Summer is campaign season for Minneapolis schools

An energetic contingent in sunshine yellow T-shirts saying "Vote YES for Kids" swarmed like bees during a recent neighborhood parade near McRae Park in south Minneapolis, distributing info sheets and stickers in support of a proposed $60 million property tax levy measure for the Minneapolis public schools.

With about four months left until the referendum, the district's latest more-money-for-schools campaign is in full gear. But convincing voters to pony up $480 million over eight years may be a tough sell for a district grappling with low state test scores, declining enrollment, an unhappy teachers union and voter caution in this recessive economy.

"I am not convinced that $60 million is the answer to this problem," said Eric Pone, a father of four and a member of the district's parent advisory committee. "The bulk of the assets will go toward maintaining class sizes, and that is a hard sell for me. Someone had better show better rationale than what has been expressed thus far."

Judy McQuade, a leading parent volunteer, urgently tells people that there's no room for reservations.

"We need you to do it because the schools are going to lose $30 million a year if you don't," McQuade told paradegoers on that muggy Saturday morning. "Our kids can't afford to fall off track."

Slapping a sticker on her shirt, Helen Kimbrough of Minneapolis, responded: "If it's going to improve the schools and keep the kids in there, that's what I'm for. I just need to know more about it."

An onslaught of information

Here's what's coming: a campaign website, lawn signs sprouting like dandelions; bumper stickers, scores of supporters at neighborhood festivals, intense door-knocking and phone calls.

"We don't get a summer break," said Courtney Cushing Kiernat, co-chair of Strong Schools, Strong City, a volunteer committee supporting the measure.

The proposed tax increase is expected to fund a long list of district requests, including: the district's ambitious Strategic Plan to improve student performance; early grade literacy, math and science curriculum; new textbooks and new technology, as well as maintaining current class sizes.

Attracting votes from the one in every six Minneapolis households with school-age kids should be relatively easy. But votes are also needed from households without children, families busing their kids to suburban schools, and empty nesters.

History is on the supporters' side. The three school measures since 1990 have all been approved; 73 percent of voters supported the last one in 2000.

"This process has proceeded with most people still in the dark," said Kip Wennerlund, a south Minneapolis parent.

This spring, a cross section of about 400 likely voters were surveyed about possible levy amounts ranging from the current one of $30 million to upwards of $90 million, said Steve Kotvis, a campaign spokesman. Many preferred $90 million over $30 million, Kotvis said, but $60 million -- the midrange -- emerged as the consensus.

Supporters say that the new proposal is a 5 percent increase and would cost city homeowners an extra $17 for a home valued at $256,000. Homeowners pay $15 a month for the levy that expires next year.

"I will have three kids in the system this fall, and we're not going to bite off our nose to spite our face," said Wennerlund, who said he will vote yes despite his concerns. "They know at the end of the day that we have to support it. I just can't imagine anybody with kids in the district who won't."

How to ask?

Kotvis said it will be written simply, with the amount, the term and a mention that an oversight committee will monitor the spending.

Former school board member Ann Berget recently said she was concerned that such an expensive question will not be closely scrutinized because of other contests on the general election ballot.

"If somebody is asking me to cough up my share of $480 million over eight years, I want good, solid answers before I make a decision," Berget said. "Look at the last library referendum. What do we have to show for it? A shiny building downtown that the city doesn't even own anymore and a huge debt."

With program improvements underway at the high school and middle school levels and continued efforts to bolster North Side schools, transparency is going to be key for both the district and its supporters to get the necessary votes, Kotvis said.

"It has to be tangible. We have to show there could be more closed schools, teachers laid off and programs cut without a referendum," Kotvis said. "That's what the repercussions are because if you have to fire 350 teachers, you better damn well do it."