Referendum effort studied during work session

by David Hill Editor The Board of Education for School District 564, Thief River Falls, met Monday, April 8, in a work session. A work session is less formal than a regular meeting. During a work session, other than approving an agenda, board members discuss a variety of issues, but don’t take official action. The topic receiving the most attention on Monday was last fall’s levy referendum, and how the board would approach an operating levy referendum next fall. Chris Mills, superintendent, said it’s imperative that they engage people who haven’t been engaged in the discussion before. Data from the last election showed that voters in the 18-26-year-old age group were the least engaged. According to the data, only 1.09% or 16 individuals who voted, were from this age group. Mills noted that this shows that parents of young children at Challenger Elementary School chose not to vote. The highest turnout, 42.56%, was from the Boomers, ages 59-77, followed by Gen X, or individuals ages 43-58 at 29.57%, followed by Millennials, ages 27-42, at 17.06%. A new strategy to engage parents of students at Challenger is beginning to take shape. The first step includes holding the Long-term Planning Commission meetings later in the evenings so that they can participate in those meetings. The first LTPAC meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 18 starting at 6 p.m. in the Lincoln High School Training Room. Discussion Monday included whether it would be adviseable to not only hold some future meetings at Challenger, but whether they should offer daycare during the meeting. Going forward, having a clear, concise and consistent message would also be important. Mills said what future cuts may be made should also be specific. He described offering voters a specific path to choose from. Mills said a certain amount of “right-sizing” was going to happen anyway. By “right-sizing,” he explained that enrollment has declined and is expected to continue to decline through 2027. That means some reductions would have had to have been made regardless of whether or not a referendum was approved. But, Mills said, prior to last levy referendum, the District had cut $2.7 million from its budgets over six years. Mills had visited with leaders in other Districts experiencing the same problem of passing a levy referendum. For those that finally were able to pass a levy referendum, Mills said it was important to: • Engage voters who had not been engaged before, • Have a clear, concise and consistent message, • Communicate that message over and over, and • Voters need to know they are part of the solution. There seemed to be a broad consensus among members of the Board of Education that they did have a good, broad communication with voters, but that they need to find creative ways of getting people to stop, think and ask questions. There was some hesitation about expressing what exact cuts would be made. Andrea Volk, special education educator at Challenger and Franklin Middle School, said she’s afraid if they get too specific, good teachers will continue to leave the District. She said teachers are already fearful they’ll lose their jobs. Job security is important. Misty Hempel, vice chairman, said that it’s obvious to the Board of Education that when over 80% of the budget is spent on staffing, budget reductions mean staff reductions. However, she said, the public might not be as aware of that relationship. Michelle Westerman, director on the Board of Education, also said she’s heard that the District is being spiteful, which is not true. She noted that the District had already cut over $2.7 million from its budget. It’s to the point where tough decisions about what to cut have to be made. Mills and Chairman Ryan Walseth reported that they had been before the Thief River Falls City Council and Pennington County Board of Commissioners.