Voters in West Allis-West Milwaukee soundly reject a nearly $150 million school referendum

Voters in the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District have loudly said no to a nearly $150 million referendum.

A $149.8 million referendum that would have closed Nathan Hale and West Allis Central high schools and created a new consolidated high school was defeated soundly.

There were 5,965 no votes to 4,146 yes votes, according to final, unofficial results posted on the Milwaukee County and Waukesha County websites, a margin of 59% to 41%.

The proposal was the district's solution to address aging school buildings — the average age of schools in the district is over 76 years — declining enrollment and facilities that do not support a modern curriculum.

West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board President Noah Leigh said as a community member, taxpayer and parent of students in the district, the result is disappointing, but it's feedback.

"The district has spent a lot of time reaching out to hundreds of our community members to find what we feel is a good plan to move forward, and we thought we had good feedback and were able to put a solid plan forward," Leigh said. "So the feedback that we've gotten is that this is not something that the community wants to move forward with right now, at least in its current form."

If the referendum had passed, both Nathan Hale and Central high schools would have been closed and Hale would have been repurposed and remodeled to create a new, merged comprehensive and modern high school.

The plan would have created an opportunity for savings for taxpayers and a better high school experience for students, according to the district.

The new high school would have provided expanded career and technical education ("shop") spaces that built on the community's manufacturing history while creating new school-to-work pathways for students, district officials said.

Leigh said another referendum will be in the offing, but what it will look like and when it'll be held has yet to be determined.

"The simple answer is that the needs of the district haven't gone away," he said. "This was the first plan that we put together that we thought would be a good first step, and the answer from the community was they did not agree. So we'll have to go back and look at that plan and see what we're going to do next."

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Results

"Shall the School District of West Allis-West Milwaukee, et al., Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties, Wisconsin be authorized to issue pursuant to Chapter 67 of the Wisconsin Statutes, general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $149,800,000 for the public purpose of paying the cost of a school building and facility improvement project to create a single comprehensive high school at a current district high school site, consisting of: safety, security, building systems and infrastructure updates; construction of additions, renovations and improvements, including additions for classrooms, a library, a cafeteria, a gymnasium and an auditorium; site improvements; and acquisition of furnishings, fixtures and equipment?"

No: 5,965

Yes: 4,146

Contact Bob Dohr at 262-361-9140 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @BobDohr1.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: West Allis-West Milwaukee Schools referendum election results