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."