Northfield School Board approves all fund budgets

At its last meeting in May, the Northfield School Board reviewed the sale of district property, the first draft of the referendum ballot language, and the 2024-25 all funds budget.

At the end of the hour-and-11-minute meeting, the board approved the all funds budgets for 2024-25 that showed $67.7 million in revenues and $66.9 million in expenditures for the district.

Another topic that generated a lot of questions and discussion was a review of the first draft of the ballot language that will be used for the November General Election bond referendum describing the reimagined high school.

Northfield District Superintendent Matt Hillmann reported that the educational campaign to inform the community about the proposed $95 million reimagined high school was underway with a long list of school tours and presentations delivered at various events and at local businesses and meetings of local organizations. The only communication effort that has not been well received, he said, have been the virtual sessions, which will probably be suspended.

Switching to the ballot language issue, School Board member Jenny Nelson asked why would some language that describes the bond referendum project be removed. Jeff Seeley, a senior municipal advisor with Ehlers explained that the ballot language is a succinct summary of a project that translates a complex topic to voters in a way they can relate to.

“If the voters are not informed, using more words, but less information, how can they understand that a $95 million project includes multi-story classrooms with the old wings demolished,” she asked.

“Ballot language controls your authority,” said Seeley. “The idea is to use language specific enough to understand the project, but flexible enough to exclude details.”

Board member Jeff Quinnell asked about the schedule of voting. “My concern is that the questions needs to be succinct; I’m leery of soft language. Taxpayers deserve as much detail as possible.”

Both Ben Miller and Corey Butler said they were fine with the ballot language.

The School Board will engage in a work session at 4 p.m. focusing on the state of child care in Northfield on Monday, June 10. The next regular meeting of the School Board follows the work session at 6 p.m. in the District Boardroom, 201 Orchard St. S.