The 2022 Referendum. We have all heard of it. Our parents have their opinions on it. But what exactly was it, and why was it a huge deal? Well, after interviewing with Principle Bertola, here’s what we’ve come up with:

The 2022 Referendum was an “operating cost”. Basically, the school expenses were going over budget and they needed to find a way to balance it out. Result: the school petitioned a tax raise to get the funds to expand the budget. It passed. And because of it, we are able to keep our clubs, an 8-day period, have honors/AP classes, and a LOT more. But a majority of the funding goes to the WTHS staff.

Over the past 5 years, Warren has lost nearly a 100 staff members due to lack of funding. Thanks to the referendum,  we now have sufficient funds to regain some lost positions along with new ones. One installation of this is the new math resource rooms at O’Plaine. We have finally been able to bring back the resource room for students who need the extra math support.

The school is also focusing more on student resources. Marlene Vargas, the new Bilingual Counselor, is a great example of this. She will be helping out students at O’Plaine who are bilingual (specifically the Spanish speaking community) with their needs and communication with their parents.

We can keep going about all the different ways the new hires and the referendum has helped us, but Mrs. Bertola has a great way to sum it all up: “The school and I are loyal to the taxpayers. We don’t want to be frivolous in our spending. We hope that through the money from the referendum, we are able to maintain what we have, have more support for our students, and eventually expand and provide more…”

So there you have it, a basic understanding of the referendum, the staffing issue and solution, and how we are recovering.