Here's an interesting update for anyone who is concerned. (read, EVERYONE who pays taxes in the District)

Mr. Huebbe has sent out a glossy, professionally produced, mailing touting the benefits of voting yes on the referendum. According to the mailing, it's "only" 5.98 mil we're talking about, and that's a small price to pay, especially considering that it's possible some obama-monies will be raised as well.

Ridiculous.

The truly sad part about this is that the taxpayers are the ones paying to be propagandized! Well, maybe not...maybe Mr. Huebbe paid for this out of his own pocket...

Really, the main beneficiary of this will be...Mr. Huebbe.

Whatever his professional resume, if he manages to get this rammed down the wallets of the voters, he will be able to move on after his contract is up, and note that he "implemented and oversaw a six-million dollar reconstruction plan for a rural middle school." What "professional" education administrator wouldn't want that right up top on his curriculum vitae?

The people of Sharon really need to wake up and take a look at this. So many of the parents of school kids here DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH that this vote could slip through pretty easily. It's very common to go to the school and see kids translating for their parents during conferences, trips to the office, etc. If the parents can't even communicate with the kids teachers, then how can they make an informed choice about the future of the school?

We truly need to educate our neighbors, push our friends, make waves, and do whatever else we can to stop this monstrosity before it buries us in a wave of debt. If property taxes continue their upward trend, soon this area will be like Chicago, divided between the wealthy class and the welfare class.

Its for the children but you will have to sell your children to pay your tax bill.

kinsohn, you seem obsessed with retirement benefits and their cost. Are you a taxpayer in Broadhead or Sharon or neither? Most of these benefits have been negotiated by the local unions and are part of the overall labor agreement (agreed to by the school boards)and often with the tradeoff of reduced salary increases over the course of many years and contracts in order to keep good health and retirement plans.

Checkpoints might be good-maybe they could be used to answer one question about our school.

Are the children it is being renovated for here legally?

That is a legitimate question. If one of the reasons for the work is, as I have been told, the increased number of children using the school, then it behooves us to determine if there are children who are here in violation of the law, and to remove them.

Adding checkpoints always make school entrances more welcoming.
/s

This won't even be "pay as you go"...more like, "default as you go"!

QT, the Insta-Ghetto provides so much more than revenue-just for sheer entertainment value it's almost worth having.

This is a true pay as you go plan: borrow for roofs for the children, then have them pay it back plus interest after they've left school. It's for the kids!

Of course, they'll never fund retiree health benefits this way, even though the roofs are as much an operating cost as are retirement benefits. It's just that funding rich retirement benefits would never pass a referendum, so you pay for those with the money you have and borrow for the politically popular 'roofs for the children.'

Pathetic.

Could not have said it better myself SG. A few upgrades would be good, making the place more energy efficient, etc. but really, how much do we need?
Maybe we could pass some of the cost on to the local industry, oh wait, there is none!
Good thing we pay Mr. H. the big bucks because now seems like the perfect time to ask the community for money for seemingly unnecessary upgrades. He must have thought he could slide it in there with all the other increases we will be feeling in the coming years. It’s not like we don’t pay some of the highest property taxes in the county already.
Although, I must admit SG, if it weren't for the lovely apartments on West School Street and the income they bring in by filling the court docket every month, our property taxes could be even higher. ;)

Six MILLION dollars for upgrades. The new school in the Bay cost what, 3 million to build from scratch, if that?

Mr. Huebbe seems to be fishing for some stimulus money here, but the problem is, if he doesn't get it, who pays? Once again, it will be the property owners in Sharon.

I'm sure there is a legitimate need for repairs to the physical plant at our school, but do we really need to be "Reconfiguring the school’s entrance to make it more welcoming and to add a check-in point for improved security."? The school has looked pretty welcoming for the 20+ years I have been taking kids into it, and as far as a check-in point, the office, with a glass wall, is just inside the doorway.

Maybe they could move one of the "guidance counselors" into a position to watch the door, and simply keep the rest of the doors of the building locked?

Since those of us who pay taxes in the Sharon School District are the ones who will ultimately pay the bill to do all of this beautification, I feel it only fair that Mr. Huebbe pitch in as well. This being his idea, mayhap he should kick back some of the ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS per year he is being paid to administer our school.

That's a beauty, isn't it? ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS a year, in a community whose average annual household income is roughly forty-six thousand dollars.

Mr. Huebbe has a two year contract, with what, about a year left to run on it? And he would like to see the taxpayers saddled with SIX MILLION DOLLARS of debt to "improve" the local grade school. Of course, he'll be long gone by the time that payments start, but hey, details!

Here's an interesting thought for you, the Governor of Wisconsin makes about $137K a year, and I think he has to manage a bit more than the roughly 400 students Mr. Huebbe manages.

Another bad idea for Sharon, this ranks right up there with the industry-less industrial park, the mobile-home addition, and the high-rise apartments in the continuing saga of Sharon's ill-advised projects.