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The Chisago Lakes School Board revealed the date and questions to be asked for their next referendum at their regular school board meeting on Thursday, October 23.

The district will be looking for public support on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 for a two question referendum. The questions included on the ballot are:

1.) Shall the board of Independent School District No. 2144 (Chisago Lakes), Minnesota be authorized to issue general obligation school building bonds in an amount not to exceed $48,100,000 for acquisition and betterment of school sites and facilities including, but not limited to, safety and security improvements at Primary School, Taylors Falls Elementary, the Middle School and the High School, and various other capital projects districtwide?

2.) If School District Question 1 is approved, shall the board of Independent School District No. 2144 (Chisago Lakes), Minnesota be authorized to issue general obligation school building bonds in an amount not to exceed $7,505,000 for acquisition and betterment of school sites and facilities including, but not limited to, athletic facilities improvements?

Question two is dependent on Question one passing. If the first one fails, both will fail.

“We spent four months going through after the election on surveys, conversations, discussions and assessments to try and figure out what we want to do to come back because the needs aren't going to go away,” Superintendent Brian Dietz said. “We came with a good plan really focused on getting work that needs to get done, done and lessen the burden financially knowing we are a highly taxed area as well as giving some choice in the matter. I’m proud of the work we’ve done to come up with this.”

Dietz added after the meeting that the district would have a more detailed breakdown of the projects that will be focused on in November.

“I’ve gotten the question ‘Why are you running it in February?’ and I tell them that’s about as quick as we could get it out,” Board member Jeff Lindeman said. “We know that we have to pass these things and we have to get it back out there. People don’t realize how much work is involved in these.” 

The district received some sizable donations in the month of October:

• Gene Haas Foundation - $4,000 for Community Education Robotics

• American Legion Auxiliary - $1,500 for School Supplies and Winter Coat Drive

• TF Parents for Education - $1,250 for Playground Swing Mats

• Herb Jangor Foundation - $4,400 for CL Athletics Scholarship

• Chisago Lakes PTO - $9,350 for Lakeside Elementary

Director of Teacher and Learning Sarah Schmidt went over Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) test results from the district. Their reading and math scores saw a very small decline, but mostly held steady. They were at 80 percent, including partially proficient students, in reading in 2024, and that number was 79.6 percent in 2025. For math, they had 81.7 percent of their student body that was partially proficient in 2024, and that number fell to 80.8 in 2025.

The science test had a new version in 2024-25, so the year over year comparisons aren’t valid.

Schmidt also presented the district results against other comparable local districts, including Cambridge-Isanti, East Central, Forest Lake, Hinckley-Finlayson, North Branch, Pine City, Rush City, St. Francis and White Bear Lake and it shows Chisago Lakes to be the leader among them in math proficiency and second only to White Bear Lake in reading proficiency.

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