Walworth County voters reject operating referendums in three separate school districts

Four Walworth County school districts approached voters with operating referendum requests on the November ballot. Only one of those four referendums was given the green light at the ballot box.The Whitewater Unified School District's $5.5 million per year funding limit increase request failed by the largest margin. Fifty-two percent of Whitewater voters decided against raising the limit from the previous figure of $4.4 million per year. Whitewater referendum opponent Henri Kinson said he decided against the measure partially because the school district asked for a $30 million capital referendum last year, which was approved. "Until they heard the word 'no,' things weren't going to change," Kinson said. "Hopefully, the board takes it upon itself to do a little self-reflection and figure out, 'Boy, we probably should not have come out with a capital referendum and then say we need this for teachers as well.'" Two other Walworth County school districts' funding requests were also narrowl