Next Tuesday, Nov. 6, voters in the Wadena-Deer Creek district are asked to go to the polling place and cast a vote in favor or against an excess levy referendum. We recommend you vote yes, but we also ask the school district to consider a few initiatives if the vote comes out in favor.
First, our reasons for urging a yes vote. We believe needs like repairing the roofs of our school buildings, replacing inefficient windows and updating an aging bus fleet are not optional. We'll need to do them. We'll need to do them soon. So why not leverage a dollar of state money for every local dollar to do so?
Let's talk about tax dollars. Ours go to support our school through a local property tax levy. In addition, our state income tax dollars get paid to schools in two ways. First, through the funding formula, which is based on the number of students in a school. Second, those dollars are put in a state equalization fund, which, simply put, act as matching donations when schools put a levy in place. The one we currently have, at $101, has become inadequate. An increase of $598 to $700 would be enough to cover current needs.
But we also believe if this referendum passes, major initiatives need to be undertaken.
1. Tackle open enrollment problems. We are as concerned as anyone about so many students who live inside our district attending classes elsewhere. As a Wadena resident pointed out at one of the public meetings, if we had all of the kids who live in our district attend classes here, the increase in state aid through the funding formula would be roughly the same as the levy referendum being proposed.
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This is a big problem. This should be at the top of every agenda of every school board meeting. This should be a strength of the new superintendent. There should be a citizen committee formed to work on this problem, just like there was with the levy referendum.
Don't get us wrong -- we believe the administration has made strides in this area this year. But we need marketing people working on this problem, not education people. It's a different skill set. And there needs to be a budget. While we don't necessarily agree that district money should be spent to advertise for students, the public believes that to be true, so we'll yield to them on this issue.
There may be no easy answers to open enrollment. But we have to at least have a firm understanding of what the problem is, and we don't seem to be there yet. It's time we get answers.
2. While the administration has made clear that basic needs will be covered first by any extra money, we also need to earmark a portion of the money to do something more inspiring. Whether it's money to expand successful programs in the music department, add a richer variety of course offerings in the high school, or retain teachers that make a difference, we need to target some of the money for wants, not needs. Let's dream a little with a tiny portion of the money. We'll never attract students without offerings that are truly special and unique to the WDC district.
So we ask you to vote yes on the referendum. And we ask the district to at least consider these points.
A no vote will change this conversation entirely. We'll be talking about band-aid fixes and how to stave off an even bigger outflow of students through open enrollment. Choices that are already difficult to make will become impossible.
Let's pass this levy, leverage more state money, and use the extra funds to tackle our biggest problems and accentuate our greatest strengths.
Please vote yes Nov. 6.
