$11.5 million bond passes in St-Anthony-New Brighton

Voters gave the St. Anthony-New Brighton School District a chunk of its request for more than $26 million..

By NORMAN DRAPER, Star Tribune

Last update: May 21, 2008 - 11:07 PM

St. Anthony-New Brighton schools got their wish for $11.5 million to fix the most severe maintenance problems.

That ballot question was approved by just 105 votes on Tuesday.

But voters rejected three other bonding requests that addressed less pressing needs, and which would have cost $15.3 million.

In doing so, voters followed a pattern seen in other districts that break up their funding requests into several parts: Districts' first, and maybe second, requests are often approved. Requests at the bottom of districts' wish lists often aren't.

"I think what probably happened is that people had to make some tough choices in hard economic times," St. Anthony-New Brighton superintendent Rod Thompson said Wednesday. "All we hear about on the news is gas going to $4 a gallon. ... We asked our community to help us and they responded to the best of their ability."

The new money will, among other things, be used to renovate the district's science labs and classrooms, add computer labs at the high school and elementary school, and address building repair and renovation issues.

It will also be used to move the student dropoff and pickup points away from the busy street in front of the combined high school/middle school to the back of the site, which is less congested.

The district will also use $10 million in bonds for health and safety purposes, which the district can do without going to the voters. That money will go to improve air quality in district schools, Thompson said.

Voters turned down, by larger margins, requests for funds to add a new gym to the secondary school building and to renovate the auditorium, among other things.

"We were fully aware that, by splitting it into questions, it gave people choices," Thompson said. "The question for me was, 'To what extent will their finances allow them to support us?'"

For St. Anthony resident and bond election opponent Dennis Cavanaugh, opposition to the district requests wasn't so much about the tax bite, but how the money was going to be spent.

Cavanaugh would have preferred that the money go toward building a state-of-the-art new school.

"Is putting it into an old building the best use of taxpayers' money going into the 21st century?" he said. "I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to look at a new building."

Many of the district's older voters were concerned about the added taxes, Cavanaugh said.

According to district figures, the $11.5 million question passed by voters will add $137 in property taxes annually to a home with a market value of $250,000.

St. Anthony-New Brighton schools, with an enrollment of 1,700, draws many of their students from surrounding districts under the state's open enrollment option.

With those students comes much-needed state funding.

Thompson stressed, however, that the election wasn't about making the district a magnet for more kids from other districts.

"We've got a waiting list of 200 kids who want to get in," he said. "None of what we did is an effort to attract other kids."

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547