Today's date: September 3, 2010
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| Referendum discussed at public meeting |
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October 27, 2004 |
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| The school board held two Referendum Meetings to give all the facts to the public. | |
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The school board held two Referendum Meetings to give all the facts to the public. Deron Stender presented a PowerPoint Presentation giving some of the facts. Fulda is asking for a referendum to make up for the rising costs and the decline in student enrollment. State funding has been flat for four years and operating costs have still been increasing. The money generated by the referendum will be used to maintain quality curriculum and instruction as well as maintaining buildings and grounds. In the last six years Fulda has lost 20% of its students do to Declining Enrollment. They are looking at losing about 37% or 150 more students by the year 2010. They are estimating these numbers based on an estimate of 20 kids coming in for Kindergarten each year. Costs continue to rise even though not enough funding is coming in from the State. Rising Costs include... *Fuel Costs *Health and Property Insurance *Facility Grounds Maintenance *Technology/Instructional Upgrades *Negotiated contracts with local labor unions (FEA& MSEA) Mr. Stender and the Board believe the district has been fiscally responsible and they are going to continue to be fiscally responsible. Over the past four years they have been able to make reductions that have saved the district about $200,000. Most of these reductions are coming from the Elementary School because that is where they are seeing the decline in students. These reductions/absorptions have been... *1 1/2 Elementary Teachers *1/2 Title one Instructor *1/2 Elementary Music Teacher *1/2 Gym Teacher *1/2 School Nurse *3 Paraprofessionals *1/2 Custodian The board believes that the reduction of the music teacher and the gym teacher are the only reductions that are affecting the students. The other reductions are not directly affecting the students. Mr. Stender stated that the Fulda Faculty and Staff are settling for less than what they should be getting for this area. Fulda Teachers are being paid 296th of 343 districts in Minnesota. The Board feels they have done a great job contracting with the staff and that Fulda has quality teachers for the amount of money they make. Mr. Stender also said that the Fulda School District continues to provide quality curriculum, instruction, and experiences, which allows our students to continue to excel and prepare them for their future needs. They do this in ways such as offering college classes that the kids will get college credits for; and they have increased their curriculum by including Stats, Calc, Speech, Pre Algebra, Essential English, and K-6 Spanish. Comparing Fulda to the State, our district is spending $9,521 per student, which is average. With this average spending we are getting above average results from our students. All students in the state take the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Test. The MCA's test the students in both reading and math. Following the testing, school districts receivetheir rating in the state. Fulda ranks 38th out of 343 districts in reading, and 43rd out of 343 districts in math. Many other districts are paying their teachers a lot more money and their test scores are nowhere near Fulda's district test scores. The proposed Levy is asking for $1,000 per student. This Levy would generate $484,849 in the year 2005. If this Levy passes, for every dollar generated, the state will pay $.55 and the taxpayer will pay $.45. This would make the State Aid $279,335 and the Local Levy $205,514. Note: Agricultural property will pay taxes for the proposed referendum based on the value of the house, garage, and one acre. Seasonal recreational residential property will pay no taxes for the proposed referendum. If this Levy does not pass, the Fulda District could enter Statutory Operating Debt as soon as 2007. If this was to happen then the State will place the burden on the taxpayer completely. This would mean the taxpayer would pay the whole dollar because the State would not give the District $.55. The Board is asking you for a YES vote on November 2nd because it is important to the students of the Fulda District. About 45 people attended theses meetings and asked questions. Lynn Herrmann asked the board if the last referendum was used for Technology as the taxpayers were told then? The board said the 2001 Tax Levy was for Operation expenses. Ray Bartosh was at the meeting and he wanted to know exactly how much money the school was going to get from his farm. Mr. Stender was not able to answer his questions so they would be getting back to Mr. Bartosh after they could make some calculations. Mr. Stender believes they take the Total Market Value divided by students to find the percent that each house is taxed. Eldon Larson had many questions for the Board. He wondered if the District would be looking at another referendum in years to come. The Board said possibly depending on State Aid. He asked if some sports could be eliminated because there seems to be so many of them. Dayton Westra said sports are what the kids want and they have agreements with other districts right now for sports such as Baseball, Hockey, and Cross-Country. Eldon Larson mentioned that many of the people in this area are on Social Security and with rising cost in Medicare along with State and Federal costs he wonders what the people are supposed to live off of. Tom Klein responded that this is the choice the people have to make. Costs are rising and they will continue to make cuts but then he wants to know if the Board should start looking at consolidation. He said even if we do consolidate it will not make our taxes go down they will just roll into the district we consolidate with. G. W. Schwartz asked why the farmers aren't taxed for all their land because it is a business, and all the other business are being taxed on what they have. The Board said the decision on what to tax is not something they can change because it was decided by congress in 2001. Lori Ommen asked the Board if our Superintendent would be receiving an 11% raise if this referendum goes through like our old Superintendent did after the last referendum. Mr. Stender said it is not his intention to ask for a raise nor did he think it was the Boards intention to give him a raise. He said he has already signed a contract for three years. Marv Isder stated that this raise was at the time when they cut an Elementary Principal position so there were only 2 administrators. He realizes it doesn't explain the 11% but that is a personal issue. Dave Thiner feels like we are continuing to put lots of money into the school and not getting ahead of the problems. Thiner feels like there is no end to the tunnel. He asked the Board to consider a bond issue instead of a referendum. He realizes that a bond would cost more now but with interest rates still low we could benefit more from it. With this bond he asked the school to add on to the High School. Thiner suggested putting more rooms in the Gym and then adding on a new Gym. He suggested that bringing the students from the Elementary to the High School would eliminate a lot of costs. Thiner mentioned they have had to do a lot of updating in the Elementary Building and they would have to continue to improve things like fire codes. He also feels this would help Fulda sell. He believes kids are looking for up-to-date things. Thiner mentioned that this is what Windom did, but he was hoping the Fulda School District would not do something quite as elaborate. Nicole Johnson asked why when the Board talks about consolidation do they always talk about going to another district. She wanted to know why we can't make our school better and get other schools to consolidate with us so the school will always be here. The Board said they are not looking at consolidation any time soon and that is a choice made by the taxpayers. If this referendum passes it will put Fulda in the upper half of all the districts in Minnesota based on the amount of money coming in per student. This would be a 10 year referendum so it would expire in 2015. Taxpayers in the Fulda School District would then be paying on two referendums. Deron Stender believes if the referendum passes, it will show a very supportive community. Research conducted on the last two Referendums using Fulda Free Press archives revealed the following information: In 1996 the Fulda School District asked for a bond in the dollar amount of $770,000. This bond was for technology and building improvements, and was set up to last 7 years. The school board set aside a generous on half of the $770,000 for technology. Just over $200,000 was for purchasing new computers and equipment, $25,000 was for upgrading power sources, $155,000 was for "networking" the school to allow access to the internet. This bond passed with 454 voting in favor and 315 voting against this bond. In 2001 the Fulda School District asked for a $900 per pupil unit referendum that was planned to last for ten years. This referendum was to get money for rising costs such as fuel, insurance, educational upgrades, and staff salaries. The referendum passed with 627 people voting in favor, and 313 people voting against the referendum. If this referendum would have failed the School Board figured we would have entered Statutory Operating Debt as soon as 2002-2003. Be sure to vote on November 2nd ! ù |
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