<\/a>
\nRegular readers will remember from earlier posts such as this<\/a> and that<\/a> that a group of concerned citizens<\/a> (MARQS<\/acronym>) has been working to encourage the Morris School Board<\/a> to address their budget issues head on by proposing a long overdue school levy.<\/p>\n

Tonight saw a major step in the right direction, with the Board approved sending a $385\/student levy to the voters in November, despite the continued obstructionist tactics of Laura Carrington. It was a long and often unfocussed discussion, with a lot of shadowboxing and talking past one another. I think most of the Board members had largely made their mind up in general terms coming in, but people tended to dance around both the specific amount and the justifications for those amounts. That said, both Amy Doll-Wohlers and John Luetmer get kudos for speaking strongly and clearly on the importance of investing in such a key resource. Vance Gullickson, while mostly silent, got an excellent little bit in, and Kurt Gartland (Chair) made some nice points despite his tendency to be a weak (IMHO) on the question of the actual amount.<\/p>\n

After discussing the issue for the better part of an hour, Mark McNally asked for a recess, which allowed everyone to engage in some backroom chats and feel each other out. Returning to the table, McNally proposed a predictably (given his comments all along) low figure of $250. There was clearly no support for this and really should have died for lack of a second, but Chair Kurt Gartland did what I’m sure he thought was a “good” thing by giving it a second when no one else would. After a little unenthusiastic discussion it came to a vote and died.<\/p>\n

John Luetmer then proposed $385 which, with the current $315 levy, brings our total to $700\/student. After a bit of discussion this was approved handily by a 5-2 vote, with Laura Carrington and Mark McNally against and everyone else (John Luetmer, Amy Doll-Wohlers, Vance Gullickson, Kurt Gartland and Brent Fuhrman) in favor. They’ll now have to draft the legal language that will actually appear on the ballot, and it’s up to us to ensure that the vote goes well.<\/p>\n

This $385\/student amount brings the total back to the levy level that was approved back in 2000 before the state legislature mucked about with things<\/a> and works well with the new state equalization levels that the legislature just approved. I personally would have liked to see them propose something a little higher (at least $500\/student) so we’d have the ability to really invest in a school system that’s been gently starved of resources for several years. And frankly, I think a larger proposal could have won (although perhaps by 4-3 instead of 5-2) if it had been proposed before the $385. The $385 amount (and the discussion of it) was, however, a very Minnesota Nice sort of proposal and I think should win handily in November if we do our work properly. Then in a few years we’ll have an opportunity to return to the levy levels because the current $315 levy will expire and need to be replaced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regular readers will remember from earlier posts such as this and that that a group of concerned citizens (MARQS) has been working to encourage the Morris School Board to address their budget issues head on by proposing a long overdue school levy. Tonight saw a major step in the right direction, with the Board approved … Continue reading “Huzzah! The people shall speak!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-politics"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-3k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":100,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/03\/30\/school-levy-in-morris-rock-rock-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":0},"title":"School levy in Morris: Rock, rock on!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"30 Mar 05","format":false,"excerpt":"We just got back from a very energizing School Board meeting where a number of people did an excellent job of making it clear that the kind of cuts being consider would really hurt, and making a strong case for alternatives (like increasing our levy). Of the many people who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/08\/01\/schools-are-more-important-than-pools\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":1},"title":"Schools are more important than pools","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"1 Aug 05","format":false,"excerpt":"Below is a letter to the editor of the Morris Sun-Tribune that appeared in the 27 July 2005 edition (requires registration :-( ) under the title (of their choosing) of \"Pool or no pool, support levy\". This was written by Sub-Evil Boy and I while we were in Wisconsin, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/04\/02\/school-levy-letter-to-the-editor\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":2},"title":"Morris needs to re-pass the school levy: A letter to the editor","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"2 Apr 05","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a letter to the editor that I intend to send to our local paper regarding the current school funding issues (also here). Comments and questions always welcome. (I should mention that as an anti-spamming measure, all comments have to be approved before they appear on the page,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":241,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/10\/01\/school-levy-campaign-had-a-nice-kick-off-meeting\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":3},"title":"School levy campaign up and running","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"1 Oct 05","format":false,"excerpt":"Thursday night saw the \"formal\" kick-off meeting for the campaign to pass November's school levy. There had obviously been many meetings before that, initially to just get this thing on the ballot in the first place, and more recently just to track what the School Board was up to and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/04\/10\/my-letter-appeared-in-the-sun-trib-yesterday\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":4},"title":"My letter appeared in the Sun-Trib yesterday","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"10 Apr 05","format":false,"excerpt":"My letter on the school levy situation appeared in the Morris Sun-Tribune yesterday. It was in good company, sitting next to a nice letter from a group that had been involved in a Blandin foundation grant noting that a strong educational system was important for almost all aspects of our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":254,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/10\/30\/why-umm-students-need-to-vote-on-the-levy\/","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":5},"title":"Why UMM students need to vote on the levy","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"30 Oct 05","format":false,"excerpt":"Below is a letter to the editor for the University Register, UMM's student newspaper... Tuesday, the 8th of November, the residents of the Morris Area School District will turn out to vote on a proposed school levy. While most UMM students realize that they can vote in this election, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}