MARSHALL — Concerns about rising taxes were likely part of the reason a proposed school referendum failed in the Marshall district last fall, Marshall Superintendent Jeremy Williams said Monday.

A survey conducted by Marshall Public Schools earlier this spring found tax impact was the most common reason that respondents voted “no” on the referendum, Williams said. The information would be helpful for the school district in the future, he said.

At Monday’s school board meeting, Williams went over the results of the survey, which was conducted in February.

“The feedback has been really helpful, just for thinking about planning going forward,” Williams said. “We looked at how well we’re connecting with our community, and we talked about the operating referendum that failed last fall – we looked at the ‘why’ behind that, just thinking about how that might help us to move forward.”

Last fall, MPS held a vote on a proposed operating referendum, which would have raised the district’s general education revenue by $675 per pupil. The referendum failed, receiving 2,808 “no” votes and 2,186 “yes” votes.

Williams said the survey MPS conducted this spring looked at people’s responses to the referendum, as well as other aspects of education and communication with the school district. Of the 391 survey respondents, 86% voted in the November referendum. Among the respondents who voted “no,” the most common reason why was concerns about the tax impact being too high, Williams said.

Williams said survey respondents also said they would be more supportive to a referendum approach that would spread a tax increase out over different property types, instead of only homes and businesses.

Going forward, there were possible referendum options that would spread tax burden out more, Williams said. “An option is a capital projects levy,” he said. “You’re just more restricted in how you can use those funds.”

However, Williams said one caveat to the survey was that it couldn’t be considered representative of the MPS district population. The majority of the people who participated in the survey were either parents, or people who were current or former employees of the school district. The majority of survey participants also said they supported the proposed operating levy, which failed.

“This is not the best representation of the whole community,” Williams said.

Williams said another key takeaway from the survey had to do with how well MPS was communicating with the public. Only about 35% of resident parents who took the survey said they agreed the school district makes planning and decision-making information easily accessible. Survey results also showed other parents felt unsure whether MPS was communicating well about finances, planning and school information.

Williams said MPS was taking some steps to make communication with parents and the public easier. That will include expanding and coordinating the district’s social media presence, having a district-wide parent newsletter, and updating the school district website.

“We’ve completely rebuilt the website,” Williams said. While the new website wasn’t live yet, Williams said it was coming together.