(gentle music) - Hi, I'm Eric Olson.

Stay with us here, we've got a great show for you on Q.

We're gonna take the whole half hour and talk about the new proposed referendum coming up for a vote in the Austin Public Schools.

Our guest will be Superintendent Joey Page for the entire show to answer questions about that referendum coming up.

So stay with us on Q.

♪ Local ideas that matter to you ♪ ♪ Sharing our region's unique point of view ♪ ♪ Telling the stories that you never knew ♪ ♪ On Q, On Q, On Q ♪ - This year, the Austin Public School system is asking voters to approve an increase in funding when they go to the ballot on November the eighth.

It would be an increase from the district's current operating referendum, but if voters turn down the new referendum, the district says it will have to deal with a major deficit and other fallout.

Joining us now to talk more about the details of this referendum question is Dr. Joey Page, the Superintendent of Austin Public Schools.

Dr.

Page, welcome to "On Q".

- Thank you very much for having me.

- Say, before we get going, just a bit of housekeeping.

Why is it that school districts in Minnesota have to go to all the voters when you're in other governmental, city council or county just among themselves, they will pass a levy.

Seldom does it go to a vote, but you see it in school districts.

Is that because other funding that you receive isn't keeping up?

- Yeah I think a way to look at that is the state of Minnesota provides the majority of funding for our local schools, but for most districts, this level of support isn't enough to cover the cost for our students and our services and educational programming.

And that's why you see in the state of Minnesota, about 70% of school districts across the state rely on funding from local operating levies to help bridge that gap.

- And what is an operating levy and how does it work?

Can you just kind of break it down into plain English for us?

- There's two forms of that.

One we have an operating levy really helps fund the district's operating budget, which pays for the day to day functions and operations of the district.

And so what does that include?

We have our salaries for our staff, our educational supplies, program costs, utilities, and anything with routine maintenance.

And that's different from a bond where you're looking to build something.

So what we like to say and help people with this is our levies are for learning and our bonds are for building.

- And this is a levy, so it's for learning?

- That is correct.

- Talk a little bit about what this entails coming up for voters in November.

What is the program?

- Yeah, to back up a little bit from that is what we've discussed too is this is a plan to invest in our growing district.

And the need here that we outlined is basically stated as our funding for schools has not kept up with inflation in Minnesota for over a decade.

And what we're looking at for the Austin Public Schools is to propose this levy for the community, the citizens of the school district to make a determination on what they want to support from the school district.

And so what we've looked at doing here, starting on our process, is to get input from the community on what our tax tolerance is because our Austin Public Schools has exhausted all the funding options.

- Is this a similar situation that all school districts would be in since funding comes, most of it from the state?

- Yeah, we're all funded the same as far as we get from the state where our funding comes from, what referendums do is really allow the taxpayers, the community to take matters in their own hands.

- And what is the funding situation compared with other school districts in the area presently, and if voters approve it, will we be sort of on par with the others?

- Yeah, so currently, our voter approved operating levy that we have is $42.70 per pupil.

And so what we've shared in publications and we have a website, accelerateaustin.org that provides information on the regional average of referendum value.

So you could go see what Austin looks like compared to our other regional schools, and then you can also see where that current value is.

But if this is favorable, what the referendum value would be in comparison to other regional schools.

And so if this is favorable, we'll be taking a great step forward with our other school districts.

- It looks like on the chart I saw we're at the bottom or something like that.

What does that say?

- Correct, yeah, so if you look with the graphic here that we've provided from the state of Minnesota, you'll see the regional average, you'll see where Minnesota is at at their current rate.

And then you can do the comparison for other school districts in the region.

We've also indicated on the bar graph then too what the new referendum value would be if this is successful.

- So when you say learning, folks would wanna know what dollars, is it salaries only that would increase?

When you say learning that that's what this levy is for, what kinds of right on the ground, real world things does that mean?

- Yeah, so what we're talking about with the levies, we're talking about our day to day expenses like instructional staff, our programs, educational supplies, utilities.

So those are the day to day expenses of our district.

And that's what this operating levy would be supporting.

- So it's not the pay of the teachers?

- Nope, that is an operating expense.

So our operating expense includes our salary benefits for employees.

- Oh, okay.

So how long of a period of time is this in effect for?

- Yeah, so if approved, the operating levy increase for our district would be in place for a 10 year period.

And then at which point the voters would need to reauthorize the operating levy for it to continue.

- Is that some kind of statute or something that it can only be 10 years or what?

- Yeah, you can have a shorter period, but you cannot extend past that.

That has to be put back to the voters to either reauthorize or increase it or have it phase out.

- I don't remember if it was the last election, but there was one recently that I don't think passed.

Is this the same thing?

- Yes, we've had two elections in the last couple years.

One was a bonding project for our Early Childhood Center and expansion and moving into a new area on Woodson, that was not successful.

And then prior to that there was an operating levee out for the public too and that was also not successful.

- And are there any other, let's see, what did you say, sunsetted levy.

Are there any in place now, any previous referendum that are in effect yet?

Or are they all sunsetted?

- So we currently have the referendum voter approved levy at $42.70.

So that will be sunsetting in pay 24.

So we have another year with that, and the district will have to make a determination at some point to either reauthorize that, revoke, or replace it.

That's not what this operating levy is about.

- So it's a separate entity.

It's not to keep that one going.

- Yep.

That is separate.

- Okay, and if that one sunsets, then does that also then have to go before all the voters?

- Correct.

Yep.

To get approval for that.

- All right.

So what do we see when folks go and decide on this?

I know it's hard to go with a negative on this, but if it doesn't pass, will there be tangible programs that we just can't offer to our students?

- Yeah, and I think the question there, Eric, is why is this issue on the ballot?

And what we're facing as a school district is a $3 million budget deficit next year, and without an increase in revenue and substantial reductions in our staffing, which includes a class sizes and student programming, that's why we have this out for the public to determine.

We're using our one time COVID funding that is going away in 24.

And so we're proposing this operating levy to help protect our staffing levels, our class sizes, student programs, and activities.

- What are the top few drivers that's causing the deficit?

Are there some big tickets at the top that you can talk about that will be problematic going forward?

- I think the costs of our operations continues to rise.

Our school district, like our families and and community members and their lives also have to work with inflation increases.

And so that has been impactful for us.

Our costs continue to rise.

They exceed what we are receiving funding from the state.

And so that's why we have this question before the citizens.

- So it's just like paper costs more, media software costs more, computers cost more, all of those thing?

- Absolutely.

Our benefits and salaries rise, our costs in operations and things we talked about or mentioned as far as utilities costs, just the day to day expenses for supplies, that continues to increase as well.

- So action or inaction, however you wanna call it at the state legislature, like last session, that was bonding bill that didn't get through.

I mean, if they'd have passed a bunch of stuff, would we not be talking about this?

Or does it really matter what happens at the state level?

- It really is important as far as what happens at the state level, but I think one of the things we have to be really clear on too is we have different kind of funds and each fund that we have in a school district has different operations with it or different in how it can be spent.

So we have two major funds.

We have our operating funds, which this is about, the referendum question.

We also have capital funds, again, the operating funds is gonna provide most of the funds we use for our day to day operations.

Employee salaries, benefits, electricity, materials and supplies for the classrooms and things like that.

Our capital funds, and you mentioned where we were with bonding, those would be things like for district buildings, furniture ,equipment, and help us pay debt.

So it's really important what the legislature does and how it impacts schools.

- Very interesting.

We're having a great talk here with the superintendent of Austin Public Schools, Dr. Joey Page here on "On Q" with a referendum question coming up.

This is Accelerate Austin.

And so what is accelerating?

Are there more students?

Is the population going up or the needs of these individual students, they need more help?

What is accelerating?

- Yeah, it's an important term.

Last year we spent the entire year working on our new strategic plan that was coming to an end.

And so one of the things that we looked at through our community engagement process is to determine what is the desired daily experience that our students, our families, and caregivers and staff that expect each and every day.

With that work, we looked a long time at what our mission is as a school district and our vision.

And one of the things where we were at as we continue to come out of the last couple years with the pandemic is we really did focus on that word, accelerate.

And what we're talking about and what this means for us is the movement, the cadence and the pace of our school district and change needs to be faster.

We have to move faster in education.

Our kids require that as we prepare them for life outside of the high school, whether that's right into a career or right into college.

And we wanted to make sure that we had that as a central focus point for our new strategic plan on accelerating everything that we do here in Austin for better student outcomes.

- And that's directly tied to the referendum?

Or that's a separate-- - Yeah.

Our website for referendum information we're calling is accelerateaustin.org and it's also part of our mission to accelerate.

- And I know you've started a new online high school.

Is that part of this program?

And does the referendum question, does anything impact that operation?

- Yeah, we have our Austin Online Academy being led by Jessica CAbeen as the principal.

That is a new feature for our school district.

We're in our second year with that.

And so that is an operating expense for the district.

We're using our one time COVID funds to help launch that program.

And we will be looking at how its enrollment looks and how it's growing for the future.

- And it will the referendum impact that, whether it's approved or disapproved?

- Yeah, so right now we're using our COVID funding to help launch our online academy.

And so as we determine the viability of that program and what our enrollment looks like, that becomes part of our operations and it's proving to be an option that families want.

Really interesting to think of a brick and mortar organization like we have been, and to think that we have to be thinking about an online option for families.

It's one of the outcomes of the last couple of years of being in distance learning and hybrid learning, that this is something that our families are interested in and a lot of districts are getting involved with that.

And so we have to remain competitive for our students and for what families want for an educational opportunity for their kids.

- So that's very interesting that it seems like something positive, I don't wanna really say came out of it, but the technology we've all been using, just like doing this interview on Zoom has really accelerated to the point where it might end up being a net positive for students.

- We had students that were successful with it, and as I said before, maybe four or five years ago to think what we thought of school districts and having to have their foot in an online learning environment to the level that it is right now is really exciting, interesting to see on how fast we've evolved.

- It's not for everyone.

I don't think would've for me as a youth because I really needed that interpersonal, and as I understand it, a lot of these students on the online are the high achievers.

They're above the line.

You have to be self-driven to be doing it, not really on your own, I don't wanna say, but independently.

- Yeah, it's open to all of our nine 12 students for that and people, all of our kids the last few years have had a go of it depending where they were with their grade level or what school districts they were in as they were navigated through COVID and online learning.

But we definitely see as we get removed from that time period to where we are now, that there is interest in it and we have a healthy enrollment in it right Now.

- Back to the levy question, before it gets to voters, did your board of education have to approve it or somehow authorize it or say we're for this?

- Correct.

That's how the process works.

So it's up to the board to make the determination on calling the election, and some information about that that I had questions on is when we done presentations to the community or groups or just questions individually, it's like, how did we come up with this number?

Why is the number the way it is?

So what we did prior to the board calling the election is we did a community survey using a professional organization, Baker Tilly, to gauge tax tolerance in the community.

And so what that process yielded was if we look at the average house in Austin of $170,000, the tax tolerance information that came back on the survey was about $12 a month that people felt comfortable with and had the highest level of support.

And so we used that information to share that with the board to get, this is what the dollar amount would yield for that.

And we thought it was very important to listen what people told us.

I've had some questions on, it's like, well, if this is favorable, look where we are, should we have asked for more?

And the data didn't support that.

And so I think we wanted to not be disingenuous to what people told us.

And the board did a very good job of reviewing that and listening to that and to determine what that referendum value would be for this particular levy.

- I think that's an important point, at least for me to understand that it's not just administrators saying here's what we need.

This went through elected through the board, who are elected to and they have approved this idea.

- Correct.

- But they can't just approve it on their own even though they're elected officials?

- This is the voter approved referendum, yes.

- And throw out that web address.

Can you get at it just from the regular school district page?

- You certainly can.

The referendum address is accelerateaustin.org.

And so that's what will take you right there.

But if you go to Austin.k12.mn.us, which is the district homepage, you will see a button right at the top of the page.

It says Accelerate Austin.

And that'll take you right to to the referendum site.

- What is enrollment districtwide?

What are you prognosticating in the future years?

- Yeah, great question.

So last year we've been on a regular cycle of doing enrollment studies and projections and last year was no different.

We actually moved it up a year just because of the two years with COVID and wanting to get our hands on some fresh data.

So we worked with a demographer to do an enrollment study for the school district.

And what we saw, or what's been shared back and in our planning over the next 10 years is really unique.

We are expected to grow over the next 10 years, anywhere from 13 to 18%.

We have a rapidly growing student population which is increasing at a time when many of our rural school districts are facing declines in enrollment.

And so that's exciting, I think for the community of Austin, for our school district to be in a growing district.

And so that I think is one of the things that's really important about this referendum is that we wanna manage those resources and help our staff and our programs be here when those kids come.

- And it's always a guessing game, I'm sure, despite all the best efforts because you don't know.

We're a fluid society and people move, you don't know if that little one in K is gonna be there in 12.

- That's right.

This goes back to an early question too.

We talk about online schooling and the options for families for open enrollment.

It is real in choices for families with that.

And so, yeah, it is a very delicate game to navigate and make predictions on.

But we use all the available tools and predicting analytics to help us plan budgets that will be in alignment to what our policies are.

- So give me the top three points again on your vision with Accelerate Austin, why it's a positive thing that folks really ought to consider.

- I think first and foremost is our district is committed to our mission of inspiring, empowering, and accelerating student learning, now and in the future.

And this includes a couple things.

One is using our resources effectively and attracting our students and keeping more of our students in our district.

It also means preparing for our enrollment growth that I talked about, but also, launching in our strategic plan that is really, I think, gonna propel our district into the next level of success and preparation for students as we want to then prepare them to make a difference in the world.

- Well I appreciate the time you've given us, Dr.

Page.

It was a very interesting discussion.

Thank you for joining us and good luck in your mission here with educating our young people.

- Thank you very much for having me.

- Dr. Joey Page, Superintendent of Austin Public Schools.

That'll do it for this edition of "On Q".

I'm Eric Olson.

Thanks for watching.