Superintendent Zach Pethan
Residents in Sheboygan Falls will be once again asked to vote on a referendum in the upcoming spring election.
After two separate referendum questions totaling nearly $100 million failed to secure enough votes in November, the school district went back to the drawing board to rework and retool a new referendum which will come with a decreased $70 million price tag.
Sheboygan Falls Superintendent Zach Pethan spoke with SeehaferNews.com about the new referendum and how it differs from the one proposed six months ago.
“We completely eliminated that second question which had most athletic things and an additional gym added on to our high school,” he explained. “In the first question, we reduced some of the square footage for some of the building projects for academics and we eliminated the childcare from the elementary school.”
The 2025 referendum focuses heavily on the elementary and high school buildings as both facilities are aging and in need of serious overhauls from classroom sizes to roof repairs.
For the school board, deciding what to prioritize this time around was determined by numerous factors.
“A while back, our board created a vision statement for our facilities and we kind of used that as our guiding principle,” Pethan noted. “One of the things is that we want to have high facilities that match our high expectations for excellence in academics, the arts, and in athletics.”
It also took into account the survey that was put out for residents following the failed November referendum.
“I would say it was the primary guiding document or information that we had that helped shape our revised referendum,” Pethan said.
When asked if there was one glaring need that needed to be addressed most in spring, Pethan noted that he did not see any that stuck out because all aspects of the revised referendum are just that, needs.
However, one critical need addressed in the referendum includes overcrowding at the elementary school.
“Looking at our elementary school, we did an enrollment report that we had looked at with what the growth is going to look like in our district. It really put our elementary school about 200 kids above capacity than what it is right now,” Pethan explained. “Looking ahead to the future, we are making sure our facilities are the right size, modernized, and ready for the 21st-century learner.”
Other major upgrades coming if the referendum passes would see work done at the high school to increase classroom sizes, specifically to improve Career and Technical Education offerings, replace the failing chiller at the elementary school, and make the high school safer and more secure as it was built in 1969 and has only had minor maintenance upgrades over the last five decades.
Pethan finished off by saying that, more than anything, student life would vastly improve if the referendum passed, thanks to increased and improved academic opportunities, a safer and less crowded learning environment, and improved athletic facilities.
A detailed overview of the entire 2025 spring referendum canbe viewed online at sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us.
