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The Chisago Lakes School District is asking two referendum questions this year, and there’s been plenty of queries swirling around what will be done with the money if either one passes.

This page features the Chisago County Press’s guide for the referendum questions, as well as the costs at each building and polling locations for voters, including early voting, which is currently open, and Election Day voting.

Bond Referendum

The first question is a Bond Referendum that is meant for repairs, upgrades and renovations of district buildings. District Superintendent Brian Dietz says the money is only for critical projects around the district, including safety and security improvements at the entrance of every building, roof replacements at most of the buildings, and expansion of existing spaces that are a bit too cramped. The boxes and graphics below highlight what projects would be done at each building site as well as the cost, and district wide costs associated with the bonding bill.

Despite having a Long Term Facilities Maintenance (LTFM) fund, it hasn’t been enough to cover some of the projects that the district is looking to get done.

“Broadly, the LTFM dollars are to be utilized on projects that are ongoing. It’s never enough money to take care of the big scale projects,” Dietz said. “You might get to a spot where it can take care of an  aspect of a project, but it won’t be the full amount to cover the costs. On these big scale items, the only mechanism we have is to ask taxpayers for support.”

Dietz also added that you can set aside LTFM dollars for 10 years to work on a project, but the cost of that project may be vastly different than it was when the district started planning for it, leaving, at times, a sizable gap.

The Chisago Lakes Middle School’s adjustments would be the biggest on the bonding bill, coming in at just over $7.5 million. There are three major projects within that budget. The biggest is installing new fire protection measures at the school at a cost of $3.2 million. The school currently does not have a sprinkler system in it. “By installing a sprinkler system in our Middle School, we will be greatly enhancing our ability to keep all occupants safe should a fire related event ever occur,” Director of Building and Grounds Andy Wilhelmy explained. “In addition, a sprinkler system will also help protect our investment should we ever encounter this type of misfortune. By accounting for this upgrade in the design phase, we are in a much better position to control the timeline and cost by completing the work in today's dollars.”

The other two large parts of the middle school project would be moving the office and main entrance to a more secure location downstairs and closing off the third floor entrance (which is currently the main entrance) and converting the space into classrooms.

The Primary School has the second most expensive tab for a building, and that’s mostly because the district is looking at an addition that would supplement the building with four more classes. “We’re looking for homes for programs we don’t have space for,” Dietz said. He noted that Early Childhood services would be housed in those spaces and just allow what are currently cramped spaces to breathe a bit. “Having these classrooms will allow people to not work in a small office environment with the kids. It would be more of a redistribution of the programs and finding additional space rather than adding teachers.”

Operating Levy

As for the operating referendum ask of $355 per pupil, Dietz said a majority of that money is going to go towards staff. He said the first piece of that is recruiting. “It’s been hard to find people when someone leaves, and the way we used to find new people, those days are over. We have to become more aggressive and scour different platforms for staff,” he said. “If we are going to find the best people. We have to expand our net.”

He referenced even posting on some of the large job websites is a large cost to the district. “The days have changed and we all have to come more up to date and modern and attract the best candidates overall,” he added.

The second piece is retaining current staff. Dietz noted that they are competing with  neighboring districts for the same candidates and that Chisago Lakes needs to make staff see why they have to stay here. “The questions shouldn’t be ‘Why do I want to work in the Chisago Lakes School District?’, the question should be “Why wouldn’t I want to work in the Chisago Lakes’ School District?’” the first-year superintendent said. 

He also explained that it’s not just teachers, saying the district needs good people across the board, including custodial, support and kitchen staff. “We are at a critical crossroads in education and we all have to pivot and determine how we stay competitive and get the best people for our schools, and in order for us to keep doing that, we have to have a bigger plan than just posting positions out,” he said. “We need to get to that next level and be more innovative in the marketplace.”

Dietz said he has already started that process, including working more frequently with higher education to get more student-teachers in their buildings, as well as grant programs that would give financial aid to area residents that want to pursue jobs in education. 

Although the $355 per pupil ask is significantly lower than the $1,150 per pupil increase the district was seeking in last year’s election, the district received a boost at the state level this year when the legislature passed a sweeping $2.2 billion education bill. That resulted in a per pupil increase of $793 for Chisago Lakes, almost 70 percent of last year’s ask. 

However, Dietz and Director of Business Services Robyn Vosberg-Torgerson say most of that will be eaten up by inflationary and operational costs and they still very much considered their constituents when determining the number. “Inflation is so hard for everyone,” Dietz pointed out. “We see the same inflationary costs in our buildings. We are grateful that we got additional funding, but those dollars get eaten up quickly. So, I have to be honest with you, the bulk of this is going to go there. But, I want people to understand we reprioritized. Does this amount cover all the needs we have? Absolutely not, but we wanted to make sure this was a respectful ask to our taxpayers that are seeing increases everywhere in their lives as well.”

Vosberg-Torgerson added, “The bulk of the formula allowance is being used to fund our current programs and the special education aid is to help pay for the cross subsidy in special education.  That means that right now our costs out spend our revenue,” she said. “This additional funding helps to cover that gap, but only at 44 percent.  With the increase in formula allowance we are using the money to maintain and operate our current programs.”

Dietz noted that there were pandemic funds that were one-time dollars used for programs that are a major component of what the district would like to continue to do. “We had millions that are no longer there and we need to fill the holes,” he said. 

“We used our federal CARES funds in multiple ways with a majority being used for budget relief and class size reduction,” Vosberg-Torgerson also said. “In fiscal year 2023, we used $900,000 of these funds for budget relief (not cutting positions), $350,000 in literacy training, $200,000 in mental health support and $260,000 in new technology. With these funds no longer available, we are in need of funds to fill those gaps.”

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