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My name is Jen Kovall and most of you reading this article probably know who I am or have heard of me. That is because I grew up in Longville and have lived in this area my entire life. You either know me because I am a coach or I am a business owner or our kids go to school together. Like many of you I have watched referendums pass and fail over the years. This is not unusual, it is a constant unfortunate phenomenon, that many of the districts state wide have to face! We put our children's fate in the hands of our community when we ask you to vote on any referendum, in hopes that you will come out to support them. The bottom line is the children of our district are our responsibility! Whether you have any kids or relatives in the district you all know of a child in the district and they need your support. Someone paid for all of us to have a good education and it is our duty to provide the same to all of the kids of the community we live in. I am friends with so many people from all parts of this community and we all have different questions and opinions about the upcoming referendum. I felt I owed it to my own kids and the kids of this community to at least point out a few things that seem to be of hot topic. Why would we vote yes to a referendum and watch our taxes go up? We all watch our bottom line and that is understandable! But you need to know the facts, and that is... our taxes are going to go up regardless if we pass the referendum. The tax levy is already in place, however voting yes will only increase our taxes over the levy a minimal amount extra per year, to build a brand new school. Like mentioned in an earlier article that is very important to remember...voting yes to the current referendum will cost taxpayers less than what the future costs will be shall we ever have to consolidate. Another question myself and others have gotten is why would we vote yes to build a new school when we don't have the kids to support it? That is a crazy question! I graduated from Northland in 1992, I hate dating myself LOL, and we had 33 kids in our class which is very comparable to our upcoming elementary class sizes. Our class sizes in our elementary are greater than they have been in years. We have 4 elementary classes that are split and both our pre-school classes are full. There are numerous surrounding districts with smaller enrollment sizes. I'm not sure what the magic number is that we should have but compared to the numerous surrounding schools in our conference and our section... We are larger! Just to name a few, we have more students than Hill City, Little Fork Big Falls, Laporte, Floodwood, Wrenshall, Swanville, Upsala and Stephen-Argyle...a very well known state football team for years. These are just some of the smaller schools in the state, there are many many more smaller than us, but I believe my point has been made. My question back to anyone that thinks we are too small to provide the best for our children is...What exactly is wrong with our small school? I have so many customers from the cities that come into Deer Haven that only wish their children could have grown up in a small school and take advantage of the things that are so precious, like simple time with your kids and being able to be involved in so many things and not have it consume your life like too many bigger schools are doing to their kids now. I honestly believe there should be more small schools out there!!!! The last question I have heard is that we are trying to sneak in a vote while the snowbirds leave town. By law we had to wait 6 months to run another election and it is extremely common to run a referendum more than once when the numbers are so close. The date chosen is a nationwide election time! If you are a US citizen and vote for your congressmen and President then you would know that it is always the beginning of November. This only made sense to put the voting time then. Also absentee ballots are very easy to fill out and turn in so everyone has a good opportunity to vote. No matter who you are or where you live all children are precious! They all deserve the best and we may not always live in one place our entire life, but wherever you go, you must know that all schools will continue to need our support! I wish everyone would vote yes, but clearly that won't happen. I just hope you stop and think about your decision and why you are voting the way you are. These kids deserve it as much as any other kid! I appreciate you taking the time to read this.[[In-content Ad]]

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