Posted 5/16/01 NB school bond election fails: District must still deal with ëfacility crisisí By Jason Sileo If youíre tough and resilient and you get knocked down, you get right back up again ó always looking forward. This appears to be the approach of the North Branch School District following a rather decisive defeat of a building and technology referendum election early last week. Voters in the district shot down a $23.5 million building bond referendum by a mail-in vote of 2,475 to 1,683, and a vote for $500,000 in additional technology funding failed similarly, 2,545 to 1,612. School District Superintendent Dr. Robert Stepaniak said he was not so surprised the two proposals failed, but more so by how wide the margin was. Dr. Stepaniak sat down Monday afternoon with the Post Review to address some of the issues the school district now faces, but stressed that his opinions and the potential direction for the district are preliminary in nature. The final call of exactly what to do lies in the hands of the elected school board members. Stepaniak said the school board, beginning at an open work session Thursday night, will now begin to deal with what he has taken to calling the districtís ìfacility crisis.î The district is growing out of its seams and is projected to continue to do so; the district was hoping to have a new elementary school in place to teach up to 1,000 students built in time for the 2003 school year. But the voters said differently. Regardless, the district still would have been ìcrowdedî next year, Stepaniak said. Student population critical mass, it appears, is on the horizon for 2002. The school board is going to have to decide whether to lease ìportables,î or possibly lease office space in the community for early childhood programming as well as the district offices, Stepaniak said. The irony, Stepaniak said, is that leasing space is by no means a bargain compared to building oneís own. The board will also consider a year-round rotating schedule at the elementary level to alleviate some of the crowding, though summertime school in a non-air conditioned environment could be unpleasant for both students and staff. Open enrollment, which otherwise might add between 30 and 40 kids to the district next school year, may have to be closed off. The district, Stepaniak said, is simply going to have to make due ìwith the hand weíve been dealt.î ìYou have to do whatís best for the kids with the resources youíve got,î he said. Stepaniak said the school board could decide to seek another referendum to be placed on a future regular election ballot in the district, but that decision has yet to be addressed. The question cannot legally be placed on ballots this November, he said. On the referendum As for the referendum proceedings, school district officials have expressed surprise regarding the margin of defeat as well as the limited turnout: Dr. Stepaniak said it was believed the majority of parents with students in the schools failed to return their ballots. It is also estimated that about 75 percent of the districtís eligible voters do not have children in the schools. The number of taxpayers far outweigh parents of school children in this returned ballot equation. Demographic information on those who did return their ballots (about 40 percent of the nearly 10,000 ballots were returned) is fairly limited, Stepaniak said ó only votersí ages and the precinct they voted in will be available in time. About 300 ballots were disqualified, most because the ballot had been improperly witnessed, he said. Stepaniak said he has few if any regrets on how the referendum ìcampaignî was run, but said the mail-in ballot format leaves much to be desired ìbecause itís so much work.î The districtís ìobligation was to put accurate information in the votersí hands,î Stepaniak said. ìWe think weíve done that,î though whether the information was read and digested is quite another story. ìI donít think I would have changed anything, as I look back,î he said. A ìconcerned citizen,î he said, certainly had the information in hand to make an informed decision. Probably no one will ever know whether an informed decision was the one made. Some people, regardless of circumstance, will always vote ënoí when it comes to accepting a tax increase. Stepaniak said neither he nor district officials feel slighted by the vote ó thereís no time for hard feelings or malice. ìThereís no time for crying,î he said. ìItís back to business.î Costs will not go down Will those who voted ënoí come to regret that decision in the long term? There is no getting around the need for additional space in the district, and that space will come at a cost to the taxpayers, whether they approve of it or not. Additional budgeted funds may have to be placed in the districtís operating levy ó to cover the costs of leasing space, for example ó and that levy is the taxpayersí responsibility whether they approve it or not. If a new school is built, pending the passage of some future referendum, ìI donít envision the price tag going down,î Stepaniak said. ìThe problem will be worse in 2003; the year we were hoping the new building was going to be up.î ©Post Review