Bemidji's K-12 School District Bussing Inequities
Not only is funding for education itself messed up in Minnesota, the transportation funding formulas school districts get reimbursed for by the State is totally imbalanced. And this glaring inequity is felt in an enormous way here in District 31 Bemidji.
I was fortunate this year to attend Bemidji Day at The State Capital sponsored by the Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce. While the Event Center drew a lot of attention, one of the other issues brought to the attention of the legislators was the funding formula for school transportation. A fact sheet given to us by the school district showed how much of a drain this is on our district and how other districts ACTUALLY MAKE MONEY ON IT! In Bemidji's case...we are forced to use CLASSROOM DOLLARS to provide mandated pupil transportation.
Bemidji School District # 31 is 833.38 square miles. Richfield, MN District #280 is 15.19 square miles. Bemidji #31 according to the transportation formula has an enrollment who could be transported of 5341 students. Richfield # 280 according to the transportation formula has an enrollment who could be transported of 4842 students. Actual students who are bussed in Bemidji is 4952 or about 93% of the possible transported students. In Richfield, 2745 students are actually bussed or about 56% of the possible transported students. A funding formula is used BASED UPON POSSIBLE TRANSPORTED STUDENTS...NOT ACTUAL. So using the formula...Bemidji gets $2,067,675 for transportation. Actual costs of transportation in Bemidji is $2,417,460 or a difference of -$349,784. Richfield on the other hand gets $1,124,506 for transportation from the state, but its actual costs is $564,420 so they actually MAKE $560,085 on transportation! With only 56% of the students and a 15 square mile district naturally their costs are very low. In fairness to the State of Minnesota...the $2,067,675 Bemidji #31 receives includes an additional "transportation sparsity" adjustment but even with it comes no where near covering the costs. Bottom line is this $349,784 difference has to be made up somewhere. And unfortunately in this case it comes out of classroom dollars.
What's the solution? Somehow the State of Minnesota needs to spend the time to redesign the funding formula to more closely relate to the costs of services provided and to reflect the actual usage. The problem though is like everything else...it is a RURAL vrs. CITY conflict. Virtually all the major Twin City area school districts make money off of the current program. And when you speak to legislators...everyone agrees its a problem. But certainly the metro area legislators will not push or support any change that would negatively affect their areas. This is not a new issue...but with the current price of Diesel fuel and a 833 sq. mile district, the poor (in this case Bemidji District #31) will get poorer and the deficit will get bigger and the drain from the classroom funding will become greater. And this is all besides BASIC EDUCATION FUNDING ISSUES which Bemidji still will face with another upcoming referendum to try to just STAY EVEN.
With school transportation, we've known the problem for a long time. We know the solution. Who will be the force to bring this issue to a head and stop the snowball from rolling down the hill? Maybe Education Minnesota (i.e. teachers union) could mediate a solution. Between Education and Health Care ...in my opinion...the two biggest crisis in America. Your thoughts/opinions would be appreciated!
Posted by: bemidjimike on 5/08/2008 at 9:21 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink
College Graduation...The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Fortunate enough to have 3 kids graduate college in the last 5 years, I thought I knew pretty well how a college graduation commencement ceremony should transpire. But my son's graduation this past weekend from Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan sent me into a tailspin.
Let's start off with the good. The ceremony took place Saturday morning in the 4000 seat MacInnes Student Ice arena where the Huskies play WCHA hockey. As a lover of great pipe organ music I could hardly believe my eyes when I heard a huge Wurlitzer theater organ belting out music when we entered the arena. Located in the very very top of the rafters in the ceiling area was this magnificent machine with louvers wide open to let the sound reverberate. For those who may remember...it reminded me of the old Chicago Stadium where the Blackhawks use to play. Up in the rafters right over the ice of this old facility sat an organist playing a theater pipe organ during hockey games. As the main procession began, the Wurlitzer belted out "Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 in D". It was as fitting as any wedding march and there was not nearly a dry eye in the entire facility.
The Bad...unfortunately, there had been 3 threatening notes found on campus during the week proceeding graduation. One was found in the ROTC building and all of them involved some threat of violence. Being a State facility, the Michigan State Police were out in full force, checking every handbag and camera case. They moved inside the arena once the ceremony began. Several tense moments passed as Michigan Tech has a strong ROTC presence and honors were given out for military graduates. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan was the commencement speaker and is chair of the Senate Armed Service Committee. All of this was taken well by the crowd with standing ovations given to him and all the service personnel receiving honors. It is truly sad that such situations these days have to be taken so seriously, as they should. A person never knows just what may occur, no matter where it is.
The Ugly....well first of all there were no ushers for this event. Once undergraduates started receiving diplomas there was a mad dash down the main aisle of the arena for crazed parents to get a picture of their kid up on stage. It was complete chaos with parents blocking aisles while graduates tried to return to seats. Some entire families...kids/grandparents and all headed up to the front of the stage and proceeded to take multiple pictures interrupting everyone else's moment. You'd think this was the first time this university held a ceremony like this!!
Then there was the concessions. Yes, the concessions stands were open at 10:30 am for this great formal event. We had people walking by us with Nachos and Cheese and boxes of popcorn! You have to wonder just how poor the University has to be to sell this during an event such as this. I was wondering why they didn't have vendors going up and down through the aisles selling peanuts and hot dogs during the ceremony!!
The really good news was my son graduated. Another one through the system and off to change the world. But I found out I am not done yet! My daughter announced that she has been accepted for a graduate program at the University of Minnesota starting this September. This may work out OK for me. I already asked her if she could get her dad any Gopher Hockey tickets!!
Posted by: bemidjimike on 5/04/2008 at 9:17 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Bemidji Business Briefs
Rumors are abundant of the lease of the old grocery store in Union Square in Downtown Bemidji owned by Kraus Anderson. Employees of Bemidji Merchantile have mentioned that the new owners of this long time Bemidji home furnishings store are planning on relocating to the large vacant facility. The flooring portion of the operation will move over near the McKenzie Place plaza with the furniture and home accessories moving into the Union Square building. If this comes about...it will certainly be a great stimulus to the downtown area.
Speaking of McKenzie Place and the Southshore, a new beauty salon is also being planned in that plaza.
Progress continues on the old Midway Motel parcel of land behind the Holiday Station and across from the Hampton with plans for a new Burger King combo (Burger King plus possibly another food franchise sharing a building). The project got a slight setback by the planning commission this week due to the fact that the developer asked for a variance on the "impervious surface coverage" or in layman's terms "too much asphalt". Work has also begun on the former Bonanza building which is being locally developed into a new restaurant. And also in this end of town Bluewater Bait on highway 71 has a For Sale sign in front of the building. Word on the street is that they will be locating out to the Hwy 2/71 intersection and have bought the site currently occupied by Acme Rental. Acme is building a new larger facility near the airport and will be combining into one operation this summer.(Could this be the beginning of development spurred on by the new Event/Convention center??)
I want to mention an excellent website if you are interested in arenas and want to become a resident expert on them. The site: http://www.arenadigest.com/ is actually based in Minneapolis and has great extensive articles regarding major arenas around North America both professional, semi pro and collegiate. Our own Bemidji Event Center is shown in a recent article. Dave Wright...a fellow classmate of mine from the University of St. Thomas is one of the regular contributors. Its a wonderful source to see what is successful and what is not and maybe we in Bemidji can learn best practices from others as we develop our facility.
Northstar Materials transition into the Knife River Corporate umbrella has been completed with the renaming of their trucks and facilities here in Bemidji. Knife River is headquartered in Bismark, ND and a subsidiary of MDU Resources group...who use to be known as Montana Dakota Utilities. Knife River is one of the top 10 aggregate producers in the United States and operates in 17 states including Alaska and Hawaii providing aggregate, asphalt, cement, construction services, and building products. They have also took over the large BAUERLY BROTHERS operations based out of St. Cloud, MN.
In gasoline news (besides the price) BP discontinued sales of petroleum products in North Dakota and Northwestern MN despite selling an estimated 35 million gallons in the region. Terminals in Alexandria and Moorhead no longer handle the BP product with company spokespeople saying the area was "on the edge of what we call our supply envelope". Several Bemidji stations have switched either to Tesoro or Clark. Clark Brands, headquartered in Naperville, IL owns the license for the Clark Family Brand of gasoline and while not owning any refineries themselves, markets and serves independent retailers in 26 states using independent refineries. Tesoro, headquartered in San Antonio, Tx, has over 900 owned and independent stations along with 7 refineries including the one in Mandan, ND.
In media news, Paul Bunyan Broadcasting will be launching a new FM station serving the Bemidji area market. This will be the 2nd new FM station this year, joining THE RIVER 92.1 owned by RP Broadcasting. According to the Internet site Upper Midwest Broadcasting http://www.northpine.com/broadcast/ a construction permit has been issued to WE HAVE HOPE CHRISTIAN RADIO at 89.5 based in Blackduck, MN. Edward De La Hunt Sr. who owns several stations in Park Rapids, Walker and surrounding areas continues to work his way into the Bemidji radio market with a construction permit issued for AM 820 based in Wilton, MN. He has also won a FCC auction for the FM frequency 102.5 based in Kelliher, MN which also would serve Bemidji, but has not been granted a construction permit as of yet.
Have you driven the new (and in my opinion improved) Irving Avenue? It of course is the designated detour for the Paul Bunyan Drive construction project and has been re striped with new turn lanes and with banned parking. I personally think it should stay like this after construction to help with flow through the city. ( I am sure those that live along this stretch would disagree!)
More apartments are going up in the development near Anne St. and Irving Avenue. These apartments are used heavily by the college crowd. Historically when housing gets tough apartment construction increases and more people opt for them due to their rental nature. The corner of Anne and Irving is zoned commercial and it wouldn't surprise me if a gas station convenience store ends up soon on that corner as the only thing servicing that area of the city now is Tom Stop on Hwy 71.
Finally I see the City of Bemidji's Municipal Liquor Stores topped the region in gross sales and number 16 in the state. We are all so proud and your city thanks you for your contribution. Who says business is not booming in Bemidji!
Posted by: bemidjimike on 4/30/2008 at 9:05 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink