Voters in the Red Lake Falls and Fertile-Beltrami School Districts voted to approve referendum questions in both districts. Fisher’s referendum did not pass.
RED LAKE FALLS
Question 1: Renew the operating referendum
The Red Lake Falls School District has a history of renewing its tax levy every five years and voters renewed the referendum 411 to 119. Superintendent Jim Guetter said it’s been very impressive to him to see the support and sacrifices the taxpayers in the school district make to support education. “If you look at the numbers and the tax base in the Red Lake Falls District going up a little bit in the tax levy affects all the homeowners,” said Guetter. “And obviously operating referendums do affect all the homeowners as well as our businesses. We become very aware of the sacrifices that the taxpayers in the Red Lake Falls School District make even for a small increase. It’s also been very impressive to see the history, and also now tonight and five years ago that both parents, retirees and the businesses are supporting education in the Red Lake Falls School District. It’s been very impressive for me to watch and learn about and see the response of the community and school district.”
Yes: 411
No: 119
Question 2: $8.4 million in building bonds for upgrades to J.A. Hughes Elementary
The second question for building bonds to modernize and expand J.A. Hughes Elementary passed by less than 100 votes, 312 to 218. Guetter said the building improvements will address three needs within the building. “It’s going to address three needs to that have been dealt with for several years in a variety of ways,” said Guetter. “Some compromise on what people may be felt was our best attempt to educate the kids but it involves enclosing the classrooms. If you’ve ever been in the building, it’s a unique building, built in 1968, that has some open classrooms. With the needs of students nowadays and the demands of public education enclosing those classrooms to avoid distractions for students and staff is huge.” The project will also include the addition of four classrooms and a new gymnasium to accommodate two sections of physical education and the cafeteria said, Guetter. “Our cafeteria and gymnasium over there is basically the size of an elementary gymnasium but with needing two sections at every grade level from kindergarten through sixth grade we were shorted on how much time we had for physical education,” said Guetter. “And our physical education teacher does a lot more than teach physical education. I’ve been over there a couple of times with the new school year and he’s teaching these kids about respect and so much more than physical education. Since the building was built in 1968, we’re now serving breakfast and lunch every day and we all know kids need physical activity along with nutrition. Adding a gym will help us tremendously so we don’t have to build our whole school schedule around breakfast time, lunchtime, and physical education. It’s going to be huge for us.”
Yes: 312
No: 218
FERTILE-BELTRAMI
Questions: Should the district be authorized to use approximately $770,000 of the remaining proceeds of its General Obligation Facilities Maintenance Bonds for other improvements to school district sites and facilities?
On Tuesday, a large majority of voters, 86.73 percent, in the Fertile-Beltrami School District voted in favor of the district using remaining funds from a project completed in 2017 for additional improvements in the district over paying down the interest of the original project. Superintendent Brian Clarke said the community, staff, and students have given the school a list of improvements and after Tuesday’s great turnout the School Board will work to narrow down those additional projects. “One of the things we considered is can we take care of some additional improvements at the school,” said Clarke. “The requirement, of course, is you have to ask your voters which is a great idea. So, we decided to ask our votes and had a great turnout. We really appreciate the commitment that our community makes to our school district and the kids. What we’ve been doing for the better part of three years is some long-term planning asking students, staff, and community what are some of the things you want to see us address in the district. The feedback that we’ve had is to take a look at everything from window replacement to restrooms, a commons area for not only athletic nights, school events, before and after school events for students to meet. So, we’ve got a pretty big list to take a look at and a lot of what the board will do now is work with our facility committee to narrow that list of things down.”
Yes: 294
No: 45
FISHER
The Fisher District voters didn’t approve the issuance of general obligation school building bonds for remodeling, renovations, and/or expansion of Fisher School not to exceed $3,695,000.
Yes: 73
No: 100
