At least two supporters of the school referendum are glad the weather forecast is promising for Saturday afternoon.

Friday, November 02, 2001

At least two supporters of the school referendum are glad the weather forecast is promising for Saturday afternoon.

Nancy Hockenberry and Sally Ehrhardt will be standing outside Hy-Vee Food Store most of the day handing out &uot;Vote Yes&uot; stickers and encouraging people to go to the polls on Tuesday.

&uot;I’m willing to do just about anything to get this referendum passed,&uot; said Ehrhardt, who has a first-grade son at Lakeview Elementary. &uot;I’ve stuffed envelopes, I’ll hand out stickers, I’ll make presentations – we just want to make sure we’ve put forth the effort.&uot;

And the effort by referendum supporters has intensified in the last week. In the final days leading up to the vote, many Albert Leans can expect a phone call or postcard in the mail that reminds them to vote Nov. 6. A successful referendum would add about $358 per student or a total of about $1.7 million to the district’s operating budget each year for the next decade. About 53 percent of that would be paid by the state, and the rest would come from local property taxes.

&uot;My feeling is that if we can get the parents to turn out – the people with children currently in the district – we can pass the referendum,&uot; Ehrhardt said.

Hockenberry is just as passionate about school issues, even though she has no children in the district and never did. She said she believes in the value of education, especially knowing that the district has already cut its budget by more than $5 million over the last several years.

&uot;Schools are what it’s all about when it comes to the health and attractiveness of any city,&uot; Hockenberry said. &uot;We can probably entice good people here and convince them to stay if our school district can avoid the cuts.&uot;

Saving good programs from budget cuts was one reason Bill Leland ran for the school board last year. He wants his 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son to have a multitude of extra-curricular choices.

Nearing the end of his first year on the board, Leland said he would be disappointed with the community if the levy fails.

&uot;I’m always the eternal optimist. I think we’ll pass this referendum,&uot; he said. &uot;Personally, I think most people understand the issues, realize the importance of this, and will turn out in big numbers to support the schools.&uot;

Leland said he hopes a successful referendum could be the start of a new trend in Albert Lea – investing instead of cutting.

&uot;If this doesn’t pass, I’m not afraid to make the tough decisions on budget cuts. But, we’ve been cutting for so long,&uot; he said. &uot;How can we stay competitive with other districts?&uot;

&uot;We’re really counting on the parents and other supporters in the district to rally behind this,&uot; he added.

Jacki Anderson has twin girls in the fourth grade at Hawthorne. As the volunteer coordinator for the school, she said she gets to see firsthand how diligently teachers work and how kids respond to good teaching. She’s concerned that classes will get bigger, more students will slip through the cracks and extracurricular options will begin to disappear.

&uot;My girls want to be in music, and volleyball and swimming. I want those things to be there when they’re ready to get involved,&uot; she said.

As a member of the Hawthorne PTO, Anderson is fiercely proud of the school her daughters attend.

&uot;Yes, I’m concerned about voter turnout. But, even more than that, I don’t like the idea of closing an elementary in the near future,&uot; she said. &uot;My mother and I both attended Hawthorne. It’s in our blood.&uot;

With two daughters in the district, Kim Flaa wants her fourth grader to have the same chance to sing in the choir and play in the band as her ninth grader. As president of a Sibley Elementary’s parent organization SHARE, Flaa has been telling members to vote and tell others about their decision.

&uot;We can’t afford to have private opinions about our public schools in this day and age. If you support them, you’ve got to say so. If you can, you’ve got to convince others,&uot; Flaa said.

Teachers are also getting involved in the last week before the vote. Albert Lea Education Association President Sue Hanson, a sixth-grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary, said teachers have been encouraged to help in the get-out-the-vote effort.

&uot;As an organization, we do support the school board’s efforts with this referendum. I would hope that all members of our organization vote in favor of it,&uot; she said. &uot;Bigger class sizes are really tough for kids and challenging for teachers.&uot;

School officials have said that budget cutting if the referendum fails would surely mean cutting teachers, which would drive up the average class size. The district has not estimated how many teachers would be cut.

During her more than 20 years with the district, Hanson said the cutting mode has been constant.

&uot;How much more can be cut?&uot; she asked.

As a teacher, Mary Jo Dorman is concerned about security and ensuring that her colleagues in the elementary specialties keep their jobs. But she said she is most concerned as a parent of two elementary-age boys.

&uot;The research shows that kids in extracurricular activities do much better. That means we’ve got to keep our current options in place,&uot; she said. She’s been organizing a phone blitz using volunteer teachers.

&uot;If we can show our local support for this referendum, the state pays half of it,&uot; Dorman said. &uot;That means calling parents, other teachers and all our supporters to make sure they go – that they go out and vote ‘yes.’&uot;