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On Oct. 19, 1988, students at Henry Sibley High School (now know as Two Rivers High School) walked out of class to protest a failed vote that would lead to $1.9 million in budget cuts. Some 500 students out of a student body of 1,240 joined the protest, many waving banners and chanting “Save our school!” About 150 students walked out at Grass Junior High School the next day.
Election: Voters weighed in on whether to increase taxes to raise $1.9 million, about 10% of the budget. A failed vote would mean cuts, likely to sports and extracurriculars, as well as 30 to 40 staff members.
Result: The tax increase lost by 168 votes out of about 4,000 cast.
Student Voices
- “We were terribly cheated by this referendum,” senior Ron Loewenstein, who took credit for organizing the protest, told the Pioneer Press.
- “It has become a personal battle between some members of the school board, and the students are the ones who are really getting hurt,” said senior and student body president, Tom Knutsen, in a Star Tribune article. “We are trying to let people know that the student body is upset.”
- “I’ve never seen this kind of school spirit,” senior Jason Lewis told the Pioneer Press. But he added, “A lot of it is psuedo-school spirit. Everyone getting out of school early, that’s why a lot of people showed.”
Second Try Succeeds
Before painful cuts had to be made, ISD 197 brought another referendum to voters two months later in December of 1988 that ultimately succeeded.
- The two-part vote asked for a large increase for two years, then a smaller increase for the next four (passed 3,964-2,033), then asked for the larger increase to apply to all six years (passed 3,486-2,505).
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3 Responses
I was there!
And we have another referendum this year. ISD 197 claims that 83% of its budget goes to teachers and other staff – but only 45% goes to regular instruction. So 38% of personnel cost is not going to people in the classroom. I find that interesting.
If this referendum fails will we get another special election?
I don’t understand how a second referendum could have been brought only two months after the first. When is a vote a vote and we live with the results?