GFW must

make cuts

after levy

failure

By TONY ZIEBOL

Journal Staff Writer

GIBBON -- A day after the GFW referendum failed to pass, disappointed school officials gathered to canvass the election at GFW Elementary School.

In a close vote Tuesday, voters ended their hopes by defeating the referendum 730-639.

"I'm sad that we'll have to cut programs for children and our class sizes are going to be larger now," said Superintendent Stephen Malone.

As a result of the failed referendum, in the spring of 2000, the GFW school board will be forced to make $150,000 in budget cuts.

These cuts come after the schools had already reduced spending this year by $400,000.

School officials were attempting to raise the referendum already in place, from $64 to $464 per student.

The state is not providing enough money to meet the needs of the students, Malone said.

An approved $464 per student operating levy referendum would have allowed existing programs to keep going, the bringing back of programs that were lost to budget cuts, the making of improvements to the school that have been delayed and the keeping of class sizes down.

The GFW Schools still need to replace some of the school roofs, finish the security camera system and resurface the track.

All of these projects now need to be re-evaluated in the future.

Another referendum could be proposed next November, but Malone said budget cuts in the spring are inevitable.

Two of the three precincts for the election had the majority voting against the referendum.

In Fairfax, 501 votes were cast, with 204 marked "yes" and 297 marked "no."

Voters in Gibbon also voted the referendum down by a 214-187 margin.

Winthrop was the only precinct that approved the referendum, with 248 "yes" votes and 219 "no" votes (with one defective ballot).

In all, 1,370 of the possible 3,479 registered, including those that registered the day of the election, voters showed up to vote.

Malone said it was hard to tell what the voters were thinking before the votes were counted.

Representatives of GFW Schools held many informational meetings in all three cities, but few potential voters gave their input.

"We just didn't get a lot of feedback," Malone said.

Out of three area elections, GFW's referendum was the only one to fail.

Voters in the public school districts of both Sleepy Eye and Comfrey passed their referendums.

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