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My wife and I returned to the Northland area 12 years ago to raise our family. We have four children and they are 4th generation students in Northland Schools. We live on the outskirts of the district and could easily open enroll to neighboring schools but we choose to send our kids to Northland because we believe they are receiving a competitive education from a dedicated staff.

Where Northland schools are not competitive is in the area of facilities. Because my wife and I volunteer both in the classroom and through youth sports we have a unique perspective on how we stack up versus schools across the state of Minnesota from a facility standpoint. While some districts are faced with even greater challenges than Northland, we are definitely at the lower end of the learning environment spectrum. Our school is faced with significant deficiencies in areas such as school access/safety, science/technology, lunch/common areas, and athletic facilities.

This does not include the need to address the air quality issue that will need to be addressed even if a referendum does not pass. As we understand it, if the referendum fails, the school board will issue a levy that will, for a 5 year period increase taxes by a similar amount as the proposed school project. Based on what we see at the school, there will be similar levies to address leaking roofs and other "Band-Aid" fixes as the school continues to age. Do we as a district want to continue to throw more money into a school that does not offer a competitive learning environment or do we want to invest our tax dollars into a school that parents look at as a school of choice that provides our students with similar opportunities with other students not just in the area, but across the state as well? We choose the latter and will vote yes for the May 12th referendum and hope you do as well.[[In-content Ad]]

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