Rochester district threatens school closings if voters reject referendum again
The Rochester Public Schools Board wasn’t about to take any chances after a ten-year $10 million annual technology referendum was rejected by voters last year. The board recently quietly renewed a $17 million operating levy passed in 2015 for another ten years without voter approval, taking advantage of the new work-around for levies already on the books that was passed by the DFL-controlled state legislature.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Rochester school district now wants residents to approve a second operating levy on November 5 that will cost them even more–$19.4 million more per year for the next decade.
It’s an offer parents can’t refuse, if they want to keep their kids’ schools from closing, classroom sizes from ballooning and the sky from falling. The district’s website warns of dire consequences in the event taxpayers have second thoughts again.
If the referendum fails, RPS will need to make major cuts in all four of these areas, close schools, and raise class sizes across the district to close the projected $19.4 million deficit.
Superintendent Kent Pekel estimates closing three schools would save the district $2.3 million of the potential shortfall. But for now, the Post Bulletin notes Pekel refuses to name exactly which schools would be axed.
Although Rochester Public Schools has laid out the criteria it would use to close schools if voters reject its proposed levy this November, the district’s leaders say they won’t name the actual buildings until later.
The Rochester School Board discussed the issue on Tuesday while reviewing a resolution that would guide the budget cuts it would have to make in the event the voting public doesn’t approve the district’s request for more funding. The board is scheduled to vote on the resolution at a later meeting.
“It would be absolutely premature to be naming those schools at this point,” Superintendent Kent Pekel said. “Because I would not be confident in the analysis that I could give you tonight about which schools should close in September of 2025.”
There’s no better way to get the attention of parents than to float the possibility of closing schools. In education, it amounts to invoking the nuclear option, given the ripple effect throughout the district.
Several board members emphasized that although not everyone would be directly impacted by the closing of a school, it would require redrawing the boundaries of the district, compounding an already difficult process.
“If you’re talking about disruption to a system, closing a school … is perhaps the most difficult thing a district can do,” Board Chairwoman Cathy Nathan said. “Redrawing boundaries is probably number two.”
In fact, Rochester was poised to close three schools last year, before Mayo Clinic bailed them out with a $10 million donation. But district officials want to remind voters there’s one way to make sure that doesn’t happen.
School Board member Jess Garcia said she hopes the reality of what almost had to happen last year will impact the way voters view the district’s referendum this November.
“I think I was really struck after the last referendum by how much passion and energy came after,” Garcia said. “And I just kept thinking if we had that all year round for our district how much more phenomenal it would be.”
Or at least until November 5.