My open letter to Governor Pawlenty

The following was sent to the governor and copied to legislators, media, and heads of professional organizations on April 5:

Dear Governor Pawlenty:

North Branch Area Public Schools (NBAPS) is deeply grateful to you for your dedication to protecting education funding as the state has struggled with deficits. NBAPS staff, students, and community know a thing or two about deficits, and that is why I write to you today.

Since 2003-04, NBAPS has cut over $11 million from operating budgets. As each annual cut approaches, the decisions get more and more difficult, and the community more and more frustrated with valuable things lost. After almost a decade of painful cuts, valuable programs, gifted staff, and countless opportunities have been replaced by extremely high class sizes, increased fees, a shortened school week, and a community that doesn't understand why its children are worth less than those of almost every other district in the state.

Our taxpayers support education but, due to a lack of commercial tax base in Chisago County, bear the lion's share of the tax burden as residential home owners. Given the opportunity to say "no" to an operating levy and higher taxes, our community has done so six times in the last decade. We understand that decision; levies here cost taxpayers two, three times, or more what they would cost in another district, largely due to the erosion of the equalization formulas.

We are proud of what we have accomplished. The state asked districts to make do with less and we have come through each and every year. We may be one of the lowest funded districts in the state, but I would put the quality of the education here against any district in the state.

Our staff has embraced Q-Comp and ours is considered by MDE to be among the finest Q-Comp plans in the state. North Branch Area Middle School has twice (2007, 2010) been recognized with a Spotlight Award from the Minnesota Academic Excellence Foundation. On both occasions, it was the only middle school in the state to be so recognized.

We have also found creative ways to be fiscally responsible. The school board recently approved the closure of a building, the district has joined a cooperative for special education services, shares an employee with another district, and has embraced the idea of shared services for years.

However, the district and community can no longer sustain these cuts, and the frustration and mistrust they cause. While other districts in the state are passing levies to add opportunity, our teachers accepted a hard wage freeze for this year, as have I, and other employees will be expected to do the same. We are implementing a four-day week to save $175,000 a year. We have cut energy costs by over $100,000.

As a former civics teacher, I know that often-times answers to the problems we face lie in our state and federal constitutions. In Minnesota, the importance of education was understood very well by our forefathers, who articulated that importance in this passage of our state constitution: "...it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state."

Governor, there is little that is uniform about our public school system at this time. The current funding formula has created a vast gap between the haves and the have nots. Until this gap is addressed, the state is not living up to the promise our forefathers made its citizens, a promise important enough to include as part of the very fabric of the state.

NBAPS is looking at another $1.2 million in cuts for 2011-12, and has projected deficits well into the future. Though we realize the state has financial challenges of its own, it should not stop our esteemed leaders from finding a way to live up to the state's constitutional duty to all students in Minnesota. Please solve the funding inequities in public education. Please repair the equalization formula. There are 3,500 students at NBAPS and the quality of their education is at stake. They will never get a second chance.

I hope you will strongly consider visiting NBAPS in the near future. We would very much like the honor of showing you how far we have been able to stretch every taxpayer dollar. More importantly, we would like you to see first-hand that we, as a district and a community, are out of options.

We need action now to ensure a generation of our children can contribute to a brighter tomorrow for the state of Minnesota. Please don't hesitate to contact me at your earliest convenience to arrange a visit.

Respectfully yours,

Deb Henton, Ed.D.
Superintendent

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