"It is what it is" - The Sun Prairie High School Plan

At the August 2oth high school plan team meeting, school board member Mary Ellen Havel-Lang noted the estimated effect the plan would have on the mill rate and simply said,
"It is what it is."

What is it? $97M and $1.24 to $1.31 increase to the mill rate.

At the August 27th school board meeting, Rick Mealy cited the April 30th CRT results which showed that 90% of the CRT could only support a maximum mill rate increase of $1.00. District Administrator Tim Culver then offered a rebuttal and "corrected" Mr. Mealy's statement regarding the CRT. Culver stated that on May 21, the CRT voted 78% in favor of supporting "the plan" at a cost of $87.7 to $97M.

Most taxpayers care less about the total cost of something as they do about how it will affect them: i.e., the mill rate and a project's effect on property taxes. What the CRT actually voted for on May 21st was this:



This slide shows that the 78% supported a plan that would not cost more than $1.11 on the mill rate...which was far more generous than the CRT agreed to at the April 30th meeting. Note, however, that while the final plan came out at exactly the maximum of the range shown to the CRT, the final mill rate estimate at $1.24 (without a pool) is about 12% higher than the CRT agreed to support.

So...while Dr. Culver was technically correct in his "correction", he was without a doubt being disingenuous as to what the CRT requested. And in case there is any doubt about the CRT's priorities, here they are from the May 21st meeting: #1: One high school, #2 cost.