GBAPS Board of Education discusses proposed $154 million operational referendum

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Area Public School District Board of Education is preparing to place a $154 million operational referendum on the upcoming November ballot — a measure Chief Financial Officer Angie Roble says will compensate for state funding not keeping up with inflation.

“As we know we have had a lack of state funding,” Roble said. “We have not been receiving inflationary increases for our per pupil funding for the past several years so with inflation as it has been for the past several years, our expenditures are now not keeping pace with revenue.”

“A lot of districts right now are having these conversations…” said Superintendent Michael Hernandez. “We know that the funding model is broken. We know right now that it’s at the peril of our children.”

If approved, the referendum will replace an existing $16.5 million operational referendum set to expire in the 2026-27 school year.

The proposed referendum is a stepped four-year request, with $27 million for the 2027-2028 school year, $35 million for the 2028-2029 school year, $43 million for the 2029-2030 school year and $49 million for the 2030-2031 school year to cover educational programs, staffing and other operational expenses.

“An operational referendum is very different from a capital referendum,” Roble said. “We asked the community to support a capital referendum in 2024 and we continue to work on those projects, but capital referendums are only for facilities needs and different from an operational referendum which will support the operation of the district — salaries, benefits, utilities, transportation, those types of things… We are going out for an operational [referendum] to close that gap so we can maintain our programs and we can maintain the things that we value here at the district.”

“At the end of the day, it’s for opportunities for our students,” Hernandez said.
Roble said the referendum is designed to be “mill rate tax neutral,” meaning it will not increase the mill rate for taxpayers.

“We have always, strategically as a district, been very fiscally responsible in trying to manage that mill rate to the best of our ability,” she said. “The operational and the capital referendums are two of those things that we can control and that’s always been our strategy, to keep that mill rate as stable as possible.”

The Board of Education will make a decision about including the referendum question on November’s ballot at its next meeting, July 27.

If the referendum does not pass in November, there is the potential to see additional and accelerated consolidation efforts like the district has already seen with the recent closing of several schools.

“We’re going to have to start looking at the things that the community values — programming, class size, things we have heard the community wants to keep…” she said. “There could potentially be more consolidation, boundary changes and things of that nature.”