BROWNTON -Voters in the McLeod West (Stewart Brownton), Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop (GFW), Buffalo Lake Hector (BLH) and Glencoe Silver Lake (GSL) school districts will decide the fate of the McLeod West district consolidation issue today.
Polls will be open 4-8 p.m. in Gibbon, Fairfax and Winthrop schools.
Other voting locations include Biscay, Brownton, Buffalo Lake, Glencoe, Hector, New Auburn, Plato, Silver Lake and Stewart.
Voters in all school districts must approve consolidation for extra state aid consolidation money to be given to the GFW, BLH and GSL districts to help accommodate former McLeod West students.
If the vote is approved in all districts, each would receive an extra $200 per pupil unit in state aid for the 2009-2010 school year and an extra $100 per pupil unit in 2010-2011.
The extra state aid money will be lost and the consolidation issue would go to Renville County Commissioners if the vote doesn't pass in any school district.
GFW Superintendent Stephen Malone commented on the value of the consolidation vote and resulting extra state aid.
"All four school boards agree the extra money benefits students and I think it does too," Malone said.
The Legislature passed a bill in early April authorizing the McLeod West district to issue general obligation bonds to pay the district's $2.5 million debt.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the bill into law on April 14.
Indebtedness bonds will be paid off over six years by McLeod West taxpayers using net tax capacity that includes all district property including farmland.
Brownton City Councilor Chuck Warner, a former mayor, justice of the peace, school board member and newspaper owner and publisher, said the Brownton City Council will meet to Wednesday, if the consolidation vote passes in all districts, to decide what to do with the Brownton school property, which includes 15 acres of land with a baseball and softball park.
Warner said much of the school property was sold to the district by the city for $1 in the 1950s.
A number of parents of Brownton students have hopes of creating a K-8 public charter school following a $1 million project to build classrooms, offices, a kitchen and cafeteria.
"Parents are leading the project. The City Council is completely behind it," Warner said. "Those of us a generation removed are backing them up. We have about 100 kids to enroll. I think it can fly. The Glencoe-Silver Lake School District would be our sponsor."
Warner is optimistic the consolidation will be approved in all districts.
"People that opposed our prior bond issues are paying for advertising urging people to vote for the consolidation," Warner said. "If it doesn't go through, schools will lose the (two-year) extra state aid money."
Warner said that despite what some people felt was the thing to do, the district can't sell school property and use it to pay for (McLeod West) district indebtedness because if the vote fails, the GSL district would likely get the Brownton school property.
He added that baseball and the local baseball park are a sensitive issue in Brownton.
"We don't want to see anything else happen to it," Warner said. "It is still used for high school, Legion and amateur baseball games. Brownton and Glencoe will host the 2011 Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament. It's the sixth time the state amateur baseball tournament would be in Brownton."
(Fritz Busch can be e-mailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).
