By Jalen Maki

Tomahawk Leader Editor

TOMAHAWK – The School District of Tomahawk Board of Education this week took another step towards placing a referendum on April 2022 ballots.

During the board’s meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 15, Interim District Administrator Joe Innis said the board’s referendum ad hoc committee, tasked with overseeing the referendum planning process, has met several times since its formation in October. During those meetings, the committee discussed the length of a potential referendum, as well as the dollar amount the district would seek.

Innis said the committee recommended that the district ask voters for $3.25 million each year for the next three years.

“That would carry the district for those three years,” Innis stated, adding that the district is essentially asking for the funds from the previous referendum, which expired in June, to be restored to maintain current programs.

Innis added that the referendum would be “strictly” operational, and the funds would not be allocated to “any major capital projects.”

The board voted to approve the length of the referendum and the dollar amount to request.

The board has until January to approve the language of the referendum resolution that would appear on ballots next spring.

If the board gives its final thumbs up next month, an April 2022 referendum will be the district’s third attempt to pass a spending request in roughly 18 months. A four-year, $3.5 million referendum failed by 51 votes in Nov. 2020. In April 2021, a four-year, $3.25 million spending request was rejected by 33 votes.