Much is at stake for schools

The chairman of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school board last week found a quick way to sum up the dire state of his district's finances.

If district voters don't approve a November levy referendum to provide new funding for the district, at least one school will have to close, said Dan Luth, "not because we have the excess capacity to do so, but simply because we will not be able to afford to keep all of our current schools open."

It's no secret that Burnsville, and many other south-metro school districts, are in a tough financial spot. Voters statewide sent the message last year that they didn't want their taxes raised to pay for local schools.

Minnesota voters rejected about 60 percent of the school-district levy referendum questions they were presented last November, the lowest percentage of approved school levies since 1980, according to the Minnesota School Boards Association.

In the south-metro area, levy questions were rejected in the Belle Plaine, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Jordan and Lakeville school districts, with only Northfield getting a question past its voters. And those rejections were followed by millions of dollars in budget cuts.

This fall, Belle Plaine, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Farmington, Prior Lake-Savage, Montgomery-Lonsdale and Lakeville already know how much they want.

"One of our community members said, 'What we do know is, if the [levy] fails, things aren't going to get better,'" said Belle Plaine Superintendent Kelly Smith. "And we would go back to the [budget reduction] list and each thing on that list is going to take away some program or service from students."

Here's a list of what school boards plan to ask for come November, and what they say will happen if voters don't approve:

BELLE PLAINE

Belle Plaine voters need to look only at the painful budget-cutting sessions that the district went through last year to wonder why the district is again asking voters for more money.

This fall, the district will ask for an annual $300 per-pupil levy for the next 10 years, and the amount would increase with inflation. According to Smith, that could bring in an additional $600,000 every year. Belle Plaine doesn't levy any money from taxpayers now, which makes it something of a rarity among school districts. For a $200,000 home in the district , that amounts to an additional $115 in taxes annually.

And if it doesn't pass?

"We'll continue to look at ways that we can operate our district in a more cost-effective manner here," Smith said. "And that means bringing out the budget-reduction list that we had last year that we looked at, and, unfortunately, having to look at those lists again."

BURNSVILLE-EAGAN-SAVAGE

Although the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school board has yet to approve its official request, the board says it is going to ask community members for $640 per pupil for 10 years. Unlike most districts, Burnsville does not plan to ask voters to increase that amount with inflation.

Luth says the district will have to close "at least" one school next summer if the levy doesn't pass. The board doesn't know which school (or schools) yet, but it could be an elementary school, a junior high school, or both.

Luth said the district's research shows a lot of anti-tax sentiment in the community, and it gets taken out on the school district.

"Unfortunately, school districts are the only ones that really have to go out and ask [for money]," he said. "Most of the cities and counties are able to increase their property taxes without approval from the community, so we get to be the ones that they get to express their concerns with."

At a painful budget-cutting school board meeting this spring, Luth cited "overwhelming apathy through the community we serve." He said the board has been trying to "do more with less," but he warned, "we are clearly running out of less."

FARMINGTON

Farmington's school board hasn't made any final decisions, but according to district spokesman Aaron Tinklenberg, it looks likely that the board will pose three questions to voters in November.

The first question would provide funding to open up and operate the district's new high school, scheduled to open in September 2009, as well as provide funding to maintain current program and staffing levels. The second question would fund capital projects to improve district technology, and the third would provide additional classroom resources and support for teachers.

How much the school board will ask for is still to be decided, Tinklenberg said. The district currently receives an operating levy worth $180 per pupil, or about $1.25 million annually. Thirty dollars of that will expire after the 2008-09 school year, and the remaining $150 will expire after the 2010-11 school year.

In Farmington, the first question could determine whether the district can open its new high school in time for the 2009-10 school year, Tinklenberg said. If such a question should fail, he said, the district would have one more chance to ask the community for money to run the building before the school's scheduled opening.

"For that to sit closed for a year would be, obviously, a big waste and we want to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.

LAKEVILLE

Last year was a tough year for Lakeville, which had to cut more than $7 million from its budget for the 2007-08 school year. And district officials say the effect will be noticeable in increased class sizes and fewer electives at the two high schools.

This November, Lakeville is asking voters three ballot questions. The first question will renew two expiring levies in the amount of $571 per pupil, which would generate about $7.1 million annually. The second question will ask for an additional $389 per pupil, which would bring in $5 million annually. The third question is for $1 million annually in a capital-projects levy to create and implement a six-year cycle to replace aging technology.

MONTGOMERY-LONSDALE

According to Montgomery-Lonsdale Superintendent Corey Lunn, the district is looking to ask voters for some more money so it can maintain what it already has.

"We're not going to ask for any more money than we need," Lunn said, "We'll just keep doing what we're doing now."

The Montgomery-Lonsdale school district doesn't have an operating levy. But last week, a community group charged with evaluating the district finances recommended to the school board that it ask the public to support some more funding for the schools.

The recommendation, which the board will discuss at a workshop tonight, was to ask the community for the $350 per-pupil operating levy that a survey of voters showed would get community support.

If that's not enough to keep the district out of debt, the committee recommended, the school board should ask for a separate levy to close the gap between revenues and expenses. And if the district thinks it needs an extra levy for technology projects, that could be added onto the extra levy, or be proposed in a separate question.

Lunn said the extra $350 per pupil would bring in about $500,000 a year to the school district (plus inflationary increases), and he estimated that it could keep the district financially sound for three to five years.

"Everything [except school funding] is going up," Lunn said. "Fuel costs, insurance costs, employee costs. It makes it difficult to maintain what we're doing."

NEW PRAGUE

The New Prague school district has added more than 700 students since its last levy was authorized in 2003. And the community has been talking about this November's levy.

The school district is going to ask voters to replace the current $453 per-pupil operating levy, which will bring in about $1.36 million to the district this year, with an operating levy of $757 per pupil, which would bring in about $2.7 million for the 2008-09 school year.

The district says the increase will keep the district out of the red, which means maintaining class sizes and accelerating academic goals to boost rankings among Minnesota high schools.

PRIOR LAKE-SAVAGE

The district's first question would revoke $841 per pupil, or $7 million annually, that the district currently brings in as a voter-approved levy, but it would replace that with a levy for $1,431 per student, adding $590 per student over what taxpayers pay now and bringing in an additional $4.5 million annually.

The district is also asking taxpayers for $28.9 million to build an addition on its 5-year-old high school. The school is already at its 2,000-student capacity, and the student body is still growing.

"The kids [for the addition] are already in our schools," said Superintendent Tom Westerhaus. "From what we graduate at the senior level, to what our kindergarten classes are, there can be up to 300 more students [in kindergarten.] This growth isn't open enrollment, it isn't new houses, they're already here."

And the levy money?

"The rapid growth that we're trying to stay ahead of is really the intent of this referendum," Westerhaus said. "We're slating to open a new school next fall, and without referendum dollars, the board is going to have to make a decision whether or not we open the school and cut programs other places, or we don't open the school."

Emily Johns • 612-673-7460

Emily Johns • ejohns@startribune.com