Stillwater School District: Voters will elect board member and decide on $175M bond referendum

Mary Divine, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

It’s been 8 ½ years since Stillwater-area voters approved a $97.5 million bond referendum that funded a renovation of school facilities and the construction of Brookview Elementary School in Woodbury.

The following year, school board members voted 5-2 to close three other elementary schools — Withrow and Marine in the northern, more rural part of the district, along with Oak Park Elementary in Stillwater.

Now, Stillwater Area School District officials are back with a bigger ask: approval of a $175 million bond referendum to fund construction projects to address growth in the southern and central parts of the district and improve safety at schools throughout the district.

It’s the first bond referendum on the ballot since Superintendent Mike Funk joined the district in July 2022.

About 1,000 new students are projected to join the district over the next 10 years, according to district officials, and the bond referendum would help the district add capacity in the communities served by Andersen Elementary in Bayport and Lake Elmo Elementary, the two oldest schools in the district, and construct additional classroom space and a new gymnasium at Oak-Land Middle School in Lake Elmo. It also would be used for safety and security improvements at all district schools, including a secured front entrance addition and remodel at Stillwater Area High School in Oak Park Heights.

The $175 million request would cost taxpayers with a median-priced home of $500,000 approximately $200 a year for 20 years.

School board candidates

The two candidates running for the seat on the school board that was vacated when school board member Eva Lee resigned in January have differing views on the bond referendum. Chris Lauer, who was appointed in February to fill the position until a successor is elected, supports the referendum; Jessica Johnson does not.

“All of the projections say that over the course of the next 10 years, we’ll have another 1,000 students in the district,” Lauer said in October at a candidate forum sponsored by the Stillwater Gazette. “Actually, enrollment is up from last year, year over year, and that will just continue to grow over time. There are too many houses being built. It’s a great problem to have. We are in growth mode. We are going to replace two schools that are over 100 years old – Lake Elmo Elementary School and Andersen Elementary School. We’ve gotten our money’s worth out of them. … But it’s time to have an upgrade there, particularly in Lake Elmo, where we need a lot more room. (Not only) will we be able to accommodate more students, just based on people moving in and natural growth, but then actually increase market share. … Every family in the district has the option to go to a public school, go to a private school, or go to a charter school, which is a public school. We want to be the option of choice, but we also have a duty to take every student that wants to come, and so they deserve to have the best facilities that we can manage. This bond is within the tax tolerance that we generated by multiple surveys with the public to make sure that we weren’t overstepping. We wanted to make sure we got this done.”

Johnson said at the forum in response to a question about the referendum: “There have been some rather large mistakes made in previous years in regards to facilities. The current position that I hold in regards to building new buildings is that we have a school population that currently chooses to attend schools outside of our public school district, whether it be neighboring public schools, private schools, charter schools or home schools, and I don’t believe that we can state that our enrollment will go up when we have had academic decline for the last decade. We had increasing enrollment from 2007 to 2017. Since 2017, enrollment in our district has gone down year over year. New generations are not having as many children. I think that we just need to take a pause and reevaluate what it is that our job is as a school district, and it is to teach kids. … We cannot afford to leave any more generations of children behind. Our number one priority needs to be academics, and I don’t believe that new buildings are going to improve our academics.”

Johnson, who ran unsuccessfully for the school board last year, is endorsed by Minnesota Parents Alliance, a conservative group formed last year to push back against K-12 initiatives that promote racial equity and support for LGBTQ students. Lauer is endorsed by Education Minnesota.

Johnson said she thinks her election would show that the district is “open to an alternative view.”

“If we want our kids to be successful, we should show that we ourselves as leaders welcome diversity – in more ways than immutable characteristics, etc.,” she said. “Thought, critical thinking, these things should be welcomed, and our community – in an attempt to help heal and bring them together – I think would benefit from having a voice on the school board that isn’t always in agreeance or in alliance with – I have no other, no better way of saying it, but union agendas.”

Lauer said he thought hard about applying for the open position on the board earlier this year.

“But I realized that the school district has given my children, my family, a lot, and it’s incumbent on all of us to keep that ball rolling – in whatever capacity we have. At a base level, I’m a proud Pony. This school district is worth working for. I appreciated the opportunity to be appointed; I would appreciate the vote of the community. I think there’s a lot to be hopeful for. Not everything is great, but we’re working towards great.”

The person elected will fill the seat for the remaining three years of the term.

Related Articles