HOW WAS THE PROPOSED REFERENDUM CREATED?

In November 2021, the school board put two questions on the ballot seeking to complete critical updates at our school buildings and activities spaces. After these questions were not approved, the district created a community task force to evaluate options to improve learning spaces and hear the priorities of community members.

The task force focused on four priorities:

  • Ensuring that any future investments align with feedback received from our community, students, and staff on the greatest challenges facing our schools.

  • Limiting the tax impact of future investment to no more than $17/month for the average homeowner.

  • Addressing the needs and safety of our facilities and pressures on the district’s operating budget.

  • Ensuring that new investments support our students’ and community’s unique Career Academies model and Continuous Improvement Plan for facilities.

The task force then spent nearly two years carefully evaluating our biggest facilities needs with these goals in mind. These efforts included:

  • Comprehensive facility studies to evaluate the condition and quality of our existing school buildings.

  • Educational adequacy assessments to see how well our schools meet standards from the Minnesota Department of Education.

  • Eleven community listening sessions that drew over 100 participants to share feedback and identify priorities. 

  • Demographic and enrollment studies to identify trends and project future demand for learning and activities space.

  • A representative survey of staff and district residents to understand the community’s priorities for investments in our schools.

A community task force of more than 30 local residents considered the results of this work and provided recommendations to the Princeton School Board for the scope of investments.