BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD. In 2022, Augusta residents approved a $15 million referendum in support of various school district projects, including a new Early Learning Center (groundbreaking in 2023, pictured). This spring, voters denied the school district's $750,000 referendum.

About a month ago, Wisconsinites went back to the polls for the spring 2026 election. Alongside various governmental races and topics on the ballot, 75 school districts made asks to their respective communities.

In the wider Chippewa Valley area, the Altoona, Augusta, Cornell, Eleva-Strum and Fall Creek school districts were among those asking voters to raise their own property taxes in support of day-to-day district operations or building and renovation projects. 

Of those local districts, just one failed to pass. The Augusta Area School District sought approval of an operational referendum to close the budget gap before next school year.

That ask, totaling $750,000 – or $375,000 for each of the next two school years – was denied by Augusta voters, 693 to 550.

As a result of the failed referendum, the district will make cuts to its staff and some programming beginning next spring. 

“We are reducing staff and trying to absorb positions as people have resigned, but we don’t have a lot more to cut,” Augusta Area School District Administrator, Reed Pecha, recently told Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom.

While additional ramifications of the failed referendum may be hard to predict at the moment, in the near future, at least eight staff in the Augusta Area School District will be cut.

Chippewa Valley school districts that went to referendum this spring

School District	Amount	Pass/Fail
Altoona School District	$15.6 million Toward school facility improvements at the high school, middle school and intermediate school.	Pass
Augusta School District	$750,000 Toward operational costs; to help close the district's budget deficit	Fail
Cornell School District	$15 million Toward construction of a new high school	Pass
Eleva-Strum School District	$1.8 million Toward ongoing maintenance and educational programming	Pass
Fall Creek School District	$24.8 million Toward facility improvements (new construction and renovations; classrooms, gymnasium and auditorium, a new secure middle school entrance, etc.)	Pass

Statewide data and context

Nearly $542 million in new funds for Wisconsin school districts did get voter approval this spring – over 80% of which will go toward operational needs.

The Augusta Area School District was just one of the 26 districts which saw their referenda rejected. It also had the most modest referendum ask among those districts.

Pecha told Wisconsin Watch the current climate brewed “a perfect storm,” putting Augusta residents “in a spot where they just had to say no this time around.”

According to data from the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Augusta’s $750,000 referendum was the lowest of those failed referenda, followed by Markenson School District’s $2.8 million referendum.

Augusta High School, pictured. Of the 26 school districts whose referenda were denied by voters this spring, the Augusta Area School District's referendum ask – $750,000 for operational costs – was the most modest. Staff and programming will be cut as a result of its failure to pass. (Aerial photo by Drew Strauch)

Some 61% of voters did approve their school district’s referenda. However, according to a new Wisconsin Policy Forum report, if that rate were to hold through the fall elections, it would continue a recent trend of weakening referendum approval ratings.

“School districts continue to rely on non-recurring referenda for the bulk of their operations spending requests,” the report states. “A surprising 84% of spring referenda funded operations rather than capital projects, likely reflecting cost pressures and revenue constraints on school districts.”

This is a developing story. Learn more about referenda across the state through the DPI's "School District Referenda Report" online.