The Crookston School Board held a special meeting on Wednesday morning following the Crookston primary election on August 9 to discuss what they would do after the results of the election, where their referendum for a multiuse facility project had lost by nine votes.
The board began the meeting by approving a resolution canvassing the return of votes of the School District Special Election. Board Chairperson Frank Fee reported that the election had a total of 842 votes against it, 833 votes for it, and 272 ballots that did not complete the referendum’s section, potentially due to not knowing that it was on the back of the ballot. The board approved the results of the referendum votes unanimously.
The board then began to discuss their decision on a plan to move forward with the multiuse facility project. Board member Mike Theis recommended that the board move forward with a second referendum as soon as possible, saying a lot of the feedback they had heard from the people who voted “No” on the referendum were confused about the Ag Tax Credits and how the referendum would increase their property taxes. Board member Adrianne Winger said a large number of young voters had come to vote for the first time and were disappointed that the referendum did not pass but had voiced their concern about the rising property taxes if it did. “I’ve heard several pieces of feedback, and each board member shared some feedback they had received from district stakeholders this morning. One had to do with some confusion on the question, and we don’t get the opportunity to write the question. That’s a legal question that has to be written in the manner that it was,” Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn explained. “I looked at other districts that had run a similar facility type or other district upgrades, and the question was identical. The only difference was the price amount, and each time those questions are used with you asking for money is going to end with “If you answer yes, this will increase your property taxes,” which is a standard legal question that has to be on the ballots, so I’m not sure we can a change to the wording at all, but there was a little confusion there.” Superintendent Kuehn said he believed they may have focused a bit too much on the “yes” voters and agreed that they needed to do a better job to inform the public of the referendum to have enough people vote “Yes” this time.
When asked if the board would consider recounting the election, Board Member Dave Davidson believed that a recount was unnecessary and that the district had to focus on doing a better job informing the public about the referendum for the future election. “At some point, the word of doing a recount was thrown out, but I think the board wisely feels that moving forward in a positive manner and trusts the election results. We know that we have an opportunity to come back and do another vote on this question, and we talked more about what’s the school’s plan and strategies. Looking at the vote results, one thing I took from it and the board agrees is that we need to do a better job of informing our stakeholders,” said Interim Superintendent Kuehn. “We had a lot of yes voters and a lot of support for it, so we know we had support for the project. We just need to do a better job of informing all of our stakeholders, like getting to our stakeholders in townships like Gentilly and Euclid and making sure they’re informed and understand the need and benefits of this project that will come to the school district and community by having this type of facility within the community.”
Chairperson Frank Fee said the next opportunity for the public to vote on the referendum again would be on February 14, 2023. When asked how this would affect the timeline of the referendum’s construction, Superintendent Kuehn answered that the referendum’s architects and builders said they could still begin the project by the summer of 2023 and have it open by the fall of the 2023-24 School Year. “Part of the conversation, based on when the district would go back out for another vote, and February 14 is the earliest date we can,” said Kuehn. “That is what the board is looking at and approved as a plan of action is to go out and look at February 14 of bringing the question and vote back to the district stakeholders via a special election held by the school district.” Kuehn also said that they should aim to specify and update their information of how much the referendum will cost on the ballot to show each district how much their taxes would raise to potentially get more people to change their vote to “Yes.” Chairperson Fee motioned for the board not to go forward with a recount of the votes and to have them begin preparing for a second referendum vote on the multiuse facility project on February 14, 2023, which was approved unanimously.
The Crookston School Board will next meet for their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, August 22, at 5:00 p.m. in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room.
