impact is 40 cents per $1,000 of your property's 2026 fair market value, or $40 for every $100,000 of value.

Yes. In November 2024, Lake Mills voters approved $51.2 million in capital referendums to address significant facility needs throughout the District. These projects include building renovations, safety and security improvements, the elementary school early learning addition, middle school improvements, and the replacement and expansion of the lower high school gym.

The 2024 referendum addressed capital and facility needs, which is different from the operational referendum being considered in 2026.

Capital referendum funds can only be used for capital expenses, such as construction, renovations, major building improvements, and other long-term facility investments. By law, those funds cannot be used for teacher salaries, employee benefits, transportation operations, technology replacement, utilities, or other day-to-day operating expenses.

The proposed 2026 operational referendum addresses a different financial need. If approved, it would provide $2.9 million annually for four years to help maintain current staffing and educational programs while supporting essential operating needs such as employee compensation, transportation, buildings, and technology.

In short: The 2024 referendum invested in our buildings. The 2026 operational referendum would support the people, programs, and services that operate within those buildings.

The Lake Mills Area School District is committed to being a careful steward of taxpayer dollars. Transparency and accountability are built into the District’s budgeting, oversight, and decision-making processes.

The District ensures accountability by:

Maintaining elected School Board oversight
The five-member Board of Education is elected by the community and provides oversight of District finances, budgets, policies, and major expenditures.

Holding public budget hearings and annual meetings
Community members have opportunities to review and ask questions about the District’s budget, revenues, expenditures, property taxes, and financial decisions.

Making Board meetings, agendas, and decisions accessible to the public
Financial and operational decisions are brought forward through the Board’s public meeting process.

Following required financial reporting and auditing processes
District financial activity is subject to established accounting, reporting, and oversight requirements.

Providing public information about referendum spending
For the 2024 facilities referendum, the District created a dedicated construction hub to communicate project progress and keep the community informed about how the approved funds are being used.

Using competitive processes and careful financial planning
The District evaluates costs, seeks grants and outside funding opportunities, refinances debt when financially advantageous, and considers alternatives before making significant financial commitments.

Keeping the community informed
The District will continue to provide financial information, frequently asked questions, community conversations, and updates regarding the proposed operational referendum.

If the operational referendum is approved, the additional revenue would become part of the District’s operating budget and remain subject to the same public budgeting, Board oversight, financial reporting, and accountability requirements as other District funds.

Our commitment is simple: taxpayers should be able to understand where their money comes from, where it goes, and why major financial decisions are being made.