Twin Cities property owners are in for a quiet school-referendum season this fall.
As metro-area school districts concentrate on more belt-tightening and tapping their rainy-day funds to meet expenses, they will generally avoid asking their voters for more money this time around. In large part, that's because they realize voters are doing belt-tightening of their own.
"Superintendents and boards of education are very conscious of the pressures their citizens are under, and they're trying to be careful," said Charlie Kyte, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. "They know this is a difficult time and they don't want to go to their taxpayers [for more money]."
Statistics gathered by the Minnesota School Boards Association show that 57 districts statewide will hold levy referendums on Nov. 3, seeking funds for operating expenses. Of those, only 10 are in the Twin Cities suburbs or exurbs. Neither Minneapolis nor St. Paul is holding such a vote.
In addition, nine districts, including two in the metro area, will hold bond referendums, seeking to fund school construction and renovation.
Last year, when the nation's economy was staggering, things also were relatively quiet, as 41 districts went the referendum route, down from 99 the year before.
Asking for less
Not only are fewer districts going to voters, but they're also asking for less.
Greg Abbott, spokesman for the Minnesota School Boards Association, said that of the 57 districts holding referendums, 19 are asking voters only to renew tax levies already in place and which are set to expire. Despite facing a projected budget shortfall of $18 million for next year, Anoka-Hennepin schools, the state's largest district, is seeking to renew for eight years a $6 million-a-year levy, with a $2 million-a-year added inflationary increase.
"When it comes down to it, nobody wants to go out for a levy now," Abbott said.
In Anoka-Hennepin's case, officials say that, as painful as it is to go to the voters this fall, they have no choice.
"We have to go out or we lose $132 per student," said school board chairman Tom Heidemann. Even with the inflationary increase tacked on, Heidemann said, the district still faces the $18 million shortfall in 2010-11.
Just because districts are steering clear of referendums this fall, that doesn't mean they're doing fine. Most metro districts report that they are facing big budget shortfalls next year, in part because state funding will not increase this year or next.
Building up big cash reserves has kept some districts from having to go to the voters. The South Washington County school district, for instance, concentrated on building up a bigger fund balance because officials knew they would need more money to operate the new East Ridge High, which opened this year in Woodbury.
"We are dealing with some very difficult times," said South Washington County superintendent Mark Porter. "To ask our constituents to pay more at this time would be a very difficult thing to do, and not a very appropriate thing to do."
It helped the district that voters approved a bond request in 2006, and renewed a district levy in 2007. Previous success at the polls is another factor that has allowed some districts to pass on asking their voters for more money this year, and has cushioned the blow of frozen state funding.
Last year, even as the economy steadily worsened, districts such as Robbinsdale, Elk River, St. Louis Park, and Inver Grove Heights scored referendum victories. In 2007, voters in 18 of the 24 metro districts asking for more money approved at least some of those requests.
Such districts are wary of the "voter fatigue" that comes from holding too many referendums.
"Some districts would like to go out [for referendums], but they have just gone out in the last couple of years," said Brad Lundell, executive director of Schools for Equity in Education, a consortium of 60 suburban and outstate school districts. "They simply don't want to push the envelope with voters who have been supportive."
Norman Draper • 612-673-4547
