On Nov. 6 — Election Day — the St. Clair and United South Central school districts couldn’t have been more similar.

Both are tightknit schools at the heart of small, agricultural communities. Both have declining enrollments in the neighborhood of 700 to 800 students. And on that day both were attempting to pass operating referendums to make up for six-figure budget shortfalls in the coming school year.

Things changed on Nov. 7.

USC was one of 67 Minnesota school districts — out of a near-record 99 that attempted — that passed a referendum. USC’s passed 1,339-718.

St. Clair, on the other hand, did not pass its referendum. That vote was 397-350, with about 45 percent of St. Clair’s 1,658 registered voters casting ballots.

Because of the referendum, St. Clair and USC began traveling distinctly different paths on the morning of Nov. 7. While USC teachers and administrators breathed a collective sigh of relief, the work had only just begun in St. Clair.

“We walked in the day after elections and you could just feel the change in atmosphere,” said Dustin Bosshart, the principal at St. Clair High School.

When costs collide

Things are happening in St. Clair, a town of 800 just 10 minutes south of Mankato. Big things, like a new water tower and water treatment plant to replace current facilities that are now almost 100 years old. Things that will cost an estimated $2 million and will certainly affect residents’ pocketbooks.

St. Clair has a median household income of $47,000, well below the state average of more than $52,000. And with user rates already going up because of the water project, St. Clair Supt. Tom Bruels said it’s reasonable for taxpayers to be wary of measures that would raise taxes.

That, however, does not soften the school’s responsibility to adjust a 2008-09 budget projected to have a deficit of about $300,000. With that kind of a shortfall, cuts and reductions are unavoidable.

“The burden is on us now to ensure financial stability,” Bruels said. “Around Christmas, we’ll start to look at where things can be cut. ... We’ll go through the budget line item by line item and look at the reductions that can be made with the least amount of impact.”

Bruels said the process is long. Discussions haven’t even begun yet on what programs or activities are on the chopping block. All that is certain is something will have to be done.

Bosshart said even though final decisions are still months away, “Rumors are already flying.”