APPLETON, Wis.(WFRV)- The Appleton Area School District has proposed a $98 million referendum. “We’ve been looking at our facility needs for almost 6-years now and we looked at those needs and didn’t put a dollar amount to them,” said Greg Hartjes, District Chief Financial Officer.

Hartjes says since then they have identified the needs of the fifteen thousand students. “22 of our 27 schools are over 50-years old. We knew we had to modernize our schools and we started from there,” said Hartjes.

One of the many reasons for the high amount referendum is an overcrowding issue on the elementary level. “We had significant growth on the north part of our District in our area north of Highway 41,” said Hartjes. He adds that Huntley Elementary is at capacity.

How much would this cost taxpayers if approved? “When you spread that across our $9.5 billion dollars of property value, it would only be about $30-40 dollars a year, per $100,000 of property,” said Hartjes. The complete proposed referendum can be found here.

The District says so far there has been positive support for the proposal. The public has a number of opportunities to join focus group discussions on the topic over the next few months. You can see more on the Appleton Area School District Calendar.

A decision is expected this summer on if the proposal will move towards the ballot in November. Local 5 will update this story as it develops.