Sleepy Eye district seeking referendum

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- The District 84 school board unanimously approved a resolution Monday night for a 10-year excess tax levy operating referendum that would provide the district an additional $248,000 per year.

The referendum, expected to be voted upon this fall, would generate $2.48 million over ten years. The State of Minnesota would provide $1.14 million of that amount.

Superintendent Jay Haugen told the board that without a new tax levy, the district would lose $400,000 in fiscal year 2002 due to levy reductions and less net tax capacity from legislative changes.

The district will lose $73,000 in funding next year due to declining enrollment.

Haugen hopes the loss is less with higher student numbers and what he called the district's "welcoming attitude" to new students. The district reported an anticipated increase of 26 students this fall, 13 in elementary school and 13 in the high school.

The district's current excess operating levy that will expire next year, raised taxes $59 per year on an $80,000 home.

Haugen presented the board with three excess levy operating referendum options. The first option that would raise taxes $21 per year on an $80,000 home and provide an additional $120,000 to the district. The state would provide $80,000.

The second option would create $207,000 per year to the district, of which $99,000 coming from the state. Taxes on an $80,000 home would rise $58 per year.

The third option would result in $248,000 to the district, of which $114,000 from the state, and would raise taxes $88 per year on an $80,000 home.

Haugen explained that the state will fund school districts at minimum amounts and leave it up to districts to ask voters for additional funding.

According to a state survey of 98 school districts, 40 are considering operating referendums, 44 are not and 14 are undecided.

Should the referendum pass, board chairman Reynold Dittbenner said he would like to use some of the money to return to a four-block day instead of the current three blocks the school is using to cut costs. He would also like to increase graduation standards to 24 credits to give students more flexibility in their class schedules.

The board will create a committee that will speak to community groups about the need for an operating referendum.

The board also:

* unanimously approved spending $4,200 to use the IndiVisual Learning program to help junior high students with math learning.

* learned from high school principal Elia Bruggeman that 10 migrant students raised their reading level by an average 1.2 years with the five-week, computerized IndiVisual Learning Program that simulated a video game.

"The learning program was so popular, we even had to kick the janitors off of it," Bruggeman said. Twelve students using a conventional reading program raised their reading level .2 years over the same period.

* learned about the state's new structural balance program that would require districts to balance their budgets for the next three years before negotiating teacher contracts.

* learned that the district and some around it have been identified as "integration districts" with more than 20 percent minority students.

Haugen said the district is eligible for additional federal funding of $130 per pupil that could help fund advanced Spanish classes and/or elementary Spanish classes, or a soccer team.