St. Francis schools see a change in fortune

Passage of two referendum questions will give the district more money to ward off budgets cuts, retain teachers, officials say.

By NORMAN DRAPER, Star Tribune

Last update: November 5, 2009 - 11:16 PM

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Failed proposals with voters. Mold in the portable classrooms. Student streakers. Budget cuts.

The St. Francis School District has had its share of downside news over the past couple of years. Tuesday marked a departure.

District residents approved two questions that will pump $1.78 million a year in additional property tax revenues into district coffers. The requests, divided into two parts, will help the district ward off budget cuts next year, officials say, and provide long-term funding to keep five elementary teachers who were laid off last year and then rehired with federal stimulus funds.

The requests passed by slim margins, signaling substantial opposition. Still, the district accomplished what many districts with multiple questions on their ballots could not: Get voters to approve everything they asked for.

"It's a real positive stroke in the right direction," said school board Vice Chairman David Anderson, who was elected to another four-year term. Anderson noted that there had been "some negativity" in the news coming out of the district recently. For one thing, the district failed in its election efforts to get more levy dollars two years in a row -- in 2007 and 2008. It also failed in four efforts to get bonds to build a new elementary school, though it did succeed in getting voter approval in 2003 for a levy request and bonds for a high school addition and school maintenance. Two years ago, district officials had to shut down portable classrooms in two elementary schools because of mold problems. This fall, the district cracked down on streaking students at high school football games.

"I think any time you pass a levy it's good news," said Amy Kelly, chairwoman of the school board. "I think it is a turnaround."

District officials cited several factors for Tuesday's outcome. A voters poll, conducted for the district by Decision Resources consulting firm, concluded that the board should be careful not to ask voters for too much money, although board members raised the question of whether the district should be seeking more, Anderson said. Those recommendations proved to be on the mark, Anderson said. In its previous efforts, the board had asked for more money, perhaps more than voters could stomach.

"Before, we were guessing," Anderson said. Budget cuts totaling $5.6 million this year and resulting in layoffs of teachers and other school employees also might have influenced voters.

"I think people have seen the cuts," he said. "They felt them. Those cuts had names to them."

The district also might have benefited from holding the election in a year when there were no high-profile national races, said Superintendent Edward Saxton.

"I think whenever you go out in a presidential election, that's always a disadvantage," said Saxton. That reflects the conventional wisdom that large numbers of voters at their polling places to vote for president are more likely to vote "no" as soon as they see tax-increasing referendum questions on their ballots.

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547

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