Oconto Falls area residents to be polled on schools

Oconto Falls School District officials plan to spend the summer gathering public input on the condition of local school buildings, especially Washington Middle School.

The school board has been working for several years toward a possible April 2022 referendum regarding remodeling or replacing the aging middle school, part of which is more than a century old.

During the board’s June 14 meeting, Superintendent Dean Hess said consulting firm Nexus Solutions plans to conduct a survey of district residents and also hold a series of live public input meetings and “online thought exchange sessions” over the next 30 to 60 days.

“The intent would be to conduct approximately five or so of these meetings, some would be in person and some would be virtual,” Hess said. “They have experience in the past 15 months with the virtual and they said in some ways the participation was actually more than the face-to-face model. They also talked about the importance of having students involved in this process

Based on that public input, the district would begin working in August or September on recommendations for facilities improvements, probably with the help of a 15- to 20-member facilities task force to be appointed late in the summer.

The task force recommendations would go to the board in October or November, Hess said. The board would need to make a decision and approve the wording of a referendum question by the time of their January meeting.