Referendum had No Impact on Open Enrollment

An article, "School numbers steady" was published in the March 10 Marshfield News Herald. (Click link to read article: http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/MNH0101/803100498).


So, Mr. King finally comes clean. The recent referendum, he now admits, had no impact on open enrollment.

Shoot, many NO voters knew that it wouldn't and we said as much. But all the yes'ers were so sure that by not passing the referendum there would surely be a mass exodus of students from the Marshfield School district if any cuts were made. Auburndale's referendum failed, and they saw the biggest increase in open enrollments among area schools. Go figure?

I guess the whole hype over open enrollments was another scare tactic.

The yes'ers even said that passing the referendum would cause a huge influx in new students through open enrollment. That didn't happen. So I guess that was just another misleading "fact" they used to push the referendum through.

Someone asked who pays for the ads and billboards that Marshfield puts up. The answer... taxpayers! Hardly seems worth it, considering the numbers. Some of the area schools that chose not to advertise seem to think they have higher priorities to spend money on.

The referendum may be over, and the Yes Committee may be back in hiding, and I'm sure all the yes'ers would wish we'd just forget about all this and move on.

But the Marshfield School Watch group is going to stay on top of our districts open enrollment numbers and also tract many other statistics over the next 5 years. Let's just see if the $13.5 million will have the positive impact on our district that the yes'ers claimed it would.