The Crookston Public Schools Long Range Planning Committee gave Superintendent Jeremy Olson the okay last week to bring two referendum questions before the Crookston School Board. The two proposed questions will be on renewing the operating referendum and a bus garage referendum. “One question for November 2019 would be on the operating referendum which would not be an additional cost to taxpayers, it would just be renewing the current referendum,” said Olson. “The second question would be on the bus garage. We have a bus garage committee that is working pretty hard to figure out exactly what we need. We are interviewing architects right now to help us with some of the more detailed aspects such as snow load which is a big topic now. The answer was yes to go forward to the full board with these items.”
The current operating referendum doesn’t end for a couple of years, but with a national election coming up in 2020 Olson said 2019 is probably the best year to put that question forward. “Our three different choices are we could go November 2019, November 2020 or November 2021 for operations,” said Olson. “The advantage of going out right now is we could always come back if we were not successful the following year. The disadvantage with November 2020 is there could be some things politically going on in the country that may overshadow the message. We want to make sure we’re clear and consistent with the community about what we’re asking for, why we’re asking for it, why we’re being responsible with our dollars and how this all gets put in place. We don’t want that message drowned out by political rhetoric on both sides and November 2021 presents a problem because we’re either doing it or not doing it. That presents a problem because as a school we can’t operate without the referendum.”
The school board will consider both referendum questions at their March 25 meeting.
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