Anoka-Hennepin Parents Lose Court Case To Put Referendum on Ballot

A group of parents in the Anoka-Hennepin School District can’t use a petition to force the district put a funding question on the November ballot.

An Anoka County judge ruled that only the school board has the legal authority to call a special election and send a referendum to an election.

The community group Parents for Good brought the case to court after it collected 3,200 signatures on a petition calling for a referendum.

The petition proposed two ballot questions — one that would increase funding by $756.63 per student, and a second which would increase funding by $275 per student. It would run for 10 years beginning with taxes payable in 2027.

The co-founders presented the petition to the board in June, but the district’s legal counsel rejected it, saying only the school board can call for a referendum.

Parents for Good then asked a judge to decide if the petition could compel the district to send the referendum to the ballot.

The judge sided with the school district, saying only the school board can call for a referendum.

“The District did not commit an error, omission, or wrongful act by declining to verify Plaintiffs petition or call a special election as the authority to call or compel a special election involving referendum revenue rests exclusively with the District,” Judge Madelyn Adams wrote. “The controlling statute is I 26C. I 7, which vests the sole authority to call an operating-levy referendum with the Anoka-Hennepin School Board. The District’s refusal to treat the petition as compelling a special election and the Board’s decision not to call one were consistent with the law.”

Parents for Good has now submitted the decision to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

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