Rochester voters approve $194M in new funding for public schools

ROCHESTER – The school district here will avoid making major cuts to its budget after voters decided Tuesday to support $194 million in new funding for the district over the next 10 years.

With nearly 70,000 votes cast, Rochester Public Schools’ operating referendum passed 57% to 43%.

For the district, the seventh largest in the state with more than 17,300 students, it was the second attempt at a new tax levy in as many years after a referendum for nearly half this year’s request failed in 2023 by just 318 votes.

With Tuesday’s vote, the district says it will have the funding to sustain a variety of mental health and other student support services that school officials said could have been cut had the referendum failed. Those include $5.4 million for school counselor positions and about $5 million more for career and technical programs.

“It will provide RPS with the financial stability we need to continue implementing our ambitious strategic plan and to remain focused on our academic mission,” Rochester Superintendent Kent Pekel said in a statement shortly after all of the votes were counted. “Most importantly, it is an investment in our students that will pay off in the skilled workforce that Rochester needs to thrive in the decades ahead.”

The district had also warned that three elementary schools could have been closed if the measure did not pass. Class sizes would have gone up by three students across the board, the district said. In total, at least $16.7 million cuts would have been made ahead of the 2025-26 school year.

“We are filled with overwhelming joy and gratitude as we celebrate this incredible victory,” said Kanika Couchene, an RPS parent and one of the lead organizers of the “Vote Yes” campaign. “This win is a testament to the power of our community coming together for the sake of our children. It didn’t just happen overnight — it took hard work, passion and dedication from so many people.”

Rochester resident Rick Rudquist, 65, voted against the measure, noting that the School Board already voted earlier in the year to extend a $17 million annual referendum from 2015. In 2023, the state Legislature passed a measure allowing school boards to renew referendums one time without voter approval.

“I feel like we just keep putting more money in … and they keep raising our taxes every year, and I think we need to start using our funds more wisely,” Rudquist said.

Other voters, however, saw the referendum as a much-needed investment in the city’s public education system. The district is now ranked last in voter-approved levy funding among Minnesota’s 15 largest school districts. After Tuesday’s vote, Rochester’s local share of per-pupil spending will increase from $943 to $2,076, good for 10th in the state.

“The whole economy is intelligence-based. If we don’t start investing in education, we are going to start falling behind as a country,” Tanner Stumvoll, 34, said outside a polling station in northwest Rochester. “It’s as simple as that.”

The “Vote Yes” committee spent more than $30,000 in support of the referendum, about 10 times more than an effort billed as “Say No to the Tax Man,” an anti-referendum campaign organized by School Board candidate John Whelan. The referendum will raise property taxes by $29 a month, or $348 a year, on a home valued at $350,000.

Whelan, who also ran in 2020, was unsuccessful in his bid, losing to incumbent Karen MacLaughlin by 20 points. Longtime School Board member Don Barlow also easily defeated his rival Patrick Farmer, while newcomer Stephanie Whitehorn won handily over Christina Barton. MacLaughlin, Barlow and Whitehorn were all supported by the RPS teachers’ union, which raised about $35,000 in support of the candidates.