ST. PETER — Voters in St. Peter, along with residents of Kasota and rural areas surrounding St. Peter, reelected two incumbent members of the St. Peter School Board, a former board member and one newcomer in Tuesday’s election.
School Board members Bill Kautt and Tracy Stuewe will be back for another term, joined by Ken Rossow and Rita Rassbach, based on vote tallies that weren’t released until Wednesday afternoon.
Seven of the nine candidates seeking the four seats up for election this year were not currently on the seven-member board. (Two incumbents with expiring terms — Tim Lokensgard and Ben Leonard — did not file for reelection.)
Rossow led the way in Tuesday’s balloting with 1,576 votes, followed by Kautt (1,321), Rassbach (1,104) and Stuewe (1,002). Amanda Hird just missed the cut with 981 votes. Krystal Loula had 794, Bill Weber totaled 676 and Michael Spear and Marty Duncan were well off the pace with 396 and 339, respectively.
Rossow, who served two terms on the board about two decades ago before declining to seek re-election, has a long history as a banker and member of several community organizations. He said during a pre-election candidate forum that his two sons received an excellent education from St. Peter Public Schools, and he wants to ensure that opportunity continues to be available.
Kautt is a retiree who spent 35 years teaching social studies in St. Peter schools. He said his goals, if elected to another term, would be to return to the district to pre-pandemic levels of enrollment and academic achievement.
Rassbach, an occupational therapist who works with children with developmental disabilities, focused on her volunteerism in school classrooms and school-related programs. Rassbach said she considers teaching to be an extraordinarily important and noble profession and was seeking a spot on the board because teachers deserve support from their school board.
Stuewe, an administrative assistant at River of Life Lutheran Church in St. Peter and a mother of four, said she is seeking a second term to provide a parental perspective and listed as top priorities student mental health, fiscal responsibility and increasing enrollment in the district’s schools.
The election was held in the midst of increasing polarization and a growing focus on social issues in school board elections in Minnesota and across the nation.
Stuewe, Weber and Loula were endorsed by the Minnesota Parents Alliance. The Alliance is nonpartisan with a stated mission of supporting school board candidates who want school districts to focus on academic achievement, equality and parental rights, but it has partnered with conservative groups such as the Center of the American Experiment that have been highly critical of Minnesota’s public school system.
The Alliance’s website doesn’t specify what prompted the three endorsements in St. Peter, stating only that endorsements were “based on MPA’s research of their platform and campaign, as well as input we receive from engaged, informed parents in each community.”
While only Stuewe was elected Tuesday, Loula and Weber finished in the top four in Kasota and in a precinct encompassing rural parts of the school district. Loula and Weber fared much worse in the two St. Peter precincts, which make up a large majority of the vote in School Board elections.
About one in four candidates backed by the Alliance in school board races statewide won seats Tuesday, according to the Minnesota Reformer, a progressive news site that has been following the work of the Alliance. Although the winning percentage wasn’t great, the organization had some big victories in the Twin Cities metro area where its efforts were concentrated.
MPA-backed candidates won two of the six seats on the board of the Anoka-Hennepin School District, Minnesota’s largest, and MPA endorsees now have a 5-2 majority on the Hastings School Board, according to MPA Executive Director Cristine Trooien.
“Our message is connecting with voters and our strategy is working,” Trooien said in a statement Wednesday morning. “We intend to recruit strong candidates and raise more money in 2024 to be competitive against the deep pockets and powerful political influence of the teacher’s union in more districts throughout the state.”
The Reformer reported that nine of 44 MPA-endorsed candidates had won as of Wednesday afternoon with three others in tight races that were too close to call. One of those three was likely a reference to Stuewe.
Even though all the votes in the St. Peter election had been counted, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s election results webpage was listing the results as incomplete with just three of four precincts tallied.
The confusion came after long delays in reporting the results. Not a single vote had been reported as of 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. Even into Wednesday afternoon, official results were absent for the race on the state elections page and the detailed vote count had not yet been reported on the St. Peter Public Schools webpage or the district’s Facebook page.
“We are not sure why official results have not been posted on the State website yet and are looking into it,” Supt. Bill Gronseth wrote on the district webpage Wednesday morning. “In the meantime, we want to thank everyone who ran for the Saint Peter School Board and congratulate the top four: Ken Rossow, Bill Kautt, Rita Rassbach, and Tracy Stuewe.”
Gronseth provided precinct-level results to The Free Press later in the afternoon. The numbers meshed with the totals on the state website, even if the state’s precinct-by-precinct numbers were inaccurate.
The 33% success rate of MPA-endorsed candidates in St. Peter wasn’t the only indication that south-central Minnesota voters weren’t overly swayed by outside groups.
Mankato voters approved a $105 million bond referendum to fund security improvements and other building upgrades being sought by Mankato Area Public Schools despite a vigorous “Vote No” campaign funded by a conservative organization.
“The Minneapolis-based Minnesota Private Business Council, a GOP-aligned group backed by business interests, spent $47,600 to urge Mankato residents to vote down the bonding referendum,” the Reformer reported.
The ballot question was approved with 55.5% of the vote, although a smaller $15 million request for stadium improvements at East and West high schools failed with 46.6% support.