For the first time since 1998, voters in the Forest Lake Area School District have approved a school bonding referendum. On Nov. 3, voters narrowly passed Question 1 of the district’s latest bond request, approving $161 million in spending on school building improvements and the transition of the district’s high school and junior high operations to the combined campus of Century Junior High and the Forest Lake Area High School. Question 2, which would have authorized $18 million more for arts and athletics, failed by a slightly larger margin.
The vote took place about a year and a half after voters soundly rejected a $188 million bond request from the district, with more than 60 percent of voters casting ballots against the measure. This time, Question 1 passed by a margin of 5,048 (51.23 percent) to 4,806 (48.77 percent), while Question 2 failed by a margin of 4,679 (47.67 percent) to 5,136 (52.33 percent).
“I’m thrilled; I’m just absolutely thrilled,” Forest Lake Area School Board President Rob Rapheal said. “It’s nice to see a path forward on getting the district updated. We’ve looked at this for six years, and there’s a really big need.”
The polls closed at 8 p.m., and precinct vote totals rolled in throughout the following hour. The margin for question one stayed close throughout until Wyoming was the only precinct left to report. At 9:01, Wyoming’s results were published: 762 in favor to 694 against.
“I ran the gamut of emotions,” said Kathy Bystrom, co-chair of the pro-bond community group Building the Future Together. “My stomach was in a knot all day.”
In addition to Wyoming, a majority of voters in Forest Lake and Lino Lakes voted in favor of the bonds, while residents in Scandia, Columbus and Linwood were more likely to vote against the measure. The biggest groundswell of support came from southwest Forest Lake (Precinct 5), where 894 residents voted in favor to 586 voting against. At a difference of 308, the margin in that one precinct was greater than the 242 vote total difference across the district.
John Freed, one of the leaders of anti-bond ground Taxpayers for Accountability, told The Forest Lake Times he was disappointed in the results.
“The results certainly do not indicate strong support for the school board’s funding policies,” he wrote in an email interview, referencing the close vote totals. He added his belief that while the building improvements will likely result in operational savings, he doubted taxpayers would receive a corresponding benefit. “This extra tax will make it even harder for businesses to justify being in the Forest Lake area.”
Because only Question 1 passed, bond-related property taxes will increase over the next two years and then stay flat at the increased level for the remainder of the bond’s 30-year period. If neither question had been approved, taxes would have gone down after some old school bonds expire in 2019. In all, a $200,000 home in the district will see an increase of about $177 from the bonds. A $100,000 home will see a $70 increase. Property owners can calculate their individual tax impacts at tinyurl.com/pq9btmf.
School Board Member Luke Odegaard was elected about a year ago and had formerly served on the district’s facilities task force. While he said a lot of changes to be made at the school will be aesthetically pleasing and functional improvements, he was most excited about the junior high and high school transition, which will move 9th graders into the high school and place all 7th and 8th graders into Century (Southwest Junior High will be the new site for the district’s Montessori school and other district operations that are now located in the Central Learning Center). Odegaard said the move will reduce busing between various locations and place all students in the building in which they will spend the majority of their time.
“There are a lot of 9th graders who are taking classes at the high school,” he said. “Having that one secondary campus is going to be a huge step forward.”
Rapheal said he is excited for the district’s science labs to be updated.
The people contacted by The Times had a variety of theories why the vote totals between the 2014 and 2015 bond requests varied so significantly. Bystrom said the change was due to an organized distribution of information and a community who fully recognized school needs.
“I think a big piece of it was we knew the answer was in the community, and it was a very citizen-led campaign,” she said. “I think the citizens of the community needed to own it, and I think they do.”
Freed credited Building the Future Together with running a “well-organized campaign” but added his opinion that the group was “aided by significant expenditures by the district to promote the bond passage.” He believed the informational mailings and materials sent out by the district about the bond presented the information in such a way as to influence residents to vote in favor the questions, a practice he said was an improper use of taxpayer money.
Odegaard credited the success to message consistency, while Rapheal said the new bond question answered some of residents’ concerns about the original question.
“I think people liked the questions broken up into two parts,” he said. “I think there was some sticker shock last time with the big number, and I think we tried to pull that back a little and that helped.”
As for Question 2, Odegaard, Bystrom and Rapheal all expressed disappointment that the bonding wasn’t approved, but the two school board members said they will consider other, slower ways to raise the money for the improvements.
“When you have a second question like that, it’s always tougher … for it,” Rapheal said. “(It’s hard) to have top rate programs like that but to kind of have them housed in second rate facilities.”
Looking ahead, Freed said Taxpayers for Accountability will continue its mission to fight government excess and promote conservative issues at the ballot box. Bystrom said that while the ongoing status of Building the Future Together isn’t yet clear, she believed the groundswell of support behind the group will likely be channeled into some other education advocacy front – perhaps working to enact education reforms at the State Legislature.
“We’re going to come together as a team and have a little bit of a debrief and see where we’d like to go from here,” she said.
Look to The Forest Lake Times soon for more information about the timeline of the improvement process.