Voters in the South Washington County School District in August decisively rejected a $462 million bond request by a nearly two-to-one ratio.

Now, district officials say they are “going back to the drawing board” to get voters to understand the critical need for funding for new construction, renovations and improvements to address student growth.

Starting Monday, district officials will be holding a series of listening sessions to gather feedback from district residents. Those eight sessions – which will be held online and in person – will be followed by a new demographic study, a communitywide survey and a timeline for creation of a new facility plan, district officials say.

It’s too soon to say when the district might return to voters with another request, said Superintendent Julie Nielsen.

Information from the listening sessions, community survey and new demographic study is expected to be shared with the school board in late January or early February, Nielsen said.

The $426 million bond request – the biggest ever in Minnesota — was rejected by a vote of 14,834 to 7,782 on Aug. 9.

“We asked for what we needed,” Nielsen said. “But I would say that August was probably the perfect storm as we look at what was going on with the economy, returning to school and the largest ask in the state of Minnesota. All of those things played a role in the unsuccessful bond. We knew that it was a big ask for our community, and so this allows us the opportunity to kind of reflect on what we did, and move forward, hopefully, with a plan that our community can support.”

Voters in the White Bear Lake school district three years ago approved a $329 million bond referendum to fund construction projects across the district, making it the largest successful school bond referendum in state history.

Nielsen said, however, noted that the White Bear Lake district has about 8,700 students, fewer than half of the students in the South Washington County district.

“White Bear Lake is a completely different district,” she said. “When you look at what they were asking for per-pupil versus South Washington County schools, we still were much lower.”

A better comparison, she said, would be with the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District 196, which serves approximately 29,000 students. District 196 officials also are working on long-range facility planning and preparing for a bond referendum, according to Nielsen. “You’re probably going to see another very large number come out of 196,” she said.

Demographic information provided to voters in South Washington County School District prior to the August vote will be updated to reflect a “slowdown” in housing builds, Nielsen said. Voters had been told to expect 8,000 new homes and more than 3,500 potential new K-12 students in the district over the next 10 years, but Nielsen said recent conversations with city officials in Woodbury and Cottage Grove indicate that those numbers will likely change.

“What we know is that the homes that were approved to go in and up probably aren’t being sold off at the same rate as they were previously,” Nielsen said. “The new study will hopefully explore now, post-pandemic and economy-wise, where we’re at in terms of numbers.”

One of the most controversial part of the district’s plan included the closure of Newport Elementary School, the most diverse school in the district. Under the plan, Newport Elementary would have become an early learning center.

Nielsen said it was too early to say what might happen with the school.

“We have not had any further conversations around Newport Elementary School,” Nielsen said. “We will certainly take a look at what we learn through the listening sessions, as well as from the survey results, and make decisions moving forward. At this time, we’re not certain … because we don’t have the additional information.”

The school district spans parts or all of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, Afton, Denmark Township and Grey Cloud Island Township.

The South Washington County School District is holding a series of community listening sessions in October and November to gather feedback following August’s unsuccessful bond referendum.

The first session will be 6-7:30 p.m. Monday at East Ridge High School in Woodbury.

Subsequent sessions will be held Oct. 24 at Park High School; Oct. 27 at the District Program Center; Nov. 1 at Lake Middle School; Nov. 2 at Woodbury High School and Nov. 3 at Oltman Middle School. A virtual session also will be held. For more information and to RSVP, go to www.sowashco.org/facilityplanning.

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