$462M referendum on ballot in South Washington County school district

Mary Divine, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

Residents in the South Washington County school district will vote next month on a $462 million bond referendum that, if passed, would be the largest ever school referendum approved in Minnesota.

The measure is needed, supporters say, in order to address overcrowding, particularly in the district’s three high schools, and future growth and student needs. If it passes, the district would be authorized to raise construction funding through the sale of bonds.

“This is a 10-year plan that optimizes the district’s facilities,” said Woodbury resident Dave Hoelzel, a father of two students in the district and a member of the “Vote Yes” team working to pass the proposal. “We need to stay ahead of the curve. Schools are already at capacity.”

Over the next 10 years, the district expects to add 3,500 new students from 8,000 new homes. The district spans parts or all of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, Afton, Denmark Township and Grey Cloud Island Township.

Hoelzel, a member of the Woodbury Planning Commission, said the district works closely with city planners to track housing starts and align those numbers with enrollment forecasts. “We have to have a very wide view of the region,” he said. “We can’t just focus on individual schools.”

Improvements planned at the district’s three high schools — East Ridge, Woodbury and Park — include:

  • construction of classroom additions;

  • expansion of cafeterias and kitchens;

  • creation of multipurpose space for online learning;

  • renovation of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) spaces;

  • site redesigns at Park and Woodbury high schools to improve traffic flow.

Plans also call for a new Pine Hill Elementary School building to be built on site in Cottage Grove and for South Washington Alternative High School to be moved to the current Crestview Elementary building in Cottage Grove. Under the proposed plan, a new Crestview Elementary School would be built at a central district location and a new District Service Center would be built on the new Crestview Elementary campus to consolidate support staff, community education, enrollment services and space for meetings and professional development.

OPPOSITION TO PLAN

The plan has come under fire, however, because it calls for the closure of Newport Elementary School, the most diverse school in the district. Under the plan, Newport Elementary would become an early-learning center.

Marvin Taylor, a Newport City Council member, has been leading the “Vote No” campaign against the bond proposal. He questions the district’s enrollment forecasts and says the district’s ask is too much.

The $462 million price tag “is a tough figure to sell in this economy,” he said. “We want that to be out front and for them to have to justify why they need that much money.”

For a home worth $300,000, the average home in the district, the tax impact of the plan would mean an additional $25 in property taxes a month, or $305 more a year for that homeowner, district officials say.

Voting takes place in a special election on Aug. 9, the same day votes will be cast in the statewide primary election.

Taylor said he believes the district picked an August date for its special election in order to ensure a low voter turnout. “This is going to have long-term ramifications, whichever way this goes, and that should be voted on by the majority of voters in our district,” Taylor said.

Pepe Barton, a spokesman for the district, said the Aug. 9 date was selected “to allow time for planning. If successful, the timing allows for the best chance to address student growth in a timely manner by 2025.”

OTHER OPTIONS

In 2015, voters in the district approved construction funding for a new middle school, which opened as Oltman Middle School in 2018, but rejected plans for improvements to the high schools and several elementary schools. More recently, the facility-planning process was put on hold for one year because of the pandemic. The process restarted in March 2021.

If the bond measure fails, district officials say its 10-year facility plan will be modified — but not dismantled. With some schools over capacity, there will likely be extensive boundary changes prior to 2025 and higher-than-average class sizes, district officials said.

Other options on the table if the proposal fails: exploring temporary portable trailers at some school sites; considering alternative scheduling options for high schools; reviewing grade configurations at all levels; increasing rental space and costs for learning and instruction; and returning to voters with a new bond proposal in February 2023.

Taylor said he is concerned that district officials will pursue closing Newport Elementary even if the referendum fails. Parents protested the plan when it was announced in April and have lobbied to save the town’s only school.

He also questions whether the district will see the growth that it has projected. Birth rates peaked around 2007 in Minnesota and in the nation, he said, and many families are opting to send their children to charter or private schools.

School districts across the state are having to come to terms with slower or declining growth, he said. “The only exception seems to be the projections in 833’s facility plan,” he said. “There is a lot of construction activity happening now in the district, but there has been a large amount of construction activity for years now in Woodbury, Cottage Grove and even Newport, and it hasn’t resulted in growth in enrollment over the past four or five years.”

“My push is to get a new demographic study done with new projections,” he said. “I don’t think they can proceed with the numbers they have.”

If the $462 million bond referendum passes, it would be the largest bond referendum ever passed in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota School Boards Association. In November 2019, voters in the White Bear Lake school district approved a $329 million bond referendum to fund construction projects across the district, making it the largest successful school bond referendum in state history.

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