New supt. hits ground running to pass levy

Asking a community to reach into its collective pocket is never an easy thing to do, Dr. Tammy Champa admitted, but it does have a bright side.

The new Owatonna Public Schools superintendent has been tasked with passing a new operating levy for the district, and the work of getting the message out began almost immediately.

“It was like, ‘Welcome to the district – now go and ask for support,’” Champa joked at her first Coffee with the Superintendent, an informal public gathering held each month.

“And while we never want to go out and be asking for additional support,” she said, “the one thing that is a benefit is it really forces me to get out and about,” accelerating her goal of meeting with residents and organizations within the community.

Levy request

The last levy was passed by voters in 2013; the 10-year expiration date has also passed, but it’s believed federal funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic helped “stave off” the need to ask for support sooner.

At least that’s been the messaging, said Nate Palmer, senior pastor at Cornerstone Church in Owatonna, and parent of students in the district.

He listened as Champa and Mark Stotts, the director of finance and operations for OPS, explained the reasoning and ramifications of a new levy.

“Unfortunately,” said Palmer, who also works as a substitute teacher in the district, “you get to come on the heels of our community and our state taxing us to death, and people are feeling that.”

According to estimates, if approved, the referendum of $700 per student would provide an additional $3.7 million to the district annually.

“I know it’s this average of $24 a month” property tax on a $300,000 home, Palmer said, “but for some people, that feels very tight. So where did those (federal COVID) funds end up going? Is there something currently in place because of COVID funds?

“Leading up to the (levy) proposal,” he said, “that was the narrative, that the COVID money’s running out – we’re going to have to do a levy. But if it’s more than that, I don’t know if that story has been told well. And that’s a story that probably needs to be told better than it has up to this point.”

Both Stotts and Champa are new employees; Stotts was hired in March.

“I haven’t looked back to see how all that money was utilized, but I can’t think of a program that was implemented during that time period,” he told Palmer. “I don’t know the history here without looking back specifically, but I’m certainly going to now.”

Champa was superintendent at Hastings Public Schools before starting her Owatonna role July 1.

“There were dollars coming into our districts that we hadn’t been used to,” she said. The ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds, she agreed, staved off asking for a levy sooner.

District funds

Though a large majority of Owatonna residents are happy with the quality of the teachers and the education provided at OPS, there is a challenge with funding, Champa said.

“One thing that we just want to be really specific about is, this isn’t about operating that high school,” she said of the $126 million facility that opened two years ago, thanks to the passage of a $104 million bond referendum.

“We would be having this conversation with or without that high school – it’s just where we are,” Champa said.

The district isn’t alone: There are currently more than 60 districts in the state seeking to pass referendums.

“Our annual budget is about $80 million to operate this school district on a day-to-day basis,” Stotts said. Rounding the expected $3.7 million generated by a new levy up to $4 million, “you’re looking at about 2% (of the budget). But it’s a very important 2%, because the dollars are real.”

There is another factor, Stotts said.

“Not only is our number one responsibility to educate our students, it’s also a business,” he said. About 81% of the budget goes to employee salaries and benefits.

The district is the third largest employer in the city.

“People would like to see every dollar go to the classroom,” Stotts said, “but we are also responsible for the facilities, transportation” and other areas.

Another misconception, he said, is “that property taxes pay for a majority of education, when in reality, almost 80% of the district’s revenue comes directly from the state legislature.”

With that funding, however, comes heavy regulation, including how those dollars are used.

About 12% of the district’s revenue, “and it’s a very important 12%,” Stotts said, comes from local property taxes. Federal funding accounts for about 4% of the annual budget.

What next?

There are plenty of reasons the request is coming now, the officials said.

If state funding had kept pace with inflation, “we’d be receiving about $7.3 million more per year than we’re currently receiving,” Stotts said. “We wouldn’t be sitting here asking for an operating levy.”

The district made cuts going into the current school year, reducing administrative and instructional positions.

As it stands, Owatonna’s operating levy is one of the lowest in the Big 9 Conference, topping only Austin’s per-pupil unit (PPU) by about $40.

If the levy passes, the district’s PPU would move to the fourth highest of the conference.

If it is unsuccessful, “we will be adjusting our budget over $3 million,” Champa said, which means reducing the number of employees.

“This isn’t for anything new or any additions,” she said. “It’s simply to maintain what we currently have,” in staffing and programming.

Champa and Stotts are “happy to go anywhere” to explain the levy, she said.

“I love going to groups that are really opposed to this,” Stotts said. “It’s a lot more exciting than people that are positive.”