Austin Public Schools to ask voters for nearly $67M to fix many historic buildings

AUSTIN – Faced with significant repairs for its decades-old buildings and openly critical teachers concerned with the district’s leadership, Austin Public Schools is going before voters this fall to ask for a near-$67 million infrastructure referendum.

The Austin Public Schools Board on Monday unanimously approved putting the referendum on the ballot amid reservations over whether voters would support another referendum after extending the district’s operating levy in 2022.

“These are items that fall outside of our budgets that we can successfully address in an immediate fashion,” said Superintendent Joey Page.

Most of Austin’s school buildings are decades old — some are more than a century. Austin High School was originally built in 1869, and several expansions are more than a century old. All of the district’s eight buildings require major fixes to ventilation, bathrooms and security upgrades, including new doors, according to a recent district facilities study.

The district is asking for more than $54 million to make those fixes as part of a two-question referendum. The second question asks residents to support a $12 million renovation and expansion to the 50-year-old pool at Ellis Middle School.

Voters have to approve the infrastructure upgrades in the first question in order to pass the pool upgrades; if the first question fails, the second question automatically fails.

If both questions pass, it would mean a $192 annual increase in property taxes on a $200,000 home, or about $16 a month, according to district officials.

Austin joins a number of school districts in Minnesota asking voters to support some kind of bond referendum this fall amid concerns over rising costs, dwindling budgets and potential federal funding cuts as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle the Department of Education.

School officials say putting the referendum before voters now is essential, as waiting a year could add inflationary costs and make the projects more expensive.

Yet it’ll be the only question on the ballot in this off-year election, which could persuade more critics to come out against the measure. Experts say school referendums are more likely to pass during presidential or mid-term elections, when more voters turn out for various political races.

“My concern is what happens if this doesn’t pass,” board member Dan Zielke said. “If we need to spend this money, it has to come from a different source, meaning we either start making difficult decisions here by what programs get cut, or we start increasing class sizes, which I know is not an option.”

At the same time, the district is navigating severe criticism from teachers who accuse the Austin administration of transferring staff around to plug various classroom gaps and stave off class size increases without consulting the schools themselves, creating a frustrating atmosphere.

Critics swarmed an April school board meeting to complain; the board has discussed the district’s climate in subsequent board sessions, but teachers say little has been done to fix their issues.

“It’s been a rough three or four months for the district, the board, the administration,” board member Don Leathers said. “People want change, but they want it right now. But the fact is ... change takes a long time.”

Leathers said the district needs to make every effort to address concerns to “win over that sliver of people who are a little bit, right now, a little mad at me and a little mad at you.”

Board Chair Carolyn Dubé said she hoped residents would see the referendum as a good investment to preserve the historic nature of Austin’s schools, arguing the board and area educators have to have faith that voters will support the district’s needs.

“We can always say, ‘What if? What if?’ Eventually, we’re just going to have to dive in, go for it and trust the process,” she said.