District 88 officials disagree with Thompson's views

Administrators necessary; sales tax for education needs legislative approval

By RACHEL WEDDIG

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- District 88 School Board members and officials disagreed with resident Ben Thompson's views of school funding that were presented at his "Truth in Education" meeting Wednesday at the New Ulm Public Library.

Thompson opposes the district's Nov. 6 referendum because he wants to send a message to the Legislature that he doesn't like the way schools are funded. He feels the state should give school districts local control and should be funded locally.

Thompson feels school districts are too dependent on the state for funding, leaving districts under state control. He advocates a local sales tax to finance schools.

"When Thompson is talking about total local funding of education, he is talking about a system of privilege," said School Board Chair Sue Ullery. "If funding of school districts was based solely on the resources within a community, the richest communities would offer the best educational opportunities for their children. The poorest communities wouldn't be able to offer those same opportunities, and those children would suffer."

The district is seeking a referendum of $450 per pupil unit for 10 years that will generate $1.2 million each year. Statewide, more than 175 out of 344 districts are expected to have excess levy referendums on Nov. 6, according to the Minnesota School Board Association.

School districts couldn't implement a sales tax without legal permission.

"The sales tax is another idea that could be considered at the St. Paul level, but there's no way a school district can implement such a thing without legal authority," said District 88 Superintendent Harold Remme. "The school districts have always been concerned that school funding is fair, adequate and stable. The children of today are living in a very mobile society, and it's important for the state that similar education expectations are going to be available to to all the school districts."

Ullery feels a failed referendum wouldn't change the legislation.

"The only message that legislators will hear if the referendum fails is that this community doesn't place education as a very high priority within the community," Ullery said. "The stronger message to them is that more than half of the school districts in the state are holding referendums next month. That's a message that says state funding for school districts is inadequate."

In the past if a district's referendum fails, the state hasn't provided any additional funding.

"In the past, the state hasn't bailed out individual school districts that have had financial trouble," Remme said. "The state doesn't send them more money. The failure of a referendum would lead to the continued erosion of the quality of education in the future.

Thompson said Wednesday the district should cut costs on administrators, eliminate the superintendent position on attrition and eliminate principals. However, Minnesota state law requires school districts to have a superintendent and principal.

"District 88 spends $158 per pupil unit below the state average spending on administrative costs. You can't run a building with 900 or 500 students without a principal," Ullery said. "To even think one can do so is ludicrous. Just as you can't effectively run a city of a certain size without a city manager or a county without a county administrator, you can't run a 2,500-student school district without a superintendent."

Thompson said a reason the district has so many administrators is because they're needed to interpret all the state laws on education.

"Only a small portion of administrators' time is spent interpreting laws," Remme said. "Most of their time is spent researching ways to improve the quality of education in the classrooms. Several laws have been repealed because they have been found to be unnecessary, so the legislators have heard us."

Thompson feels an appointed supervisory teacher could do the job of principals and superintendents. Audience members Wednesday disagreed with Thompson's view on the supervisory teacher, bringing up the fact that teachers already have classrooms with 30 or more students.

Washington Elementary has four class sections with 31 students and two class sections with 30 students; the Middle School has 65 class sections with 30 or more students or 64 percent of the class sections with 30 or more students; and the high school has 30 class sections with 30 or more students.

"I'm not suggesting a teacher wouldn't be able to handle the job of a principal or superintendent, I'm saying that a teacher doesn't have the the time to do that job as well as their own," Ullery said. "Their job is to teach children, and that's a full-time job plus. I don't want my child's teacher worrying about administrative details; I want my child's teacher to spend their time and energy on teaching."

When Thompson was asked by a student Wednesday about where he thinks the district can make cuts without hurting students, Thompson said the district doesn't need counselors or guidance workers.

"We all know that there are households where parents are not as available to their children as in other households," Ullery said. "By suggesting that a school doesn't need counselors, Thompson is again talking about children of privilege succeeding and other children left to fall behind the cracks. We can do better as a society and as a community than that."

Editor's note: School Board Chair Sue Ullery and Superintendent Harold Remme were not present at Thompson's Wednesday night meeting. They based their comments on what was reported in The Journal Thursday.