The Centennial school district will go back to voters in November, seeking to renew an expiring tax levy.

If the referendum request is approved, the renewal would continue to bring the district $5 million a year in property tax revenues for another five years. District officials want to add to that renewal a $2 million-a-year increase over six years.

Without approval of the levy requests, the school board will have to cut between $3 million and $4 million next spring for the 2010-11 school year, according to district estimates. Officials warned that another, potentially larger cut would be in store for 2011.

"I believe the majority of [the amount of the budget cut] would have to come from staffing, ranging from support staff through administrators," said superintendent Paul Stremick, who replaced outgoing superintendent Roger Worner on July 1.

District officials say that, like many other districts, they have suffered from state education funding that hasn't kept up with inflation. Like many others, they have to rely on budget cuts and levy requests to keep up with expenses that keep going up, the say.

Even if the referendum request passes, Stremick said, "we will still be trimming back ... but the cuts will be less noticeable." Stremick said the district cut $1 million from the 2009-10 budget and is covering another $1.5 million in budget shortages by using its reserve fund.

According to Worner, who addressed the referendum needs in the district's summer newsletter, the district provides a no-frills education for its students and goes without such programs as elementary art, middle school foreign languages, and school orchestra that are found in many other districts.

District voters have a mixed record when it comes to school referendums. Stremick said voters turned down levy requests in 2002, 2003 and 2004 before passing the current one in 2005.

The Centennial district comprises 6,766 students in Lino Lakes, Blaine, Centerville, Circle Pines, and Lexington.

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547