Dear RPS community,
I hope you had a great summer and that you are as excited as I am for the school year that is about to begin. One of the most important events for our school district this year is the referendum to increase local funding for Rochester Public Schools (RPS) that will be on the ballot on November 5. We will provide you and our community with extensive information about this important community decision over the next two months, but in this letter, I want to summarize the truly essential things that I think you should know.
First, you should be aware that if the referendum passes, it will enable RPS to close the $19.4 million budget deficit that we face for the 2025-2026 school year. The primary reason for that budget deficit is that funding from the State of Minnesota for our school district's General Fund has not kept pace with inflation for many years. The General Fund provides the resources that all school districts use to cover core educational expenses such as salaries, transportation, supplies, and curriculum. If State support for the General Fund had kept up with the rate of inflation since 2003, we wouldn't be facing a deficit today.
We have already taken important steps to reduce our deficit in RPS, including cutting more than $20 million from our General Fund budget since I arrived in Rochester in the summer of 2021, resulting in the elimination of more than 150 positions that provided valuable service for our students.
Another step that we have taken to address our budget shortfall was putting a capital projects levy on the ballot in November of 2023. That levy would have generated $10.1 million to enhance technology across RPS, from purchasing computers for students and staff to protecting our district’s networks from the kind of ransomware attack that we beat back in the spring of 2023.
If the technology referendum had passed, it would have reduced our deficit by more than half, but it would not have eliminated it. We would still have had to cut more than $9 million to achieve that objective. As you probably remember well, the technology referendum ultimately failed by 318 votes out of more than 22,000. Only 27% of eligible district voters chose to vote cast ballots in that election.
Soon after the narrow defeat, we were forced to announce major cuts for the 2024-2025 school year, including closing schools and eliminating popular programs and services. Fortunately, Mayo Clinic stepped in to make an extraordinary $10 million contribution to postpone those cuts and to enable us to continue implementing our ambitious strategic plan. With Mayo Clinic’s one-time funding in place, the Rochester School Board agreed to use $7 million of the district’s budget reserves to give us time to develop a new referendum proposal for our community to consider.
It is that new proposal that will be on the ballot on November 5, 2024. The 2024 referendum proposal is different from the 2023 referendum in two important ways. First, rather than a capital projects levy that can only be used for specific materials and equipment such as technology, the 2024 referendum seeks an operating levy increase that can fund a wide range of operational expenses such as teacher salaries and other aspects of our core mission of teaching and learning. Second, rather than requesting funding that would close about half of our structural deficit, we are requesting the amount of funding that we need – $19.4 million – to close our entire projected deficit for the 2025-2026 school year and put Rochester Public Schools on the path to financial stability.
If approved, the 2024 referendum would raise the school district’s operating levy from $943 per student to $2,076 per student, an increase of $1,133. The owner of a $350,000 home would see an increase of $29 per month in their property taxes starting in 2025. The levy increase would be adjusted each year based on the rate of inflation.
I am aware that this would be a significant investment, but it is modest when compared to the support that school districts similar to Rochester receive from their local communities. When RPS is compared to the other school districts in Minnesota that serve 10,000 students or more, we currently rank last (15 out of 15) in the amount of funding that voters have approved to support school operations. If the 2024 referendum passes, RPS would move up to 10th.
We have named the 2024 referendum proposal the “Ignite Student Learning” referendum because the funding would support resources that make Rochester Public Schools a place where learning comes to life. Without it, the district risks becoming a bare-bones school system where teachers only cover required material, and students have little access to the programs and opportunities that spark their interests and meet their unique educational needs.
More specifically, the Ignite Student Learning referendum would generate funding for
four important priorities:
Positions that support students who are behind academically, such as reading specialists
Programs that challenge academically advanced students, such as the advanced learning services that we offer at every level
Supports for students who struggle with mental health and wellbeing, such as school counselors and mental health screening
Classes that prepare students for jobs in vocational and technical fields, such as auto mechanics, construction trades, nursing, and law enforcement.
It is important to explain that if the 2024 referendum is not approved this November, major reductions will need to be made in all four of these areas. And because even those major cuts would not generate enough savings to eliminate our deficit, we would also be forced to close at least two schools and raise class sizes. I share this not as a scare tactic but because, in recent months, many have told me it's essential to tell the community what will happen if the referendum fails, so they can make an informed decision when voting in November. We will provide more information on that subject in the weeks ahead.
Thank you for reading this message, and thank you in advance for taking the time to learn more about the 2024 referendum. I hope that you will urge your friends, family, and neighbors to learn about the referendum as well. Rochester Public Schools educates 76.8% of the children who live within the boundaries of our school district, which stretches far beyond the City of Rochester. Given that more than three-quarters of the young people in our community are being educated in Rochester Public Schools, the quality of education that we provide RPS students will powerfully influence the future prosperity of Rochester families, businesses, and our entire community. That is why I hope that all citizens of Rochester will learn about the referendum, even if they do not have children who attend our schools.
To find more information about the Ignite Student Learning plan, please visit the referendum website, www.rochesterschools.org/referendum. You can also view the downloadable fact sheet, which is available in various languages.
The election takes place on November 5, and early voting starts on September 20.
Sincerely,
Kent Pekel, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools