[ad_1]
DULUTH — The Duluth School Board held a special committee-of-the-whole meeting Tuesday to provide more time for the board members to discuss and ask questions about possibly pursuing a third technology referendum this spring.
Although this meeting was added only a week prior, district administration came prepared with stakeholders from nearly every level involved in the conversation ready to share their experiences, from elementary principals to high school principals to district IT specialists to career and technical education staff.
If the board votes next week to allow the district to pursue a capital projects levy to provide funding for technology across the district, it will be the third time the district has gone to the polls with a similar question. A technology referendum failed in 2018 by 1,183 votes, a 48.7% to 51.3% margin.
This
was the second of two questions. The first, to allow the district to refinance existing debt, passed by 2,662 votes. The second question, the technology referendum, failed by 289 votes, a 49.5% to 50.5% margin.
At a committee-of-the-whole meeting Jan. 9, the school board heard a presentation from Baird, a Twin Cities-based public finance consultant for the district. Michael Hoheisel, managing director of Baird, advised the district that without an influx in funding to help the tight $250,000 technology budget, the
district would likely see its fund balance decrease rapidly by 2029.
The presentation also showed how the district’s general fund balance would fare with slightly lower asks. This fall the district pursued a referendum that would have provided $5.29 million a year, which would keep the general fund at around $12 million, the recommended amount from the state for a school district of its size. Two smaller asks of $5 million and $4.69 million saw the fund balance dip below the recommended reserve amount.
Board members asked to hear from the district’s stakeholders in addition to the financial advisers, to ensure they supported going back to the voters for funding for technology.
What the stakeholders had to say
Overall, the answer coming from the IT staff, principals and union representatives was that there is a great need for technology funding. Some of the highlights:
- “This is so much more than just buying Chromebooks. … This is about providing equity and leveling the playing field by making modern digital resources available for students and staff and making sure they know how to use it.”
— Peter Graves, teacher with the district for over 35 years, now an educational technology and innovation coordinator - “There are a lot of requirements within our current tech ed programs to maintain their approval with the state that require us to have equipment, software, programming and curriculum that are up to industry standards. We’re trying to get our students some employability skills in those fields along the way. And the costs for those programs and equipment keep going up. We’re definitely not able to say that we’re up to industry standards across the board.”
— Danette Seboe, head of the district’s career and technical education program - “Another speaker brought up safety earlier tonight. I’m at one of the buildings with 16-year-old cameras. You wouldn’t use a digital camera today that’s 16-17 years old. There are spots in our building that we can’t see and that weighs on a building principal. They’re maintained and we’re grateful to have them, but they’re not great.”
— Thomas Cawcutt, principal, Homecroft Elementary School - “It wasn’t that long ago that we had a conversation in a special labor management meeting for technology that the guarantee at the time was that every classroom would have a telephone, a computer and a whiteboard… What COVID did in terms of maybe the blessing of it, was that it gave us some financial resources to be able to get Chromebooks, smartboards and other things we weren’t going to get in a normal situation. We’re at the point where that money is going to start going away. And I think a technology referendum at this point in time would help ensure that moving forward we have the necessary resources our teachers need to teach and our students to learn.”
— Ethan Fisher, president of the Duluth Federation of Teachers
There’s expected to be further discussion and a vote on whether to pursue a special referendum vote in May at the next regular school board meeting Tuesday. This will also be the board’s first meeting with
a new listening session format
for public comments. It will start at 5:30 p.m. and requires speakers to sign up in advance by noon the Monday before the meeting.
Teri Cadeau is a K-12 education reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. Originally from the Iron Range, Cadeau has worked for several community newspapers in the Duluth area for eight years including: The Duluth Budgeteer News, Western Weekly, Weekly Observer, Lake County News-Chronicle and occasionally, the Cloquet Pine Journal. When not working, she’s an avid reader and crafter.
[ad_2]
Source link
