Wisconsin School Districts Facing 79 Referendums This Fall; Waukesha Superintendent Suggests "Just Vote Yes On All Of Them" To End Confusion

WAUKESHA — Wisconsin voters will face a record 79 school district referendums on the November 3 ballot, according to figures the Department of Public Instruction released last week, and Waukesha School District officials say the volume has produced what Superintendent Dr. Robert Chen, 52, called "a genuinely difficult amount of ballot to explain to people in a hallway." Chen said his office has fielded 214 phone calls and emails since Aug. 1 asking some version of the same question: which of the district's three referendum questions actually needs a yes vote to keep the lights on.

The district's ballot includes separate questions covering operating budget costs, a roof and HVAC facilities package, and a smaller measure funding expanded reading intervention staff, each requiring its own vote and each, per state formatting rules, worded in nearly identical bureaucratic language. Chen said he has personally read all three questions aloud at four community forums since Aug. 18 and estimates the average attendee can correctly summarize the difference between them "maybe half the time, and that's being generous to us."

The Cheat Sheet

To address the confusion, Chen's office is preparing a one-page handout, printed in color, with a green checkmark next to each of the district's three questions and a short plain-language line explaining what each one funds. District communications staff have gone through four drafts since Aug. 20, the most recent of which was rejected internally for being, in the words of one staffer's margin note, "still basically legalese with a checkmark added." A fifth draft is expected before an Oct. 1 mailing deadline.

Chen said the cheat sheet was never intended to tell anyone how to vote, only to clarify what each question does. That distinction, he acknowledged, has been harder to maintain in casual conversation than in an official printed document.

"If every resident in this district just voted yes on all three, we could probably fund schools like they're actually supposed to be funded. I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's occurred to me."

— Dr. Robert Chen, Waukesha School District Superintendent

Chen made the remark to district staff during an Aug. 27 planning meeting that two attendees described as informal and that Chen later characterized as "not for publication," before confirming, when asked directly, that he had in fact said it. He said he stands by the sentiment as a private observation about school funding mechanics rather than official guidance, and noted the district cannot legally advocate for a specific vote on any referendum question.

67 Percent Uncertain

A survey of 310 Waukesha School District parents conducted in late August by the district's parent advisory council found that 67 percent could not correctly identify, unprompted, which of the three ballot questions funded facilities work versus operating costs. Twenty-two percent believed, incorrectly, that a "no" vote on any of the three questions would cancel all three. The survey's margin of error was listed as plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

Council chair Denise Aldrich said the results were not surprising given the number of questions statewide competing for attention this cycle. "We've got parents getting mailers about three different districts' referendums because they have relatives or grandkids in Muskego, in Mukwonago, wherever," Aldrich said. "Everybody's cheat sheet starts to blur into everybody else's cheat sheet."

Not Alone

The 79 referendums statewide mark the highest total the DPI has recorded for a single election cycle, exceeding the previous high of 68 set in April 2024. School finance researchers have attributed the volume to districts increasingly relying on referendums to cover costs the state's general aid formula does not, a trend Chen said he did not dispute but was not equipped to solve from behind a podium in the Waukesha South High School cafeteria.

Bob Krueger, the retired DPW supervisor and occasional opinion contributor to this paper, said he attended one of Chen's forums out of general civic interest and left with a headache. "I've poured concrete for 30 years and I couldn't tell you which question was which by the end of it," Krueger said. "The doctor seems like he's trying. I just think the ballot itself needs a referendum."

Chen said the district will hold two additional information sessions before Nov. 3, plus a recorded version posted to the district website for residents who would rather absorb the confusion privately. He said the cheat sheet, whichever draft survives, will be mailed to all district households by mid-October regardless of whether a sixth revision proves necessary.