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Amount per student, duration to be less

VIRGINIA — The third time may be the charm for an operating levy passing in the fall election for St. Louis County School District 2142.

At least, that’s what district officials are hoping.

The matter has been voted down twice in the past two years by district voters, but a slightly different approach will be tried this time in the amount and duration of a potential levy. Last November the proposal narrowly failed. This time, officials are planning for a levy of only $300 per student equivalent, down from $500 per student, and, instead of 10 years for length, “this will be for five years,’’ said schools Superintendent Charles Rick. The levy would raise an additional $800,000 annually if passed, down from previous levy proposals.

The consequences of not doing something about the district’s financial situation could be dire if the proposed operating levy doesn’t pass, he explained.

The county district faces a budget shortfall of $1.9 million for the 2008-09 school year, with both about half of that in teacher retirements, Rick said. “We have to find ways to make that up,’’ he said.

The county school district is made up of seven rural, small K-12 public school sites: AlBrook, in Saginaw near Duluth; Cotton; Cherry; Cook; Orr; Tower-Soudan; and Babbitt-Embarrass.

A number of steps are being taken to get information in and then to be presented to district residents: Community meetings, which were held in the spring; a study on facilities improvements; a demographic study of the district; and a financial analysis.

The county district, Virginia and Mountain Iron-Buhl were schools that got the OK by the Legislature this spring to finance studies of their needs, with some of the taconite funds for the area for that use. Study results will be out during the fall.

The need for passage of the levy is vital to the district, in Rick’s view.

“We need the money to maintain operations,’’ he said.

Asked what would happen if the levy failed again, he said that officials would have “to keep our options open.”

The state Legislature increased funding this year by a small amount, but Rick said that didn’t make that much difference to the district’s plight.

Among choices may cutting programs, and staffing that may go along with that, in order to balance the budget, he added.

There will be “tough choices for the district without it,’’ Rick said if operating levy does not pass.

http://www.virginiamn.com/articles/2008/08/11/news/doc489fc56184174622804643.txt