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St. Francis: Lesson in living with rejection
The St. Francis school district officials don't attribute defeat at the polls to mold problems, but that's one of the district's problems.
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Times are tough in the St. Francis school district. Lately, the misfortunes seem to keep piling on. Over four years, the district board of education has tried four times to convince St. Francis voters to approve bonds needed to build a new elementary school to relieve crowding. Four times the voters turned them down.
Last month, district officials, responding to complaints of leaky windows and musty smells, found mold in portable classrooms at both St. Francis Elementary School and Cedar Creek Community School, in Cedar. The classrooms were shut down pending a solution to the mold problems, and kids were shipped to another building, or crammed into the schools proper, including the Cedar Creek gym and teachers lounge.
On Tuesday, a three-part district request for almost $4 million a year in tax revenues got shot down by voters. A voter-initiated bond request for a new high school that was not favored by the board of education was also defeated. The votes weren't close. Now, the district is facing $3.2 million in budget cuts.
And just three days ago, ModSpace, the company that leased the now-mold-riddled portable classrooms that the district uses to relieve the crowding at St. Francis and Cedar Creek, issued a statement blasting district officials for making unauthorized modifications to the portable classrooms, refusing to provide ModSpace with maintenance records, and doing damage by inspecting the classroom walls.
Is this bad karma, or what?
"There are things that are problematic," district superintendent Edward Saxton said Thursday.
Saxton said he believes Tuesday's referendum defeat is unconnected to the highly publicized mold findings, which occurred just a few weeks earlier. He said "no" voters were more likely motivated by a general discontent with tax increases rather than by any need to blame the district for what's going on.
"Someone made the point to me recently that they're not really saying 'no' to more money for schools; they're saying 'no' to taxes. It's the only one they get to say 'no' to," Saxton said. Also, voters might not have felt a sense of urgency, he said, because the proposed district budget cuts were to be made in the 2009-2010 school year.
But at least one parent thinks the mold played a part in the outcome.
"Oh, definitely," said St. Francis resident Leslie Flatum, who connects her 8-year-old daughter Natalie's allergy flare-ups with the mold problems at St. Francis Elementary. "A lot of people have really lost faith in the school board." Two of three board incumbents were reelected Tuesday.
Flatum said she herself voted in favor of this year's levy requests, and has also voted in favor of a new elementary school every time the district has taken it to the voters.
Saxton said Thursday that it's important that things start looking up soon. ModSpace has told him that they will replace 10 portables at St. Francis, and will fix seven other portables at St. Francis and the eight portables at Cedar Creek. But Saxton is frustrated by ModSpace's slow progress in getting an action plan to them.
"We sit and wait, and wait, and wait," Saxton said. "Instructional days are slipping away."
As for ModSpace's claims against the district, he said he disagrees with them and that "they're taking the corporate stance where they're going to position themselves for a lawsuit."
No lawsuit is currently planned, he said.
Regarding the prospects for a new elementary school, Saxton said it's up to the board of education whether to take the matter to the polls again. For now, he's waiting for an independent consultant to review district facilities and enrollment projections.
Certainly, if there is another bond referendum for a new elementary school, district voters will have an important new factor to mull over.
"We haven't had a vote since the mold thing surfaced," Saxton said.
Staff writer Maria Elena Baca contributed to this report. Norman Draper • 612-673-4547
Norman Draper • ndraper@startribune.com
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