Only three days into his job as the superintendent of Watertown-Mayer Schools, David Marlette was talking about fall referendum plans.
After voters in the west-metro area school district overwhelmingly defeated a referendum last fall, the 1,600-student district's school board is wasting no time planning a return to voters this fall.
And they hope their new top administrator will help.
Since Marlette took over the job July 1, district leaders met last week to discuss voter survey results. Another meeting will be held Monday.
Marlette said he'll bring a grass-roots effort to the district's No. 1 issue this year.
"You've got to get out there and basically go door to door," he said.
Marlette succeeds Karsten Anderson, who left after 10 years in Watertown to lead the Red Wing Schools. The board selected Marlette out of five finalists in May because of his experience and communication skills, board Chairman John McCain said.
The board hopes Marlette brings "freshness and a new energy" to the referendum campaign with his experience passing three referendums, McCain said.
In his 27-year education career, Marlette worked as superintendent for 11 years in Tracy, Minn., and South Dakota's Deuel School District. Before that, the Redfield, S.D., native was a teacher and administrator.
He and his wife, a fourth-grade teacher, chose Watertown because of its larger size and proximity to the metro area, where one of their four children live, Marlette said. He signed a three-year contract with an annual salary of $126,000.
He now has his work cut out for him in Watertown, an exurban west-metro district that's had three years of cuts and flat enrollment in recent years.
"I'm just going to do the best job I can," he said.
Besides Watertown's failed referendum, neighboring Waconia voters rejected a building referendum in May by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
Statewide, public support for school referendums has waned as the economy soured, though last fall, 42 of 76 Minnesota districts got at least some of what they asked voters to support in referendums.
In Watertown, recent survey results show support varies by how questions are framed; without any information, 41 percent of those surveyed support a levy renewal and increase. With some information on the 10-year, $242-per-pupil operating levy that expires this year, that support rose to 49 percent. Last fall's proposed levy increase to $580 per-pupil was rejected by 77 percent of those voting.
If the levy this year were renewed without an increase, McCain said the district would have to cut $300,000 more from its budget after cutting this year's budget by $500,000. The district is also considering a technology levy proposal.
"It's hard to go out and ask" voters for more money, McCain said. But "there is a feeling out there that we have done all we can do to operate efficiently. Now we're really affecting the educational opportunities for our students."
He said the board will establish other goals for Marlette once levy plans get underway.
"There was talk that he was a hired gun to pass a referendum and that couldn't be further from the truth," McCain said. "We hired him because he's clearly the best candidate we had to lead our district."
Kelly Smith • 612-673-4141
