Local schools pass operational referenda; approval rates encouraging

 

by Beth Kraft

 

Both the Mondovi and Eleva-Strum schools could breathe a little easier after the results from their respective referendum votes came through late Tuesday night, Nov. 4, in favor of affording both districts the go-ahead to exceed revenue caps to preserve current programs and services.

Mondovi voters agreed, 1,316-854, to allow the district to exceed revenue caps by $300,000 per year for three years beginning in 2015-16. E-S district residents voted 958-646 in favor of a two-year, $700,000 per year financial reprieve.

Mondovi referendum results were reported in last week’s Mondovi Herald as the vote status with 71 percent of precincts reporting, but those totals were later clarified and confirmed as the final numbers after press time.

District administrators from both schools say they were pleased to see both revenue override requests pass by margins of 60 percent or more.

“Historically with referendums anything in that 60 percent range is pretty good,” said Mondovi District Administrator Cheryl Gullicksrud. “I was just very appreciative and grateful to the community for supporting our programs and the kids.”

E-S Superintendent Craig Semingson also voiced his gratitude to the district’s voters for backing the schools and programming.

“The vote told me the community does care about the schools,” he said.

For Mondovi, referendum failure would have come with a tightening of the belt but the E-S schools would have suffered dire consequences—namely $800,000 in cuts that would have been far-reaching in their affects on programs, services and extracurriculars.

Semingson says he knew stressing the facts of the district’s financial situation to the community in referendum informational meetings leading up to Election Day was key. Clarifying that the district’s financial woes were not a district money-management issue, but rather a state funding issue that isn’t unique to Eleva-Strum was equally important.

“Rural schools across the state are hurting,” Semingson said.

Perhaps Semingson’s efforts to paint an accurate picture of the district’s financial status were more clearly understood this time around.

The last referendum of its kind passed by just 49 votes, 523-474, with just 52 percent of the vote in April of last year when the E-S district requested $600,000 for two years.

Gullicksrud was also fairly confident Mondovi’s referendum would pass, although she wondered how many voters didn’t quite have a grasp on the facts.

There wasn’t much participation at community referendum meetings held prior to the election, Gullicksrud pointed out, making it somewhat difficult to educate people who might automatically assume a referendum is going to mean higher taxes.

“I’m not sure a lot of people understood that the mill rate was going to go down,” she said.

Referendum approval will effectively allow business to continue as usual in both districts.

“Now we’re going to be able to maintain all the options and the programs,” Gullicksrud said.

Major program cuts were averted at Eleva-Strum, but the advisory referendum question posed to district voters came with slightly mixed results.

The vote asking residents whether the district should move toward a combined K-12 campus site at E-S Central or continue to maintain all three district buildings was split nearly 50/50. The ‘no’ votes won out by a slim margin, 800-766, indicating residents want to continue the district’s respective elementary schools in Eleva and Strum.

“We’ve been trying to gauge the public opinion and hadn’t gotten an accurate picture,” said Semingson of the thinking behind posing the advisory question to voters.

Opinions expressed at community meetings indicated that district residents are “very passionate” about both options for the E-S schools moving forward.

“There’s no right or wrong answer,” said Semingson, noting both structures have their pros and cons.

With the feedback from the community evenly split, Semingson said the district will likely put the idea of a central school site on the back burner for now.

“I don’t think there’s enough support out there to go that direction,” he said.

However, the idea could be revisited again in the near future, Semingson added, noting public opinion on the K-12 concept could change once the district’s debt from a 1998 building referendum is paid off four years from now.

Statewide, a total of 22 school district requests to exceed revenue caps and/or fund district operations on a non-recurring basis were approved while five failed, according to DPI referendum figures. Out of a total of nine recurring referenda requests to maintain district programs and services, four passed and five failed.

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