Caroline Wood, Birch Grove Community School director, looked anxious as she asked Tofte supervisors when—if—the township’s $23,000 donation would be coming to the school.
Wood was attending the board’s May 31 special meeting to discuss the school donation and the long planned for Tofte housing project.
“I got a call from Tina McKeever [Schroeder town board chair] and she said she has been in contact with Senator Bakk’s aides and through emails and conversation he has said it will not be an issue for the townships to donate money out of our general levy to the school,” said Tofte Board Chair Paul James. “So this is good news.”
With that, Wood was told the check from Tofte would be given to the school on or before June 9, the town board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Although Senator Bakk couldn’t be reached by phone at press time, his St. Paul aide, Christopher Runquist told the Cook County News-Herald, “The Senate Tax Committee staff have indeed informed me that they believe this type of gift is allowable under current law.
“However, I’m continuing to work with them to get something in writing from the Department of Revenue that will certify this. To date, this has not occurred,” said Runquist.
This will be good news for the Lutsen, Tofte and Schroeder supervisors who have been working for more than a year to get a ruling on how the townships could help Birch Grove Community School financially.
Depending upon which lawyer supervisors spoke with, they received different, sometimes contradictory, answers.
Kent Sulem, general counsel and director of governmental relations for the Minnesota Association of Townships (MAT), has worked with the townships to try to clear things up.
“Approximately one year ago, I was asked by Senator Tom Bakk and the late Rep. David Dill to draft a memo regarding the authority of townships to donate money to charter schools,” said Sulem in an email he sent to township supervisors in early May.
“In response to that request, I sent a memo outlining the various ways in which a town could contribute money to a charter school. The primary request surrounded the authority for the town board to make the contribution without voter approval.”
But Sulem acknowledged in his email that when he met with staff from the State Auditor’s office, “It was clear that the auditor’s had taken a pretty bright line against townships making donations to charter schools under the provisions of Minnesota Statute 471.85 despite these statutes that seemed to allow it based on the process used to become a charter school.”
In fact, in early February, 2016, Jeff Reed, Supervisor of Special Investigations at the Minnesota State Auditors Office wrote Schroeder supervisors and told them that they should not give the Birch Grove Community School the money that township citizens had voted to give to the school at the 2015 annual meeting.
Reed said the gift of money violated the law, and he said he would get back to the board by the end of February with a clear ruling on the matter, but despite attempts to reach him, he never did get back to the board, said Tina McKeever.
Sulem, who acknowledged that MAT cannot serve as any town’s direct attorney, ended his long email by saying, “While I know you would like MAT to just offer a yes or no answer as to whether town funds can be spent on a charter school, it is not just a yes or no question without knowing all of the details, and even then MAT could not issue a formal opinion to the town, just an analysis.”
Senator Tom Bakk (DFL) District 03, took up the request from the townships after the late Rep. David Dill passed away last year. Rep. Dill was taking the lead on getting clarification from the tax committee but when he became ill the matter was dropped.
Over the past couple of years residents of Tofte, Schroeder and Lutsen have voted to give money to the school at their annual March meeting, but as the amount of money requested grew, some residents started questioning whether or not levy dollars could or should be spent this way, which left township supervisors in a quandary.
Those in attendance at the special meeting said they hoped Senator Bakk’s latest attempt to clarify the matter should put the questions to rest.
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