Make sure you vote "yes" in the B-B-E school levy referendum tomorrow!

My two cents: B-B-E has done an excellent job recently of holding spending in check. Below is my letter to the editor, which was recently published in the Belgrade Observer and the Bonanza Valley Voice newspapers.

I want to remind supporters of the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa school district how important it is that they come out and vote in the November 2 election. In a political environment filled with poisonous, negative campaigning, it would be very easy to tune it all out and stay home on Election Day. It would be a terrible mistake, because every vote matters.

In the Fall of 2005 at West Central Area school, voters rejected an excess levy referendum by a margin of 17 votes out of over 1,200 cast. It was a costly defeat, as it put a one-year gap in local funding for the school. Their budget surplus of $580,000 in 2005 quickly became a $140,000 deficit in 2007.

WCA is still in recovery mode from that vote five years later, even though they did pass a levy a few months later in March 2006.

In an attempt to rebuild their fund balance and save current programming, this fall WCA is asking for an increase to their levy from $950 per pupil to $1370 per pupil, which would be almost 64% higher than B-B-E's current levy.

Over the past 15 years, B-B-E's enrollment has steadily declined from over 1,000 students to its current enrollment hovering around 700. The administration has put numerous cuts in place over that time, rebuilding its fund balance from statutory operating debt in the mid-1990s to a proper level of around $1 million today.

I see three key reasons why you should support the levy. One, the administration and teachers have gone out of their way to incorporate college credit courses into the school curriculum in the past three years to an extent never seen before at B-B-E. Second, the teaching staff is still working on the 2008-2009 salary schedule, a selfless act that shows how much they care about the future of B-B-E. That action was crucial to the district's ability to ask for no increase to the current levy, just an extension. Finally, enrollment is stabilizing, and many young families have moved to the area during a sluggish job market, bringing positive momentum to a rural area that is difficult to find in most small districts.

I predict the levy referendum will pass at B-B-E, but not without your vote.

Let's keep Jaguar country strong and proud!