After all, people trust their friends and family more than official communication from the district or the Vote Yes committee. “It sounds a lot better when a parent says, Yes, we do need that new track or that new gym,” she explains. According to Gordon, this kind of advocacy creates a level of support that transcends shared experiences, reaching people who may not have prior connections to the district. “We have so many people who speak positively about their experience or their child’s experience in the district, and without that, we might not have the same support,” she says. “Knowing that people have had that good experience makes a huge difference.”
Keep engaging your community. When Election Day arrived, Pattonville’s bond passed with 79.4% support, just as predicted. Now, in the summer of 2023, construction projects are getting underway, and Pattonville is working to keep their community updated. “A lot of our internal conversations, especially now that it’s summer, have been about the best ways to reach our families,” Gordon says. “We have three elementary schools and a middle school about to start construction on building additions, so we wrote a letter for those principals to send out to their families, letting them know what to expect.” This isn’t just about proving that the district’s making good on its promises; it’s also about simple logistics. “When they come back to school, we might have some construction that could impact entrance into the building,” Gordon explains. “We want to keep people informed about that as well.” This goes for community members outside school campuses, too. For example, construction may cause the shutdown of a side road near one of the school sites—so Gordon and her team plan to connect with a nearby apartment complex that regularly uses that cut-through to give them a heads-up. “This was a significant investment for the community, so we want people to know that their money is having an impact,” she says. “But we also want to make sure that they’re not inconvenienced—or if they have to be, they know in advance that it’s going to happen.” For Gordon, it all goes back to the importance of engaging the community—the same community that has supported the district every step of this journey.
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Shakopee Public Schools connects their parents. In 2020, Minnesota’s Shakopee Public Schools anticipated that a significant number of their constituents would turn up to vote in their tax election. Because a previous bond was dropping off, the net tax impact would be minimal—and without the 2020 operating levy, Shakopee would be faced with significant budget cuts. But unfortunately, the levy referendum didn’t pass. When Dr. Mike Redmond arrived at Shakopee two years earlier, he was the district’s sixth superintendent in 18 months. The first of those six had ended up in federal prison for fraud and embezzlement of school funds. In a period of just four years, the community had seen the district’s unassigned funds balance go from roughly $16 million to nearly zero. Trust in the district was at an all-time low. But Redmond understood. “That hurt, anger, and resentment was because they love their schools,” he says. “They care deeply about their community, and somebody had robbed them of that and destroyed their trust.” After the 2020 operating levy failed, Redmond made space for the community to ask questions and heal. Then, he and other community leaders went back to the drawing board, developing an ultimately successful strategy for their 2021 levy campaign.
