CALEDONIA - Leaving Racine's school district and creating a new district for the village would cost residents more than staying, according to a presentation given Monday night.

Representatives from The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance gave the results of their financial feasibility study to a crowd of more than 100 people at Olympia Brown Elementary School, 5915 Erie St.

"School finance is really, really messy," said Todd Berry, president of the WTA. "I can't say that enough."

The biggest factors to consider, he said, are state school aid law, revenue law, school construction and the division of assets and liabilities between the districts.

The village board had commissioned the $30,000 study last fall.

"Education is really important. I feel it's really important for Caledonia," said Village President Ron Coutts. "That's the first step to doing business in our community, is having a good education system."

Copies of the report will be made available for the public at the Village Hall, 6922 Nicholson Road, and the Web site, http://www.caledoniawi.com, Coutts said.

Dale Knapp, research director for The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said student enrollment in the new district would be expected to increase for the first several years, as students who currently go to private schools or are open enrolling to other districts would come back.

Knapp listed the four schools in Caledonia: Gifford Elementary School, 8332 Northwestern Ave.; North Park Elementary School, 4748 Elizabeth St.; the currently unused Caddy Vista Elementary School, 10010 Duane Court; and Olympia Brown.

Gifford would house grades five through eight if used as the middle school. Olympia Brown would house grades six through eight. In each scenario the remaining three schools would be elementary schools.

The big expense, almost all of the new expense of the new district, would be the construction of a high school. The cost of a new high school was estimated to be between $55 and $75 million, with a midpoint of about $65 million, Knapp said.

Caledonia's school assets outweigh its liabilities, according to the study. Based on the number of liabilities subtracted from assets, RUSD would owe the new Caledonia district somewhere between $35 and $66 million - a midpoint estimate of $44.4 million.

Knapp outlined two scenarios - one in which the districts were able to divide up their assets and liabilities immediately, and one in which the districts disagreed about the amounts and the process took about two years.

"This could be a long, drawn-out process," Knapp said.

Both scenarios cost more in property taxes, with the second initially costing more. In the first scenario, for a $100,000 home appreciating quickly in value, the estimated school property tax rate would be $8.07 per $1,000 of property value in 2008-2009, compared to $6.44 estimated for RUSD.

In the scenario where it takes two years to sort out the districts' assets and liabilities, the estimated school property tax rate would be $9.55 per $1,000 of property value.

The earliest a Caledonia district would start up would be 2011. Either the RUSD board would need to begin the process, or a petition would have to be signed by 20 percent of the electors in RUSD. Knapp said this would mean 20,000 signatures, based on the number of eligible voters in the district in the 2000 Census.

From there, the RUSD board would have to approve the separation, and it would then go to a referendum in Caledonia. If the school board did not approve, the matter could be taken before the state School District Boundary Appeals Board, which requires a petition from 10 percent of the electors, or 10,000 signatures. If they approved, the matter would go to a referendum.

In both cases, once it gets to referendum stage in Caledonia, the RUSD board could say that a referendum must be held in the rest of the district for approval.

"Your destiny's really not completely in your own hands," Knapp said.

The village board would not have a role, Knapp said. "There's really no official capacity for any part of the municipal government."

The questions from the audience featured a mixture of applause and censure for the idea of secession. For some, the process involved was daunting.

"Quite honestly, it's not hard to get better than the Racine Unified School District," said Wayne Rees, 3153 Rudolph Drive. "I don't think the Racine Unified School District board or the people who live in the city of Racine or in Mount Pleasant are going to help the people of Caledonia get their own school district."

John Haumersen, 8811 Foley Road, said the Caledonia Village Board should lead the way on this issue.

"If you don't want to do it then a group of volunteers which you would thus appoint would take over the leadership and absorb all of this information in detail," Haumersen said. "It looks to me, being a (past) member of the school board, that this is financially entirely possible."

But others said seceding was not worth pursuing. Joyce Hershberger, 4722 Singing Trees Drive, said her two children, and now her grandchild, had received fine educations at Racine Unified schools.

"This is not the business of the Caledonia Village Board," Hershberger said. "I would like you to go back to the business of dealing with village matters."

Estimated mill rates, per $1,000 property value

RUSD Caledonia Caledonia 2*

2008-09: $6.44 $8.07 $9.55

2009-10: $6.63 $7.86 $9.49

2010-11: $6.48 $7.42 $7.46

2011-12: $6.29 $7.22 $7.06

2012-13: $6.23 $7.07 $6.92

2013-14: $6.18 $6.93 $6.79

2014-15: $5.93 $6.81 $6.69

2015-16: $5.91 $6.71 $6.59

*Caledonia 2: If it takes two years to divide assets and liabilities between the two districts.

Source: The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Figures based on a home valued at $100,000 in 2007.