PARK RAPIDS: Drastic cuts avoided when levy finally passed by voters
A tale of two districts
PARK RAPIDS - About 75 miles northwest of Brainerd, Park Rapids is known as the gateway to Itasca State Park, the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
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It's also known as the home of the school district that gained statewide media attention last fall as the school board for the sixth time attempted to pass an operating levy. The levy passed by a relatively large margin - 55 percent to 44 percent.
Had the referendum failed, the school board would have eliminated all high school extra-curricular activities, including sports, drama, speech and music programs, becoming the first district in the state to take such a drastic step, according to reports.
Glenn Chiodo has been superintendent since 2003 at the Park Rapids School District, a district that had five failed operating levy referendums before voters approved the 2006 operating levy. This levy expires in four years and Chiodo said the district more than likely will be asking taxpayers for another operating levy before that expiration date.
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The district had been making budget cuts for years. Class sizes had grown to as high as 40 students in high school classes, more than 30 students in classrooms at the middle school and elementary class sizes were averaging in the high 20s. The previous year the district had cut funding for six high school sports - boys' and girls' golf, boys' and girls' cross country, girls' hockey and boys' tennis - but fundraisers and increased participation fees meant the programs were continued but independently funded.
"The most common question I had through the month of October (of 2006) was, 'Is this a bluff?,'" said Park Rapids Superintendent Glenn Chiodo. "You would hate, whether it's Crosby, Park Rapids, Brainerd or anywhere, to see people vote no based on the fact that they think it's a card game and somebody's trying to bluff somebody."
Chiodo said mistrust of the district was one of the reasons why the operating levy votes continued to fail. The district's financial problems began back in 2000 when an accounting error was discovered. Previous school administrators - Chiodo was hired by the district in 2003 - had mistakenly double counted some state funding. That, along with declining student enrollment and flat funding from the state for two years in a row, created their financial crisis, said Chiodo.
A tale of two districts
Voters in 100 school districts across Minnesota will head to the polls Nov. 6 to cast their ballots for or against school operating levies.
For many of these schools, including Brainerd and Crosby-Ironton, the stakes are high if the operating levies aren't approved. Schools will be closed, teaching staff will be reduced dramatically and extra-curricular activities will be eliminated.
The Dispatch took a closer look at two school districts in the state that are comparable to Brainerd and C-I in enrollment size and circumstances - Park Rapids and White Bear Lake.
Chiodo said the financial crisis, beginning with the accounting error, was like a cloud that hung over the district despite its classroom and districtwide successes.
"There were a lot of folks that didn't feel confident where things were at," explained Chiodo. "It took a while for that to heal itself and at the same time, the community, and staff for that matter, saw the deterioration that was occurring within our school system because of the lack of funds. ... I think a lot of times communities get reluctant to support a cause, or a referendum in this case, if they don't feel the school system has maybe got their foundation, that everything is working cohesively. We weren't at one time. We had to take care of our own house first if we wanted to get more support and I think we demonstrated that through four years. We demonstrated we were resurrecting the foundation of this school system."
The district had cut its supply budget so severely about three years ago Park Rapids teachers were basically left to fend for themselves. While teachers now have a very limited classroom supply budget now for items like paper and pencils because of the operating levy, Park Rapids Area Century School, which houses both the elementary and middle school, has posted in its entryway a Giving Tree filled with teachers' supply wish lists for items like tape, stickers, hand sanitizer and blank DVDs. Parents are encouraged to take a star off the wish list and purchase that item for the teacher's classroom. Mitch Peterson, elementary principal, said the school was fortunate to have strong PTA groups who helped support classroom teachers during this time.
Park Rapids Century Elementary School Principal Mitch Peterson posed next to the school's Giving Tree, which is posted in the entryway of the school building. The Giving Tree allows teachers to post items they need or want in the classroom and parents or community members may purchase those items. The project was implemented during the past few years of deep budget cuts for the district.
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Despite the financial struggles, the district has continued to maintain high test scores. Earlier this month Park Rapids Area Century Elementary School was named one of eight schools in the state to be named a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School.
"We have done a good job going without," said Peterson. "Now we can do more."
Al Judson, Park Rapids high school principal, said last fall underclassmen talked about what high school they would attend in 2007 if the referendum failed and all extra-curricular activities were eliminated. Administrators figured they have more than 300 students participating in extracurricular activities and that they would have lost about one-third of them to neighboring school districts if the referendum failed.
"I'm guessing that about 20-25 percent of our population in our high school was looking at other options very seriously and it would have gutted the heart out of our academic achievers and our athletics," said Judson.
Park Rapids Century Elementary School.
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Families moving into Park Rapids were purchasing homes on the contingency that the operating levy referendum passed, Realtors told Chiodo.
This was the first year since 2000 when the district didn't have to make any budget cuts. Its $600 per pupil operating levy approved last year is effective for five years and allowed the district to eliminate its $750,000 budget shortfall this year and hire five teachers, two in the elementary, two at the middle school and one in the high school.
"Things aren't perfect but they're so much better than what they were," said Bruce Gravalin, middle school principal.
The district still has class sizes of about 30 students in sixth grade, no elementary art programs and no family and consumer science courses.
Chiodo said the school board and administration weren't going to ask for another referendum last year and instead make the necessary cuts because of the many failed referendum attempts in the past. They were encouraged to go for another referendum by the community, which organized an active Orange Cross Parents Organization, their version of a Vote Yes committee.
"I just believe the community itself, obviously in collaboration with the school, finally said enough is enough," Chiodo said, when asked why he believes the levy passed. "Realistically, we've gotten a lot of negative press statewide but the negative press was coming about the community, not the school. It hit home with people that the problem was bigger than just the school. It was ultimately something that was going to affect our community and our community leaders, bless their hearts, decided this wasn't going to happen.
"This community and school worked together and got this thing going in the right direction and that's what we're the most proud of and should be proud of. People worked together as opposed to separate. We got it done. Now when you hear conversations within the community you no longer hear community or school, there's a lot of 'we' stuff going on. It's a real positive sign for us as a community and a school system and we sent a message statewide that we weren't going to allow that to happen within our Park Rapids community."
Chiodo said they decided to go for a five-year operating levy because they believed they had a better chance of passing it than one that was longer than that. However, he said the school district was upfront to the community before last year's vote, saying that it would not be enough, that they would likely be returning to the community in four years asking for another operating levy unless the state funding formula changed.
"I'm hoping when we go to the community, I hope the hill isn't so hard to climb because we had to come so far," said Chiodo. "If state financing doesn't change, absolutely 100 percent we'll have to go back to the community and talk about this again. I go back to the crux of it. Communities have a sense that they're the only ones in that trouble and always want to look at their respective school and say they're spending money wrong or whatever. Just look across the state. It has to tell you something. The funding from the Legislature is not enough. Just go up and down the highway and see the schools faced with the same issues."
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.