St. Paul school levy gets labor endorsement

September 18, 2025 by

Organized labor is backing the campaign to pass a new operating levy in the St. Paul school district this fall. Administrators and union leaders say the increased funds are necessary to maintain educational programming and avoid steep budget cuts.

Delegates to the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, which unites over 100 affiliate unions in the East Metro, voted Sept. 10 to endorse a “yes” vote on the levy request, which will appear on the ballot Nov. 4.

The St. Paul Federation of Educators, which represents about 4,000 teachers, education assistants and school professionals in the district, also endorsed the levy request, as did AFSCME Council 5, representing nearly 300 school clerical and technical workers.

Labor endorsement means unions will support the community campaign to pass the levy, Yes for St. Paul Public Schools, with both resources and volunteers. SPFE Executive Board member Quentin Ocama, a kindergarten teacher at Maxfield Elementary and SPPS graduate, is chair of the campaign.

“Labor knows how important strong public education is to our community and our city’s future,” Ocama said.

The campaign will hold a kickoff rally Saturday, Sept. 20 – the day after early voting begins. Organizers also invite volunteers to join regular door knocks and phone banks; learn more at www.yesforspps.com/events.

If passed, the levy referendum would raise $1,073 per student annually for the next 10 years, or about $37.2 million per year in additional revenue for the district. It also includes annual inflationary adjustments.

The new funding stream would help the state’s second-largest school district address a projected annual funding gap of over $50 million per year.

Several factors have contributed to the shortfall. Per-pupil funding from the state, although recently tied to inflation, lagged districts’ rising costs for two decades. Federal pandemic-relief funds helped bridge the gap temporarily, but the Trump administration has threatened to close the Department of Education, putting federal funding streams at risk.

Without an influx of revenue, SPPS leaders warn, the school system will be forced to make steep service cuts at its 69 schools, which serve over 33,000 students.

Erica Schatzlein, SPFE’s lead negotiator in contract talks with the district earlier this year, said those cuts would be “drastic” – and risk gains the union has made over the last decade in bargaining for classroom staffing, mental health services, outreach initiatives and other supports for students and families.

To make those gains, SPFE pushed administrators to dip into the district’s fund balance, arguing cash reserves were larger than necessary. That’s no longer the case, Schatzlein said.

“Now it’s at the bare minimum,” she said. “We didn’t ask them to dip into their fund balance to settle our contract this year because they can’t. We know. We looked at the numbers.

“This is a levy to keep the district stable and strong. We’re looking to the taxpayers of St. Paul to keep us on that track of providing the resources the schools St. Paul students deserve – and we don’t do that lightly.”

Investments in local public schools, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said, have a ripple effect throughout the community.

“Union members know that high-quality public schools are a key part of St. Paul’s economic vitality,” she said. “They equip the next generation of workers with the skills to meet employers’ needs. They are essential to the fabric of our community.”

“Strong public schools are necessary for St. Paul to continue to be a place where working families choose to live,” Ocama, the Yes for SPPS chair, said. “Public schools are a vital part of our civil fabric, and they are important so that we can raise the next generation of our city’s residents.”

Visit spps.org/vote to learn more about the levy referendum.

– Michael Moore, UA editor

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Labor gets behind school bonds, levies in East Metro

October 25, 2019 by

Organized labor is boosting efforts to fund new investments in several East Metro public school districts, including a record-breaking building referendum in the White Bear Lake Area Schools.

Levy and bond referendums empower communities to invest in their schools’ programming, facilities and technology – investments that always pay off in the long run, St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said.

“Great schools are the bedrock of every strong community,” Kasper said. “They educate our future workforce and attract good employers to our area.

“That’s why, as a labor movement, we usually support operating levy and bond referendums as down payments on our economic future.”

The St. Paul RLF, which unites local unions from Ramsey, Chisago, Dakota and Washington counties, has endorsed levy requests on the Nov. 5 ballot in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Lakeville, Mounds View and Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan districts, as well as a separate bond request in Lakeville.

But the referendum in White Bear Lake is the biggest of the bunch.

District leaders have pitched a $326 million package of technological, facility and safety improvements that would touch every building and program in the school system.

It’s the largest school bond referendum ever to appear on a ballot in Minnesota, and it comes after months of strategic planning, which brought together residents with and without children, business owners, teachers and other district staff.

Even if it passes, property owners in the White Bear district would still be paying less toward school debt, about $275 per year, than their counterparts in neighboring districts, who average about $317 per year. And taxpayers who file for the state’s property tax refund would see their burden cut by as much as 80 percent.

Meanwhile, the building referendum provides an opportunity to address issues that have been bubbling to the surface within the community for over a decade, like concerns about school safety and changing technology, as well as an expanding student population.

Tiffany Dittrich, president of the White Bear Lake Teachers Association, said the district anticipates an influx of up to 2,000 students over the next 10 years.

“We’re currently at capacity,” Dittrich said. “So it’s critically important that we have additional classroom space to be able to support those students.”

The building referendum also would fund construction of a unified high school in the district, which currently splits students between north and south campuses. Dittrich, in her 23rd year as a language arts teacher at White Bear, said a single-site high school is “something the community has wanted for a long time.”

With improvements proposed at every school site, and a brand new elementary school in Hugo, the White Bear bond would create hundreds of construction jobs. It would also strengthen and support existing jobs in the district, which maintains 11 different collective bargaining agreements with local unions.

Dittrich said she isn’t taking anything for granted, but she remains hopeful the referendum will pass Nov. 5.

“In my experience, the residents of the White Bear community support their schools,” she said. “That support has contributed to an environment that empowers me to support students and allow them to thrive educationally.”

 

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To stop cycle of cuts, St. Paul educators back levy referendum

October 25, 2018 by

spps-levy-logoJust months after emerging from a fractious round of contract negotiations, St. Paul educators, board members and administrators are pulling in the same direction this fall, urging voters to approve an operating levy worth an additional $18.6 million in annual school funding for the district.

The new funds would help the St. Paul Public Schools address revenue shortfalls that have forced over $50 million in programming, staff and other budget cuts over the last three years. This school year, the district shaved an additional $17.2 million from its budget.

A number of factors outside the district’s control have contributed to the budget woes, but the biggest factor, district leaders say, is the state government’s per-pupil funding formula hasn’t kept pace with rising education costs. Mandated special education services, for example, cost the district $42 million more annually than the funding it receives to provide those services.

With so much uncertainty, SPPS Superintendent Joe Gothard said the levy increase would provide the district with greater budget stability, freeing schools and educators to focus less on where to cut and more on the students they serve.

“We have great work happening every day in our schools, but it is a challenge to sustain our efforts,” Gothard said. “We see this levy as a investment in making sure St. Paul continues to be a great place to live, work and learn.”

Members of the St. Paul educators’ union began mobilizing in support of the levy as the new school year began, pursuing an ambitious plan to knock the door of every educator living in the district. Beth Swanberg, a music teacher at Highland Park Middle School, said her conversations at the doors have been positive.

“People in St. Paul are supportive of public schools,” Swanberg said. “There is a history of quality education here, and people have told me they want to continue that.”

A game of ‘what if?’

Indeed, the stakes are high for students, parents and educators. Long gone are the days when districts like St. Paul went to voters with levy requests to fund the extras that might enrich their schools’ programming.

“Now we’re trying to do a levy referendum to make up for the cuts that have come down from our state Legislature,” union president Nick Faber said.

Last month the North Star Policy Institute unveiled a new report, “Minnesota Backslide,” that charts the decline in state funding to local school districts. Researchers found 93 percent of school districts statewide are receiving less aid today, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than in 2003, when state lawmakers overhauled the school funding system. In half of districts statewide, state funding has dropped by more than 10 percent.

The state’s failure to keep school funding steady has forced most school districts to seek property-tax levies to bridge the gap.

St. Paul is no exception. If state funding had kept up with inflation over the past 15 years, SPPS would have received nearly $620 more per student this year. That’s a total of $21.6 million in lost funds – a number that leaves a lot of educators wondering “what if?”

“If we could actually start to recoup the funding that we’ve lost over the last 20 years and have that referendum on top of it, imagine the things that we could do,” Faber said. “With the knowledge that our educators have here in St. Paul, with their willingness to tackle racial equity head on, we could accomplish so much with that kind of funding.”

“I often wonder what I would request for my students if we had more funds, and it’s hard to even imagine because I’m so used to not having any extras,” Highland Park Middle School teacher Leah VanDassor said. “It’s been so many years of cuts, cuts, cuts at every level.”

VanDassor, Swanberg and other St. Paul educators aren’t just talking with voters about the levy. They are also trying to paint the bigger picture, urging support for labor-endorsed candidates at the top of the ballot who will reinvest in public schools. That includes Tim Walz, the labor-endorsed candidate for governor.

But VanDassor acknowledged “any fundamental change will not be fast,” and the immediate needs of her students are great.

Trusting the voters

The levy campaign has broad support from the community. The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation has endorsed it, and so has St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who called SPPS the “lifeblood” of his community.

Only a year removed from campaigning citywide for the mayor’s office, Carter said he has faith people living in the school district will join him in voting “yes.” The investment, Carter added, goes hand in hand with his administration’s work to realign city programming to meet the needs of St. Paul’s changing population – and include more voices.

“We’re not just going to say we can do more for our children,” he said. “We’re actually going to do more for our children.

“I’m confident the city will step forward.”

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SPFT, district reach agreement, pledge to take on funding shortfalls together

February 12, 2018 by

SPFT President Nick Faber speaks at a press conference in the library at Galtier Community School, where he did his student teaching 31 years ago.

Members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers will not strike tomorrow, but they aren’t walking away from the fight for fully funded, racially equitable schools.

After 13 hours of mediated talks that began Sunday, union and district negotiators reached tentative agreements on three contracts covering SPFT’s 3,700 members early this morning, averting a strike. Details of the agreements are not yet public.

During a press conference at Galtier Community School this afternoon, union and district leaders said collaboration was key to reaching common ground at the bargaining table – and will remain critical as the two sides carry forward their work to tackle funding shortfalls facing the St. Paul Public Schools.

“We are dedicated to working with our district and whoever else it takes to increase that funding so our kids can have the schools that they deserve,” SPFT President Nick Faber said. “SPFT is extremely excited about that work going forward, and we know we can work in the (spirit of) collaboration that we ended negotiations in … this morning.”

“We are so strong together,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said, adding that whatever approach the district takes to raising revenue, leaders know “we will not be able to do this alone.”

Collaboration could involve lobbying together at the Legislature or partnering in efforts to recruit new students, Gothard and Faber said. It might also mean working jointly on a levy referendum or other potential revenue sources.

The mutual commitment to raising revenue – whatever approach it takes – is a victory for SPFT, which refused to allow scarcity to dictate contract negotiations despite the district’s projected budget shortfall.

Instead, union proposals took aim at creating fully funded schools staffed with nurses, librarians and social workers, with smaller class sizes and expanded preschool and family-engagement programs. To realize its vision, SPFT called on the district to join its members in pressuring tax-exempt large nonprofits and corporate tax dodgers to pay their fair share.

The groundbreaking approach drew national attention and sparked public debate likely to outlive the next bargaining agreement. “We consider that a win,” Faber said.

“This contract campaign was centered around the myth of scarcity, but our corporate campaign continues on,” he added. “There is a lot of money in this state, we’re just making political decisions not to put it into our classrooms, particularly our classrooms with kids of color in them.”

SPFT’s bargaining team, meanwhile, said the proposed contracts for school and community service professionals, educational assistants and teachers make progress on several of union members’ top priorities.

“We won supports for our students, especially our English Learners and our students who receive Special Education services,” a post on the union’s website read. “We defended our class size language and strengthened the commitment to Restorative Practices.”

Although both sides struck a conciliatory tone at the press conference today, negotiations between SPFT and the district were the most heated in years, with union members voting overwhelmingly Jan. 31 in favor of authorizing a strike. Faber called the strike authorization “an awesome responsibility and an awesome piece of strength” in negotiations.

“Teachers go into this profession to be in a classroom, not out of it,” he said. “So when people are so passionate that they’re willing to walk, that’s an incredible feeling. It did offer us a great deal of leverage and sense of purpose going into those final conversations to make sure we delivered for our members.”

SPFT will hold informational meetings with members about the contract Thursday, and the union expects to hold a ratification vote early next week.

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Trades praise agreement covering construction project in Forest Lake schools

January 12, 2016 by

Forest-Lake-Area-SchoolsA $140 million bonding initiative approved by voters in ISD 831 last fall will improve the security and structural integrity of buildings throughout the Forest Lake Area Schools. And thanks to a project labor agreement (PLA), the district’s investment will uphold area wage, benefit and safety standards as well.

By a 7-0 vote, the Forest Lake school board voted Thursday to enter into a PLA covering the construction project, which will break ground later this year.

Don Mullin, head of the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council, which pushed for the PLA, called the decision “an all around great thing.”

“It means everybody’s on the same page,” Mullin said. “We’re all working toward a common goal, which is making sure our schools are safe, a great place to work and a great experience for our children.”

PLAs establish terms and conditions for construction employees and contractors on a project, from wages and benefits to overtime pay, grievance procedures, drug testing, holidays and more.

By setting those terms and conditions at the outset, project owners make their labor costs more predictable, weed out irresponsible bidders and ensure labor peace for the entirety of the project. Several studies show projects built under PLAs are more likely to be completed on time, within budget and with quality construction.

“It puts the agreement up front, says here’s how we’re going to work through this project,” Mullin said. “And because we have this agreement, we’re not going to have any issues.”

PLAs are commonly used on large-scale construction projects like hospitals and pro-sports stadiums, but they aren’t always an easy sell to suburban school boards and city councils.

Located 25 miles north of St. Paul, Forest Lake is no exception. During construction of a new city hall two years ago, two Building Trades unions erected informational picket lines or banners to protest the city’s use of contractors that undermined area standards for wages and benefits.

Mullin said union members who live and work in Forest Lake have reached out to local elected officials since then, building relationships, increasing awareness of what unions do and providing critical support for the bonding measure that won voters’ approval in November, after failing the previous year.

Last week’s unanimous vote is an indication that work is paying off, Mullin said.

“It speaks volumes to the work people like (Carpenters union representative) Jeff Peterson and Kera Peterson with the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation have been doing for years in the area,” Mullin said. “It goes back to those relationships and the power of our membership saying, ‘We live in this community, and we take pride in what we do.’”

Bids for the $140 million construction project go out in March. Work will include security enhancements at each building the school district operates, repairs to several existing roofs and walls, and a complete overhaul of one district facility.

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‘Vote Yes’ campaigns in school districts across East Metro win labor support

October 29, 2015 by

12036412_489470271235376_258311348679741501_nVoters in the Forest Lake Area School District last year rejected a $176 million levy request, leaving the district’s facilities in critical need of updates and repair.

Now, the district is back with another request on the Nov. 3 ballot, seeking $161 million over two unique referendums. Supporters of the local “Vote Yes” campaign, including parents, students and local unions, acknowledge facing an uphill climb.

But Forest Lake Education Association President Allison Whittlef said she’s holding out hope “due to the grassroots movement of community champions who are actively seeking support and communicating with residents in a variety of ways.

“With the passage of this bond an already robust education setting will be made stronger by providing quality facilities and improved opportunities for all learners. But help is needed from the local level to make a good system great.”

The Forest Lake district isn’t alone in seeking support from local taxpayers. A recent survey of the state’s school districts, conducted by the Minnesota School Boards Association, showed a record 68 districts seeking building bond or capital project levies this year, in addition to 53 districts seeking operating levies.

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said it’s difficult to generalize the many reasons districts put levies on the ballot. Enrollment increases and aging schools are contributing factors, she said, as are rising costs of transportation, health care, security and information technology.

School districts have seen the state’s per-pupil funding formula increase each year that Mark Dayton has served as governor. But Specht said those increases haven’t made up for a decade of disinvestment prior to the Dayton administration, when state funding failed to keep pace with inflation.

“Getting back to even could take a few more years,” she said. State funding increases, Specht added, often go toward operating costs, leaving little left over to pay for capital improvements – like repairing a leaky roof in Forest Lake, or updating the technology available to students in the Lakeville Area Public Schools.

“Our per-pupil funding from the state is currently at 2004 levels when adjusted for inflation,” said Don Sinner, president of the Lakeville teachers’ union. “After several years of cuts, we need to finally provide the children of our communities, every single one of them, with the high-quality learning environment and opportunities they deserve – and the economy of the future needs.”

Levies enjoy broad labor support, both in the East Metro and statewide – and not just because school districts employ a lot of union members. Strong schools help build strong communities, Whittlef said.

“With the passage of the bond, our community will prosper by attracting families and businesses to our area,” Whittlef said. “That in turn will create expanded job and career opportunities for our fellow brothers and sisters.”

Other labor-endorsed “Vote Yes” campaigns in the East Metro include referendums in the Farmington, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan and South Washington County school districts. Click here to view a full list of labor endorsed school referendums and candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot across the East Metro.

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Union volunteers gave labor-endorsed candidates a boost in Nov. 5 elections

November 7, 2013 by
Volunteers plot their course of action after a get-out-the-vote rally at the St. Paul Labor Centre the night before Election Day.

Volunteers plot their course of action after a get-out-the-vote rally at the St. Paul Labor Centre the night before Election Day.

Union volunteers gave labor-endorsed candidates and school levy campaigns a boost during the 2013 election cycle, aiding victories in the City of St. Paul and several East Metro suburbs.

The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, the AFL-CIO’s central labor council in Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Chisago counties, recruited 125 volunteers for phone banks, door knocks and other campaign events Oct. 5 through Election Day.

RLF President Bobby Kasper was encouraged by union volunteers’ level of enthusiasm in an odd-year election, calling it a positive sign of things to come in the 2014 cycle.

“Much is at stake in local elections, and I’m proud of the work our volunteers, affiliates and staff did in 2013 to help labor-endorsed candidates across the region,” Kasper said. “It’s also an important building block for the work ahead of us in federal and state races next fall.”

Here’s a look at how candidates and campaigns endorsed by delegates to the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation fared across the East Metro in Nov. 5 voting:

• St. Paul. Mayor Chris Coleman, endorsed by both the RLF and the Chamber of Commerce, won a third term by a landslide, and all three labor-endorsed candidates for Board of Education – newcomer Chue Vue and incumbents Jean O’Connell and John Brodrick – won handily as well.

Results of a special election to fill Ward 1’s seat on the City Council will take longer to determine. RLF-endorsed Noel Nix (24.4 percent) finished second to Dai Thao (28.2 percent) on voters’ first-choice ballots. Thao ran with support from some labor organizations, including Operating Engineers Local 49 and the Service Employees state council.

The eventual winner in Ward 1 will emerge via the city’s ranked-choice voting process, which takes into account the subsequent choices of voters who gave their first preference to trailing candidates. Elections officials will begin the work of determining a majority winner Monday.

• School levies. Voters approved levy referendums endorsed by the RLF in five East Metro school districts: White Bear Lake, Lakeville, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, Chisago Lakes and Stillwater.

Other districts in the East Metro that passed levies Nov. 5 include Hastings, Inver Grove Heights, Mounds View, Roseville and South Washington County.

• Maplewood. Voters in Maplewood elected former state legislator Nora Slawik mayor. Running with broad labor support, Slawik drew 67 percent of votes cast.

Two open seats on the Maplewood City Council also went to labor-endorsed candidates: newcomer Mary Lee Abrams and incumbent Kathy Juenemann.

• New Brighton. Endorsed candidates did not fare as well in New Brighton, as all three labor-endorsed campaigns – mayoral candidate Mary Burg and city council candidates Mary Kunesh Podein and Graeme Allen – fell short by narrow margins.

• School boards. Don Mullin, a trade-show decorator and member of the Painters and Allied Trades union, won election in his first campaign for White Bear Lake School Board. Labor-endorsed candidates George Kimball and Janet Newberg also won seats.

Labor-endorsed candidates Art Coulson and Mike Roseen won seats on the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum rallies volunteers at a rally in the St. Paul Labor Centre.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum rallies volunteers at a rally in the St. Paul Labor Centre.

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Bobby Kasper: Support school levies on Nov. 5 ballot

October 30, 2013 by
Bobby Kasper

Bobby Kasper

Garrison Keillor, the great Minnesota author and radio personality, put it best: “Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.”

At the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, we’re putting Keillor’s words into action, working in support of five levy referendums in East Metro suburbs that have been endorsed by our delegation of 100-plus local unions. No matter where you live, if there’s a school levy question on your ballot Nov. 5, voting “yes” is the right thing to do for Minnesota’s students, teachers and communities.

Earlier this year, Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL majorities in the Legislature succeeded in increasing the per-pupil funding formula that provides the majority of funding for our school districts, and the state recently paid back most of the money borrowed from school districts in order to end the Republican-led state government shutdown two years ago. Still, the state funding formula has lagged behind the rate of inflation for decades, and operating levies have been a lifeline for districts looking to maintain their educational offerings.

Project1_Layout 1What’s more, levies equip districts with the tools they need to strengthen their schools in ways that reflect local priorities. In Stillwater, voters will decide whether to approve $16.2 million in annual funding for the community-driven “Bridge to Excellence” plan, as well as initiatives to increase school safety and security. In White Bear Lake, voters will be asked to extend funding for library books, science equipment and technology for teachers and students. Voters in the Chisago Lakes School District have an opportunity to restore programs cut from previous budgets, including art classes and middle-school Spanish classes.

At the Regional Labor Federation, we are proud to support the teachers, parents and community groups working at the grassroots level to pass school levies in Stillwater, White Bear Lake and Chisago Lakes, as well as the Lakeville and Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school districts. We have reached out to union members in these districts, urging them to vote “yes.” We are also working to elect labor-endorsed candidates for school board across the East Metro. These candidates not only will support levy referendums when necessary, but will act as good stewards of funds raised when levies pass.

All children deserve a world-class education. Their futures depend on it, and so does the economic future of our region. The Twin Cities area is known across the world for its educated, highly skilled workforce. It’s a big reason that Minnesota boasts 19 Fortune 500 companies, more than 48 other states. When you vote “yes” on your local school levy referendum, you show your support for kids, for teachers, for attracting the jobs of the future to the region and for maintaining our state’s high quality of life.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, representing more than 100 affiliate unions and their members throughout the East Metro area.

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