Eye-popping tax proposals and a half-baked strategic plan could make Tuesday’s St. Paul Public Schools referendum an unusually hard sell in a city that’s historically opened its wallets to support public education.
The four St. Paul school levy increases since 2000 each won between 56 percent and 62 percent approval from voters.
Tuesday’s vote could be closer, judging by the results of a May survey commissioned by the school board. It found 58 percent of respondents were willing to pay an extra $125 a year in school taxes, while just 44 percent would pay $150.
The school board settled on an $18.6 million tax hike that would cost the average homeowner $135 a year plus inflation.
Rosilyn Carrol, a school board member from 1976 to 1983, hasn’t decided how she’ll vote. She’s been frustrated by the quality of education on the city’s East Side and doesn’t see a clear plan for improvement, with or without higher taxes.
“To do the same old stuff, we’re going to get the same old results,” she said.
Delores Henderson, who retired this year as principal of the K-8 Hazel Park Preparatory Academy, said she received calls this summer from referendum opponents asking for her help. She said people of color are frustrated their children aren’t catching up academically to white students.
In Highland Park and St. Anthony Park, Henderson said, “you’re feeling good about what’s going on. But if you’re on the East Side or the West Side, it’s a different ballgame. It’s a different state of mind. … There’s so much hopelessness.”
Henderson has been urging friends and strangers to vote yes.
“Your city is only as great as your school system,” she said.
RELYING ON VOTERS
Minnesota school districts have long relied on voter-approved levies to make up for what they say is insufficient state and federal funding.
In St. Paul, inflation-adjusted state aid for schools is $21.6 million behind where it was 15 years ago, according to the district and the Association of Metropolitan School Districts.
“We have an obligation to pick up that slack. They’re our kids,” school board member Mary Vanderwert said.
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St. Paul’s current levy, at $705 per student, is well behind its peer school districts. The new one, at $1,180 per student, would be a bit higher than average for the metro.
As a result of cost increases, modest state funding and declining enrollment, the district has identified around $50 million in spending cuts over the last three years.
“It’s the toughest part of being on the board. You’re not just cutting money, you’re cutting programs for kids,” board member John Brodrick said.
This year’s $535 million general fund is 2 percent larger than the 2015 budget. Enrollment is down around 3 percent in that time.
The district has responded by leaving scores of educator jobs unfilled. Some elementary and middle schools have lost a non-core class period, which teachers used for collaboration. Administrative and special education budgets have taken big hits. And the district has put off long-term financial obligations.
Earlier this year, the district held teachers to modest increases to the salary schedule — 1 percent halfway through last school year and another 1 percent this school year — while imposing larger class size limits.
In return, district leaders agreed to consider another referendum this fall rather than waiting until the current voter-approved levy expires in 2021.
The board unanimously agreed to pursue the referendum, but its timing could have been better.
WHAT PLAN?
Superintendent Joe Gothard, in his second year on the job, has outlined the framework for a strategic plan, establishing several areas of focus: school climate, culturally relevant instruction, smarter spending, postsecondary pathways and community engagement.
Gothard has several teams working on specific initiatives for the plan, but those won’t be unveiled until months after the referendum.
That’s made it hard for residents to see the vision behind the tax increase.
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Jessica Kopp, a Hamline Elementary parent and a regular at school board meetings, said she and her friends support the referendum. But she senses a lack of clarity over how the district would spend the new money.
In 2012, voters approved a referendum they were told that would pay for student technology; it became a contentious plan to give every student an iPad. Messaging for previous tax votes concerned class sizes and investing in early learning.
This referendum, Kopp said, is “really more foundational work as opposed to flashy work.”
Before agreeing to put the tax hike before voters, school board member Vanderwert lamented that it wouldn’t provide enough money to move the district forward. The new $18.6 million would barely cover what was cut from last year’s budget.
The purpose of the tax increase, in other words, is to stop the bleeding.
TAX SQUEEZE
The school district’s request comes as St. Paul residents are feeling the pinch from local government.
For the 2012 referendum, the district pulled back on its regular levy authority so that the successful referendum raised taxes by just 3.6 percent. City and county taxes that year went up by less than 2 percent.
This year, the average homeowner will pay 12.8 percent more — $323 on a $186,000 home — if the school referendum passes and city and county levies are approved as proposed.
Meanwhile, financial support for the referendum campaign is down.
The campaign committee Vote Yes for Strong Schools raised almost $59,000 between Aug. 3 and Oct. 18, according to its final campaign finance report before the election.
In 2012, the same committee raised twice that amount during the same reporting period.
The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce board, which endorsed the 2012 referendum, failed to reach a consensus this year and is not taking a public position, spokeswoman Shannon Watson said.
The chamber supported levies in 2000 and in 2012 but opposed the 2002 levy, along with then-Mayor Randy Kelly.
Mayor Melvin Carter III is helping to lead this year’s vote-yes committee, just as he did as a city council member in 2012.
OTHER ISSUES
There are other reasons referendum supporters are concerned.
About one year ago, ahead of teacher contract negotiations, board member Steve Marchese expressed concern that the union would jeopardize a potential referendum by refusing to sign up for Q Comp, the state’s alternative compensation program for educators.
If fully funded by the state, it could have supplied St. Paul with $6.2 million a year from the state and $3.3 million from St. Paul residents.
The union has steadfastly refused, saying there’s no guarantee the program would be fully funded — or that it would not be eliminated later.
Meanwhile, amid the years of budget stress, enrollment and test scores have fallen.
Voters with no connection to the schools are less likely to vote yes. And only around 60 percent of the students living in St. Paul attend district schools, according to a 2017 report to the school board.
The number choosing other options — private schools, nearby school districts, home schools and especially charters — grew by more than 2,700, or 15 percent, between 2012 and 2016.
The Coalition of Asian-American Leaders has seized on the referendum to lobby district leaders for improved services for the district’s largest student demographic.
A recent CAAL video asked, “Why should we vote yes on this referendum if there’s no guarantee that our tax money will be invested in our children?”
Network director Bo Thao-Urabe notes there are no Asian-Americans in Gothard’s cabinet and too few Asian-American educators outside of Jackson and Phalen Lake, the two elementary schools offering Hmong dual-language instruction.
Thao-Urabe said CAAL hasn’t taken a position for or against the referendum.
“Of course, we know the district is facing a deficit, but there has to be some priorities, and I think that’s what the community is asking for,” she said.
“ ‘Support us because we’re in a shortfall’ doesn’t give the community confidence that they’re going to do anything different.”
