WINONA, Minn. — Not just no, but heck no.
The $82.375 million bond referendum on the ballot in Winona went down by a margin of about 10-to-1 against Tuesday night, sending the Winona Area Public Schools leadership back to the drawing board.
Superintendent Rich Dahman said the unofficial vote measured 608 yes, 5,728 no.
"Our facilities and financial and educational needs don't go away," Dahman said. "We still need to meet the educational needs of our students within the reality of our financial situation."
The referendum would have funded a district plan to fix $30 million worth of deferred maintenance in the district while consolidating the district's five elementary schools down to three. Rollingstone, Goodview and Washington-Kosciusko elementary schools would have remained open, according to the district's plan, with the latter two being expanded to handle up to 575 students apiece. Meanwhile, Jefferson and Madison elementary schools would have closed.
The consolidation of the elementary schools would have saved the district $1.14 million annually in operating expenses. That money would include $210,000 annually in reduced utilities and cleaning, and another $930,000 of savings in salaries as the district would be able to downsize its administration, teaching and support staff.
The reduced operating expense is something school board members and Dahman have said is needed with the district's fund balance at a dangerously low level. Last spring the district cut about $1.5 million from its current-year budget. The district estimates it will need to cut $1 million or more each of the next four years as well.
Emilio DeGrazia of the grassroots Save Our Schools organization said while the district is in tough financial shape, using the elementary schools as a scapegoat is the wrong answer.
"We've had this school closure mania for 20 years, and it's divided the community in significant ways," DeGrazia said. "We're all passionate public school supporters, and we're looking to find a plan B we can all get behind together. We want to work with an administration that will listen to us."
Voters showed very strongly that the plan to close and consolidate elementary schools is not the will of Winonans, DeGrazia said. Rather, small schools are vital to the development of the community, attracting families with small class sizes. Instead, the elementary schools should be a focus of the district and used as a feeder for the middle school and high school.
The other problem with the plan, he said, is it would have actually cost nearly $150 million with the interest added in for the bonds. "There are pay-as-you-go ways of handling the facilities issue," he said. "Operational costs are not related to facilities costs."
Dahman said he recognized that the voters were split into several camps regarding the referendum. "Some were in favor in consolidating our schools, but were not in agreement with the specific plan," he said. "That includes our facilities task force that met last fall. That group didn't recommend the proposal the board brought forward."
There were also people, like DeGrazia, who wanted to keep all the K-4 schools open, Dahman said. Looking forward, the district will need to continue cutting its operating budget as it keeps paying for elementary schools that have the highest amount of square footage per student in the region.
And, of course, the district can always come back with another referendum. "The earliest we would be able to come back is this spring," he said.
In other races around the region:
Blooming Prairie Public Schools
Question 1: 393 yes (65 percent), 206 no (34 percent)
Question 2: 364 yes (61 percent), 234 no (39 percent)
Question 3: 363 yes (60 percent), 234 no (39 percent)
Voters in the district approved all three levy operating referenda. The first question continued the district's existing referendum authorization of $436 per pupil with annual inflationary increases. The second question was for a $100 per pupil increase for technology that would be subject to annual inflationary increases. The third question increased the district's revenue authorization by $60 per pupil for 10 years and is subject to inflationary increases.
School Board election (elect 4)
Kelly Braaten, 490
Pam Hameister, 478
Rodney Krell, 477
Dean Meshke, 473
There were 63 write-ins.
Caledonia Public Schools
Question 1: 645 yes (75 percent), 210 no (25 percent)
With the current operating levy of $94.97 set to expire, the district asked voters to approve a new operating levy of $460 per pupil. The voters responded with a resounding yes. "It brought a tear to my eye," said Superintendent Ben Barton. "It's a humbling experience. We have the highest respect and gratitude that they showed this level of trust in us."
The approved levy will go for the next five years. Barton said the district was being conservative in what they asked for. "That should be able to move us in the direction we want to go as a district to meet our students' individual needs."
City of Chatfield
Chatfield Community Swimming Pool Project
Question: 237 yes (55 percent), 196 no (45 percent)
Chatfield voters approved spending up to $4,402,000 to build a new swimming pool. It will replace the city's existing pools, which dates back to the mid 1960s.
Grand Meadow Public Schools
Question 1: 195 yes (84 percent), 37 no (16 percent)
Voters in the district approved renewing the district's existing operating levy of $899.24 per pupil.
School Board
Shavonn Eastlee, 212 votes. There were two write-ins and 18 ballots left blank.
Kenyon-Wanamingo
Special Election for School Board Member
Karla Bauer, 71 percent (663 votes)
Bauer is filling a vacated seat. She earned 71 percent of the vote. The rest went to write-in candidates.
Question 1: 618 yes (66 percent), 322 no (34 percent)
Question 2: 566 yes (60 percent), 374 no (40 percent)
Kenyon-Wanamingo voters approved a total of $11.515 million to fund deferred maintenance at both school sites. This includes issues such as ADA upgrades to the middle and elementary schools, improved security, and a parking lot, sidewalks and traffic flow improvements. The funds will also cover construction of a football field and track, and improvements to the playground. Question 2 focused on additions for physical education, wellness and flexible learning commons to the high school and middle school.
"We're taking care of a huge portion of the deferred maintenance we had," said Superintendent Jeff Pesta. "The number one thing is (the voters) recognized it as a very practical and well thought-out plan."
La Crescent-Hokah Public Schools
Question 1: 1,797 yes (68 percent), 854 no (32 percent)
With its $226 per pupil levy expiring, the district hopes the new $850 per-pupil levy will allow increased opportunities in STEM, provide more training for staff, offer more career exploration activities for students and provide career courses in collaboration with technical and four-year colleges providing college credit for students.
"If we didn't have this happen last night, we'd have been in a devastating situation," said Superintendent Kevin Cardille. The district has been cutting about a half million dollars a year for the last several years. If the referendum had not passed, he said, the district would have needed an additional $350,000 in cuts. "We're going to focus on college and career readiness," he said.
Lake City Public Schools
Question 1: 978 yes (54 percent), 844 no (46 percent)
The $12 million bond will add a 32,000-square-foot addition to Bluff View Elementary, including a new kindergarten classrooms, a cafeteria and a multipurpose gym. The additional space will free up more room for pre-K classes.
Lyle Public Schools
Special Election for School Board Member
Wendy King, 32 votes.
There were four write-in votes.
Red Wing School District
Question 1: 1,463 (47 percent) yes, 1,630 (53 percent) no.
Question 2: Automatically fails with the failure of Question 1.
The Red Wing School District will need to go back to the drawing board for the 2018 election. The district received no votes to both its operating levy question on Tuesday's ballot. The first question, which would have added $424 to the current per pupil operating levy of $811.64, failed 53 percent to 47 percent.
The second question, which would have added an additional $500 per pupil levy, also failed, but Superintendent Karsten Anderson did not have those vote totals Tuesday night. Since the first question did not pass, the vote on the second question did not matter, as that part of the referendum was contingent of Question 1 passing.
Anderson said the district will now have to spend the next six to 12 months figuring out what will go on the ballot in 2018.
Part of the problem this year was being able to deliver the message on what would happen if the voters did vote the referenda down. This year, he said, was too far out to attach losses in revenue to specific program cuts. Next year, however, those cuts will be more apparent.
"We'll go through a process of potential adjustments and have something more tangible for voters," he said. "We didn't want to identify a list of reductions because they wouldn't happen right away."
That won't be the case in 2018, when the current levy of $811.64 per pupil will expire.
City of Rushford
Mayor: Chris Hallum 126 votes, write-ins 20.
City Council (elect 2): No candidates on ballots. Top two write-ins — Andrew Linder, 90. Sally Ryman, 81. There were another 24 various names written in.
Stewartville Public Schools
Rebecca Wortman ran unopposed for an open school board seat. Wortman won her seat but the vote total was not available at press time.
Triton School District
Election night dealt a financial blow for the Triton Public Schools, as the final vote tallies rejected the proposed $1 million operating levy.
Of the 934 votes were cast, 479 voted no and 455 voted yes. A referendum failed for the second year in a row.
"I was very hopeful that we were going to pass this," said Superintendent Brett Joyce. "We were very disappointed."
Triton asked its voters for $1 million to increase the general education revenue by $750 per student while at the same time gaining financial traction in 2021.
If the referendum had passed, then the property tax impact on a $200,000 home would have been a $355.86 increase per year.
Since it failed, the Triton School Board will need to examine the budget for the remaining school year as well as into the next fiscal year.
Previously, Joyce said the district may have to explore the possibility of cuts to staffing and programming and increasing classroom sizes, which were already hovering at an average of 25 to 26 students. There are 1,148 students and 165 staff members in the school district.
School administrators still aim to propose another operating levy to voters in 2018.
"We'll regroup and we'll figure it out," Joyce said. "Sadly, the board is going to have to make some very difficult decisions. We'll be back. This isn't going away."
Zumbrota-Mazeppa School District
Question 1: 987 yes (78 percent), 281 no (22 percent).
Question 2: 842 yes (67 percent), 419 no (33 percent).
With both ballot questions passing, Zumbrota-Mazppa was able to renew its existing operating levy of $936.37 per pupil for the next 10 years. It also added a $313.63 per pupil levy for the same term.
New Superintendent Mike Harvey said the support from district voters was gratifying. "Over the last two months, as I went around to different groups, I did hear a lot of positive comments on the district," he said. "It's just a strong show of support from the community, and it shows they value the education we're providing."
The operating levies will allow the district to maintain its programs at their current level, he said.
