Three Area Districts' November Referenda Collide Into 48-Page Packet; Voters Asked To Color-Code

WAUKESHA — Three school districts within driving distance of Waukesha are asking voters to approve a combined $500 million or more in referenda this November, and the resulting paperwork has consolidated into a single packet that, by informal count, now runs 48 pages.

Elmbrook is seeking a $100 million capital referendum. Brown Deer and Oconomowoc are each running separate proposals of their own, with different ballot language, different tax-rate math and different deadlines for absentee requests. District officials in all three communities have spent the last two weeks fielding the same question in slightly different phrasing: which one is mine, and how much is it going to cost me specifically.

A Spreadsheet Enters The Chat

Janet Kozlowski, a Waukesha parent with children enrolled outside any of the three affected districts but relatives spread across all of them, built a 12-sheet color-coded spreadsheet comparing projected tax-rate impacts across the Elmbrook, Brown Deer and Oconomowoc measures. It has circulated by email among at least 40 households since Sunday, according to Kozlowski's own tracking, which she maintains on a 13th sheet.

"I didn't set out to become the de facto clearinghouse for three unrelated school districts' tax math. It just sort of happened by Tuesday."

— Janet Kozlowski, Waukesha parent

Kozlowski said the spreadsheet uses a consistent color key, green for "passes without much tax impact," yellow for "moderate increase, explainable at Thanksgiving," and a shade she labels "referendum red" for anything requiring a follow-up phone call to a relative. She said Oconomowoc's proposal took her the longest to model because it includes both an operational and a facilities component on the same ballot, a structure she called "two referenda wearing a trenchcoat."

The Print Shop Can Feel It Too

Copy Nook, a small print and office-supply shop on East Sunset Drive, has seen what owner Arnold Teska described as an unusual spike in demand for informational folders, tab dividers and highlighters since the three districts' mailers started arriving in late September. Teska said the shop sold through its entire stock of yellow highlighters on October 14 and had to special-order a case of the four-color click pens residents seem to prefer for marking up multiple ballot measures at once, and that the shop was reordering tri-fold folders at a pace he otherwise associates with tax season, calling it the most pamphlet-heavy election cycle he's witnessed in 15 years.

Teska said he has started keeping a small stack of the consolidated 48-page packet behind the counter for customers who come in asking, essentially, what is actually happening, a service he does not charge for but which he estimated has added 10 to 15 minutes to an average transaction this month.

Three Ballots, Three Timelines

Part of the confusion, district officials acknowledge, is that the three referenda are not aligned on scope or structure, only on timing. Elmbrook's $100 million request is a single capital measure. Brown Deer's proposal is structured around operational funding tied to a multi-year phase-in. Oconomowoc's combined operational-and-facilities measure, the one Kozlowski flagged as the spreadsheet's most time-consuming row, carries the highest total dollar figure of the three once bonding costs are included.

None of the three districts overlap geographically, which has not stopped voters with children, grandchildren or property in more than one of them from treating the November ballot as a single, confusing event. Kozlowski said she has fielded questions from relatives in all three districts asking her to just tell them how to vote, a request she said she declines on principle but will, if pressed, forward the relevant tab.

Absentee ballot requests across the three districts have been running ahead of the comparable point in the last major referendum cycle, according to clerks' offices contacted for this story, though none offered a figure more specific than "up, noticeably." Kozlowski said she plans to keep the spreadsheet live through Election Day and has already begun a 14th sheet tracking which neighbors have asked to be added to the distribution list, a number she declined to disclose but which she said "is higher than I expected for a document about tax rates."

Teska, for his part, said Copy Nook will keep the highlighters in stock through November 4. "After that," he said, "I genuinely don't know what people are going to do with all these folders."