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On November 8, Dodgeville School District residents will head to the polls to vote on an $8 million building referendum. If approved the money will be used for an addition to the Dodgeville Elementary School (DES). The building is currently 100 students over capacity. The school board has been studying how to combat overcrowding in the DES building since 2007.
At the same time there are space issues at the high school and the building is in much need of upgrading and more room. The board has decided to concentrate this referendum on DES and start the planning stages for how to address the high school.
With the Dodgeville Middle School debt paid off in 2012, the district can borrow the $8 million without raising property taxes. The yearly payment on the DES addition would be the same as the current middle school payment.
So far the board has held two public listening sessions on the referendum and both have been sparsely attended. Reasons could be that the public doesn't have many questions or they aren't tuned into the issue yet. Hopefully, one reason could be that this newspaper is answering a lot of the questions by our coverage of the issue.
The board will be holding three more listening sessions, on Thursday, October 13, 7:00 p.m. at Ridgeway Elementary, Saturday, October 22, 1:00 p.m., Stonefield Apartments and Thursday, October 27, DES.
The board has also put out printed material at various sites in the district along with information on the district website at: www.dsd.k12.wi.us. Board members are also available to answer questions and give information.
The two things that are important for district residents are that they are informed and they vote, regardless of how they plan to vote. If you have questions or concerns, now is the time to ask.