Editorial: Plenty of students, no money for school

When school starts next month, Prior Lake-Savage youngsters won't be learning in the shiny, new $16.8 million school built with voter approval of their parents and other residents. Redtail Ridge Elementary School will be empty. That's because taxpayers approved a bond referendum to pay for the building, then later rejected a property tax increase to open and staff the school.

Prior Lake-Savage is among dozens of state school systems that have cut budgets for several years running. Those difficulties underscore the need for school-finance reform at the state level.

In this case, however, school officials should have had a Plan B that would have allowed them to open the school even though the operating referendum failed. A rapidly growing community, the Prior Lake-Savage school district received voter approval for bond issues in 2005 to build two schools, but could only ask for operating funds for Jeffers Pond, the one that would be built first. Because Redtail Ridge's opening was uncertain, the district returned for operating funds only last year, when it was clear the school would be ready to open this fall.

It might have made more sense to seek separate bond issues for the schools so that each could have been coupled with its own operating levy. Or since the 7,000-student district has been growing between 3 and 5 percent annually, some of those additional headcount dollars might have been used for the new school.

Erecting a new building, then mothballing it -- even temporarily -- further erodes public confidence in school district budget decisions.

A spokeswoman for the district said that board members had no choice. After three years of budget reductions, they believed that reallocating funds to open Redtail would have led to staff cuts. That, in turn, would have raised class sizes and defeated the purpose of adding a school to ease overcrowding.

Yet other school officials have found a way under similar circumstances. In the mid-1990s, Chaska made tough decisions to open a new high school. And in 2006, Blaine shifted funds for a new elementary school when an operating levy failed. Last year, Prior Lake-Savage district leaders officials cautioned that unless operating funds were also approved, the new school might not open. Despite that warning, citizens rejected a two-part excess levy that would have raised $4.5 million in operating funds and $28.9 million to expand the high school.

Even as it sits empty, Redtail will have expenses. Utilities and a custodian will cost about $150,000. If the school was open, the annual cost would be about $1.4 million, including hiring about 11 new teachers.

Hoping to open the school in September 2009, the school board will appeal to voters again in November. Citizens will be asked to support $2.35 million in new operations funding (including Redtail), renew the current $7 million levy and raise an additional $700,000 annually to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes.

If the referendum succeeds, problem solved. If it doesn't, school leaders should have a backup plan to open Redtail.