Referendum consequences

The State of Minnesota legislature decided it was okay to fund and build a new stadium for millionaires without letting citizens vote on it. However, school boards are not allowed to raise property taxes (an average of $12-$24/month) without a vote. That's understandable, since referendums were originally designed to be temporary taxes for the purpose of a special projects like building a new school building or some such capital expenditure. However, since the folks in St. Paul have been playing politics rather than figuring out how to fund education, school districts have been using referendums simply to continue to pay for basic services in schools.

In my district, a very aggressive "Vote No" group hired an outside consultant who is an expert in getting referendums to fail. They published documented lies (and are now being sued for it) about the referendum and made people believe that our superintendent was making idle threats when he described the services that would be cut if the referendum failed. Well, unfortunately, the referendum failed. Our superintendent wasn't bluffing.

My school will not open next fall. Neither will another elementary school in the district. In addition, one of the three middle schools will send it's students to the other two. The remaining two middle schools will become 7-8 grade. 6th grade will move down to the elementary schools. The remaining 8 elementary schools will not longer have any art programs, gifted and talented programs, and will increase their class sizes. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the cuts that will take place.

As far as my job, since my school is closing, my job will be eliminated, as well as the Site Supervisor position from the other elementary school. My boss will probably try to figure out some creative ideas to keep as many staff on as possible, but there are certainly no guarantees.

Merry Christmas