The campaigns this fall to fill three Richfield school board seats and decide whether the school district will win more taxpayer funding have been low-key affairs.

Lawn signs for only a few candidates have sprung up on the city's busier streets. Even fewer "Vote Yes for Richfield Schools" have made their appearance.

The two school issues are the only items on the ballot in Richfield next Tuesday.

Fifteen candidates, including two incumbents, are running for three seats on the school board. The school district is asking voters to repeal an existing tax levy and approve a new one to raise an additional $2 million a year for 10 years.

 

 

School board election

Which isn't to say the 15 candidates who are running for three seats on the school board haven't been busy.

"My campaign strategy has been to get out and meet people as much as I can," Candidate Will Berend said in an e-mail. "I've gone to high school football games, PTA meetings, walked door-to-door handing out fliers and used social media to communicate with the public."

Other candidates, too, have been practicing retail politics.

"I didn't have any extra money for lawn signs or advertisements in the Sun-Current," wrote Chris Williams. "I've been networking with parents at my kids' schools, at their dance classes, at work and on Facebook. I'll do some door-to-door this weekend, and then hope for the best."

Zack Olson also said he's been using a Facebook page to engage voters as well as distributing fliers door to door, at local businesses and on community bulletin boards.

He and others have also participated in the Sun-Current, League of Women Voters, Patch.com and 55423.info candidate forums and features to get their message out to voters.

"I have felt responding to the news and different group's questions, as well as attending the League of Women Voters forum, has been an important aspect of getting my voice out there," wrote Teresa Kruse.

Brian Lematta said he's "been doing retail campaigning by meeting with civic and senior groups and talking with voters."

And Monica Petrov said she  has mostly been talking to voters in person.

Christine Maleck said she and her husband have been working on both her campaign and for a "Yes" vote on the school district's proposed tax levy referendum.

"We are working with Richfield Citizens for a Quality Community (CQC) to find homes for "Vote Yes for Richfield Schools" and "Vota SI!" (Spanish Language version) signs throughout Richfield," she wrote. "CQC is also arranging a literature drop campaign where we will be going door to door spreading the word on why we believe that the community should continue to be supportive of Richfield Schools."

School levy referendum

The Richfield school district is prohbited by law from campaigning in favor of a tax levy increase, but the district has sent a letter to all district property owners explaining the ballot issue and its effect on taxes, Business Manager Michael Schwartz said Thursday.

The district also has a page on its website that provides a series of questions and answers about the referendum.

Opposition to the ballot measure hasn't been apparent. Schwartz said he isn't aware of any organized campaign to defeat the tax increase.

The additional tax money is needed, he explained, because state aid to schools and the current tax levies won't keep up with expenses.

"The feeling was, if we didn't get any increase in revenue, that we would have to do additional cutting," he said. "So we've cut the last two years. Two years ago was $600,000. Last year it was $1.15 million. We would have to cut some more."

"The last two years we've increased enrollment by 302 students," Schwartz said. "We think that the community likes the changes that we've made and wants us to continue doing that. What we're saying is that we want to continue this momentum that we've built up."

The changes have included:
- Instituting all-day kindergarten
- Opening a dual-language elementary school
- Changed two neighborhood elementary schools to K-5 schools from K-2 schools
- Opened a new magnet elementary school that emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math.

"To me it's saying ... the community likes what it's seeing," he said.

Without additional tax revenue, the district would face cutting teaching positions. This fall, budget cuts meant class sizes were increased an average of one student per class.

"We've cut about $9 million since 2000," Schwartz said. "So, we've made a lot cuts that included personnel, but we look at how we can be more efficient. We continually look at ways to streamline what we do.

"But the reality is...you need personnel, you need people to be teaching classes, and labor costs money. You have salaries and benefits. That makes up about 80 to 85 percent of our budget."