Grand Forks school leaders reflect on defeated referendum

Jun. 25—In the aftermath of the defeat of two proposals in the Tuesday, June 22, school referendum, Grand Forks education leaders are taking stock of what the outcome means to the future of the school district and considering next steps to move forward.

In the two-question ballot, voters rejected the district's request to issue $86 million in general obligation bonds to fund a new K-8 campus, a district central kitchen and high-priority infrastructure needs. The second request was aimed at increasing the building fund levy from 10 to 20 mills.

Both questions required 60% to pass. The bond issue netted a 30.77% yes vote, while the mill levy increase drew a 54.6% yes vote.

"Fifty-four hundred people gave us feedback, and they gave us feedback that we've been longing for," Superintendent Terry Brenner said Wednesday, June 23.

Several factors affected the outcome of Tuesday's vote, Brenner said.

"I believe the community was not enamored with the K-8 school consolidation plan" merging four buildings into one, he said. "And, coming out of COVID and its economic impact on people, I believe that had an effect on the overall outcome as well."

Further, he said, "I don't think the community fully understood the $15 million that would be reinvested into all of our other campuses, for safety and security, indoor air quality, HVAC and common learning spaces."

Justin Berry, who helped to lead a community group opposed to northside school consolidation, said, "I was very glad to see that the bonding bill, with the consolidation, was overwhelmingly defeated. I hope that sends a message to the (School) Board that a large-scale consolidation of a K through 8 school is not what the community wants."

However, he was in favor of the 10-mill increase for the district's building fund, he said.

"I was glad to see that voter turnout was high for a summer election. And, I think, part of what our group did was just help ensure that more people in the community knew about the referendum and helped with the discussion about the referendum."

"Personally, I think it was a bad plan," Berry said. "I think there were a lot of questions that the public had about the plan; it seemed like there were still a lot of questions that the district and the board members were unable to answer.

"I also think the board and the district did a poor job with community engagement. They did not go to the schools and present information to the families."

Berry and his wife, Whitney Berry, have a child attending Valley Middle School.

"I know that Valley needs a lot of work," he said. "I think if they proposed replacing Valley on the same site, without the elementary school closures and consolidation, I think that would have a much better chance of passing."

Brenner and School Board President Amber Flynn both cited the vote as evidence of a lack of support for an increase in property taxes at this time.

"People don't want their property taxes to go up, especially after COVID there was some conversation about people barely getting by, and so is this the right time to ask for money," Flynn said.

"I think the biggest reasons (for the referendum defeat) were property taxes, neighborhood school loss, and the concept of what the school would look like, which all of that was information the district provided and refuted on the webpages as well to provide information."

Flynn said the pandemic canceled pre-COVID plans to hold face-to-face meetings with parents and others in schools, shops or businesses where people gather, such as coffee shops and community meetings.

"I think people felt like the distinct didn't do enough to inform them or communicate with them. I would own that we can always take a look at what we can control and ... how we can engage the public in a better manner," she said. "But I do believe, given the circumstances with COVID, we did a good job of having information available to the public. Again, we can always do better, but there's a back and forth engagement that needs to happen."

More face-to-face community engagement would have allowed the district and the board to explain, in more detail, what support of the referendum would mean for schools, Brenner said.

Both he and Flynn said the vote outcome offers an opportunity to capitalize on public interest in education and use it to engage in broader conversation to find a better solution to challenges facing the district.

Since the mill levy missed the approval level by only 5.4%, "that gives me hope," Brenner said.

"I don't want to get out ahead of the (School) Board, but I do think there will be some interest to bring the 10 mills back as one question to the voters sooner rather than later," he said. "If we do that, and we can get that positively across the finish line, that will have a large positive impact on our ending fund balance, particularly as it relates to buildings and facilities."

For the time being, Brenner and his administration will be "continuing to decrease expenditures, which will be a painful process because that will involve people and programs, and everybody competing for scarce resources.

"Valley Middle School is one steam pipe burst from closing," Brenner said. "That keeps me awake at night."

He and other education leaders need time to digest the results of the referendum, he said.

Regarding the $86 million bond issue, "we'll just hit the pause button, and we'll take another school year, as we move out of the COVID environment, where we can do more community engagement in a face-to-face model, get people who are interested in coming into our buildings to see really what we're dealing with."

Brenner sees this situation as a "positive opportunity, moving forward," he said. "Clearly people are engaged in our community, whether they supported the referendum or they didn't, that's a positive."

"One thing I know for certain is, everybody in this community cares about public education and the type of product who will graduate from our high schools. How we get there might be a little bit of a philosophical difference, because some of us have to look at balancing expenditures, class sizes, high calibre educational experience with the desires of the community to keep neighborhood schools quaint and have the neighborhood-school feel to them. That's the bridge that I believe we can build, we just need more dialogue and face-to-face opportunities."

The pandemic limited that, he said, but "this school year will be a greater opportunity for more of that interaction and, I believe, we all want a similar outcome, we just need to find some common ground in how to get there.

"I see that as a positive; I don't see that as anything but a positive."