Faribault school board certifies preliminary levy maximum after flagging erroneous state data

The Faribault Public Schools School Board voted Sept. 23 to certify the district’s preliminary 2024 Pay‑'25 property tax levy at the maximum, after district staff identified incorrect data in the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) levy report.

Newly appointed director of finance and operations Barbie Raessler told the board that an MDE figure for per‑adjusted‑pupil funding in the report was inflated by about $733.62 per adjusted pupil unit in the run the district received, which produced a misleadingly large projected levy increase. Raessler said she has been contacting MDE and the data provider and that corrections are in process; she encouraged the board to approve the maximum levy ceiling as a common procedural step that preserves flexibility ahead of the district’s truth‑in‑taxation meeting in December.

"We were able to get better figures in some areas, and MDE still needs to make a correction for us," Raessler said. She said that based on the corrected calculations the district is likely to see no increase or a modest decrease in levy contribution for taxpayers, though final numbers depend on MDE corrections.

Board members expressed relief that the erroneous mid‑meeting figures appeared to be data errors rather than a substantive nine‑figure increase; one member said the finance committee had seen inflated numbers that could not be accurate. The board voted to certify the maximum levy amount to remain able to adjust the formal final levy at the December meeting when corrected data will be available.

Next steps: staff will continue to work with MDE to obtain corrected levy data by the statutory deadline and will present a final levy certification and truth‑in‑taxation materials at the December meeting.