Members of the Wisconsin Dells School Board will hold an open-session meeting later this month to discuss and vote on whether to move forward with a referendum on building a new high school, said Jesse Weaver, school board president.

Weaver said he couldn’t discuss details of a Dec. 27 meeting when the school board met in closed session at Architectural Design Consultants Inc. in Lake Delton. ADCI Inc. has worked with the school district on plans for the proposed school.

The reason for the closed session was listed on the agenda as “discussion of a proposal regarding a referendum and updated project costs.”

The agenda cites Wisconsin State Statutes Section 19.85 (1) (e) as allowing the board to meet in closed session for “deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session and (f) considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific person, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where par. (b) applies which, if discussed in public, would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data, or involved in such problems or investigations.”

After a closed session, the board must reconvene into open session in order to take action, but Weaver said in an interview Tuesday the school board took no action Dec. 27.

The school district will post an agenda officially informing the public when and where the board will meet next to discuss the building referendum in open session.

Weaver said the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 14, nearly one week before the school board’s regular monthly meeting on the third Monday of the month.