South Washington County School District voters in August adamantly rejected the $462 million bond request by an almost 2-to-1 ratio.
Now, school district officials say they are going “back to the drawing board” to help voters understand the critical need for funding for new construction, renovations and improvements to accommodate student growth.
Starting Monday, district officials will hold a series of listening sessions to gather feedback from district residents. These eight sessions, held online and in person, will be followed by a new demographic survey, a community-wide survey, and a new facilities planning timeline, district officials said.
Superintendent Julie Nielsen said it was too early to say when the district would return to voters with another request.
Information from listening sessions, community surveys, and new demographic surveys will be shared with the school board in late January or early February, Nielsen said.
Minnesota’s largest ever $426 million bond request was defeated on August 9 by 14,834 votes to 7,782.
“We asked for what we needed,” said Nielsen. “But given what’s going on with the economy, back to school, and the biggest demand in Minnesota, I think August was probably the perfect storm. We knew this was a big request for our community, so this gave us the opportunity to reflect on what we’ve done and move forward along a plan that hopefully our community can support. Got it.”
Three years ago, voters in the White Bear Lake School District approved a $329 million bond referendum to fund district-wide construction projects, making it the largest successful school bond referendum in state history. I was.
However, the White Bear Lake area has about 8,700 students, less than half the number of students in the South Washington County area, Nielsen said.
“White Bear Lake is a whole other neighborhood,” she said. “When we compared what they wanted per student with schools in South Washington County, we were still far behind.”
A better comparison, she said, is with Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District 196, which serves about 29,000 students. District 196 officials are also working on long-term facility plans and preparations for a bond referendum, according to Nielsen. “There will probably be a great many more numbers out of 196,” she said.
Demographic information provided to South Washington County School District voters before the August election will be updated to reflect a “slowdown” in housing construction, Nielsen said. Voters had been told to expect 8,000 new homes and more than 3,500 new potential K-12 students in the district over the next decade, but Nielsen said Woodbury and Cottage Grove Recent conversations with city officials indicate that those numbers are likely to change.
“What we do know is that housing approved for move-in is probably not selling at the same rate it was before,” said Nielsen. Economically, hopefully we can explore where we are in terms of numbers.”
newport elementary school
One of the most controversial parts of the district’s plans was the closure of Newport Elementary, the district’s most diverse school. Under this plan, Newport Elementary School was to become an early learning center.
Nielsen said it’s too early to say what will happen to schools.
“There were no more conversations about Newport Elementary,” Nielsen said. “We will definitely consider what we learn from our listening sessions and survey results and make future decisions.
School districts span some or all of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, Afton, Denmark Townships, and Gray Cloud Island Townships.
Community listening session
The South Washington County School District is holding a series of community listening sessions in October and November to gather feedback following the failure of the August bond referendum.
The first session will take place on Monday from 6-7:30 pm at East Ridge High School in Woodbury.
Subsequent sessions will be held at Park High School on October 24th. October 27, District Program Center. November 1st at Lake Middle School. Woodbury High School on November 2nd and Altman Middle School on November 3rd. A virtual session will also be held. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.sowashco.org/facilityplanning.
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