Rising Tax Levy Emerges As an Issue

By Doug Belden, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Oct. 30–St. Paul school board members got taxpayers’ attention last month with their vote to raise the schools’ portion of the 2006 property-tax levy by a maximum of 22 percent, and as candidates for the board head into their final week of campaigning, most are saying that number needs to come down.

Of the six candidates, only two — incumbents Elona Street-Stewart and John Brodrick — will have a vote when the board sets the final levy in December.

(Schools are just one piece of the property-tax load for St. Paul residents. Factoring in the city and county increases, most homeowners are expected to see overall increases of about 20 percent, or an extra $486 on a $250,000 house.)

Most of the schools’ increase is driven by state funding formulas that are beyond the board’s control, district officials have argued, but Street-Stewart and Brodrick both say they would consider whittling the 22 percent increase to 18 percent by cutting out local funding for the state’s new teacher-compensation plan.

Challengers Tom Goldstein and Lori Windels both say they would support that move, which would mean the district would accept more than $7 million in state money to fund the program — known as Q Comp — in St. Paul but not levy $2.8 million in additional local revenue.

Goldstein and Windels finished third and fourth, respectively, behind Street-Stewart and Brodrick in the Sept. 13 primary, which narrowed the field to six candidates from seven for the three school board seats.

The DFL-endorsed Goldstein had more than twice as many votes in the primary as Windels, the Republican endorsee, and those results — along with the DFL’s historic strength in St. Paul school board elections — make him and the two DFL-endorsed incumbents the favorites on Nov. 8.

Socialist Workers Party candidate Rebecca Williamson finished fifth and Terry Lake, a Democrat running as an independent, took sixth in the primary.

Williamson said she wouldn’t increase the property-tax levy for schools at all, saying government should come up with money for education some other way.

Lake said the increase should be less than 22 percent, though he didn’t have a target figure in mind. He questioned the board’s expenditures on things like a search firm for a new superintendent and an eight-lane track at Central High School at a time when people’s medical, fuel and utility costs are rising significantly.

Funding aside, the key job for the new board will be finding a replacement for Superintendent Pat Harvey.

That task takes on added importance with recent announcements of departures by top members of Harvey’s administration.

Kent and Tanya Pekel — who have been at the center of many of Harvey’s initiatives as head of research and development and chief of staff, respectively — said last week that they are on their way out.

Area C Superintendent Joann Knuth plans to leave at the end of the school year to become executive director of the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals.

Area A Superintendent Luz Maria Serrano says she plans to retire after this school year. Interim superintendent Lou Kanavati has said he’s not sure whether he will return to his former job as Area B Superintendent when a new superintendent is hired.

In the midst of such turnover, most of the candidates said it is crucial to find a superintendent who will focus on student achievement and extend the gains made under Harvey.

The staff departures could work to incumbents’ advantage if voters decide they want to keep some stability on the board, but the candidates said they aren’t hearing that issue raised much on the campaign trail.

Not surprisingly, the three candidates not endorsed by the DFL say the board — made up of six DFLers and one Republican — needs some fresh political perspectives.

“I think it’s too much rubber-stamping,” said Lake. Windels agreed. “A lot of more conservative parents have checked out of the process,” she said. Williamson said her goal is “to offer a working-class alternative (to the) capitalist parties.”

Asked what one district policy or program they would change if they could, here is what the candidates said:

Brodrick: Make all students believe they can be successful.

Goldstein: Make the district be candid about its shortcomings and more open to the community, including holding board meetings in schools a few times a year rather than in the district office building.

Lake: Enhance the neighborhood school system and reduce busing.

Street-Stewart: Make sure every 4-year-old in the city could enroll in community kindergarten.

Williamson: Lifelong quality education for all, free and guaranteed.

Windels: Strengthen the school choice system and make it more cost-efficient, replicating popular programs like the language-immersion schools across the city and expanding services for gifted students.

—–

To see more of the Pioneer Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.twincities.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.