A Good School District, If You Can Keep It

Do you know who’s on your School Board? Who cares?

On leaving the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was famously asked what kind of government they had just created. Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Thus began the American experiment in self-government. Nearly 225 years later, most Americans are all too happy to remain uninvolved in the control of their schools, states, and country, unaware that the founders handed the American people that responsibility during the sweltering Philadelphia summer of 1787.

At over $140 million, the budget is larger than those of the cities of Plymouth ($30 million), Minnetonka ($58.7 million) and Maple Grove ($34 million) combined.

The district delivers curriculum and instruction to over 10,200 students every day. Its staff chooses much of what is taught and how it’s taught, and the experience a child has in the district can have a material impact on his values, outlook and opportunities for the rest of his life. The quality of the school district is a significant factor in property values.

Questions of curriculum, facilities, technology (from "clickers" to iPads), integration revenue, use of K-12 dollars for pre-K and all-day kindergarten, collective bargaining contracts, financing, and data systems will all be topics for debate and decisions over the next few years.

There was a School Board election last November to fill four open seats. Voters re-elected three incumbents and elected one new member to the board.

Here’s where it gets interesting (bear with me a bit longer):

About 8,718 votes were cast for the top four candidates, which works out to 2,179 ballots cast (at four candidates per ballot). District staff estimates the number of registered voters in the district (which overlaps the cities of Plymouth, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Medicine Lake, Maple Grove, Medina, and Cororan) at roughly 42,000.

Using these numbers, the current board was chosen by only five percent of registered voters in the district.

Even when the school district wanted to increase the property tax levy for 2012, the board got about as much attention as the old Maytag repairman. Only one taxpayer addressed the board at the truth-in-taxation hearing in December. The board approved a 3.5 percent levy increase.

Fortunately, good things are happening in our schools and of course, all of our children are above average. Yet the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

For the record, Linda Cohen, Jay Hesby and Carter Peterson were re-elected to the Wayzata School Board in November. Cheryl Polzin, co-chair of the district’s Legislative Action Committee, was newly-elected to the eight-member board, which includes Superintendent Chace Anderson.

The district website is located at http://www.wayzata.k12.mn.us.