Voters in the Big Lake School District rejected both of the school referendum questions on the ballot during the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 4. 

As a result of the rejections, the district will not receive a general funding increase of $640 per pupil for the next decade (question one), and not receive a $36.23 million investment to build a multi-purpose facility, reconstruct the aging track and field, upgrade special education and career and technical education (CTE) classrooms, and build a new on-campus home for the Big Lake Community Food Shelf (question 2).

As of Tuesday evening, reported vote totals were 1166 in favor of and 1331 against Question One, and 1009 in favor of and 1484 against Question Two.

“We’re certainly disappointed, but we respect the decision of voters,” said district superintendent Tim Truebenbach. “This will not change our mission to provide every student in our schools with the best education we can.”

The two ballot questions sought to address some of the top challenges facing the district, such as the growing inadequacy of state education funding, the growing demand for industry-standard special education and career and technical education classrooms, and increased space for student programming and community events.

“Our district has historically done a great job of managing its finances, but there’s no doubt that this vote puts us in a more difficult situation,” said Angie Manuel, Director of Business Services for the district. “Losing the operating levy means we will have to cover many of those costs with our general fund dollars. And it is unknown whether the state legislature will decide to improve funding for our schools.”

Plans to continue pursuing the needed improvements to our facilities are still in conversation.  The district has stated that the safety of the track and field is a project that cannot be put on hold and therefore will need to leverage lease-levy authority to complete the work. This can have a similar monthly impact to the community as the whole project outlined in question two, but the scope of the project is reduced to just the track and field.

“Those are decisions that will need to be made very soon,” said Tonya Reasoner, School Board Chair. “We will again evaluate the state of the district’s budget and make decisions based on the immediate needs of the students, and the funding streams available to us.”