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I sit at work today drained and emotionally wasted.  Focusing on making sure I do my job today to keep my family fed, clothed and protected is difficult.  Running through my head are thoughts of what could I have done differently.  Did we deliver the message wrong?  Did we not communicate clearly our need?  Did we not get our message out to the right group?  What will happen in the next two years to our schools, our community and our kids?

I am a resident of Robbinsdale District 281.  I was one of the co-chairs for the Communications Team for the "Vote Yes" grass roots campaign that put up a valiant effort to fight the good fight and keep our schools strong.  As you will learn very soon, and may be aware already, our referendum failed.  Disheartening about this failure is the fact we had to fight the battle against a mysterious man from Iowa, not from Minnesota, who never showed his face and never publicly presented his position.  It left our Superintendent Stan Mack and the rest of our "Vote Yes" committee in a difficult position to try and clear the air on misleading facts, misleading numbers, stretched graphs and charts sent on postcards sent late in the campaign.  As we scrambled at the last minute to try to get the public to see the truth, we were left with little ability to show them the true numbers and facts in his deception.

Phones calls would come from residents asking, what is the truth.  Who do I believe?  Numbers showing potential savings were not presented to show that a bus in our district still needs to drive by Johnny's house even if he is going to schools in Hopkins to pick up other kids in Johnny's neighborhood.  Students transferring to our district were construed as being paid for by our residents.  Students coming to our district were presented as gang-bangers, a bad element and foreign students who couldn't read and didn't want to learn to read.  Students in 11th grade at one of our high schools were depicted as only having 11% reading at grade level.  The facts were stretched and deceiving.    Over the past 3 months, the countless hours spent by or committee trying to get our referendum to pass, squashed by misleading postcards and false information sent at the last minute to hurt the children of our district and the growth of future leaders. 

I was asked to tell you how many hours I have spent working on our vote yes campaign in hopes to help you understand how much time and effort communities are dedicating to adequately fund our children's education.  To be honest I have no idea.  The early morning meetings, the 2am e-mails amongst committee members, the 3 hour sessions with our steering committee on Sunday nights.  The hours and hours spent talking to the public at community events, raising awareness and educating the public at coffees, community meetings and organizational gatherings.  Sign posting, flyer creation, brochure writing.....and on and on and on....

I implore you to work as a group to figure out a solution at the capital.  As I see the looming multi-million dollar cuts coming for our district I am fearful of the opportunities our children will miss out on.  The larger class sizes our teachers will need to manage and the tension in our community now that our School district will get by with less.  This is truly a case where the affect from the top is felt at the bottom and a resolution needs to be found, and soon.

Respectfully submitted

Peter Zbaracki
Robbinsdale District 281 parent