On Monday, Oct. 25, I attended Luverne Public Schools’ operating levy referendum information meeting. I was one of only a handful of people who attended the meeting conducted by Superintendent Schafer. As a former public school employee, I am very familiar with the publishing of information regarding operating as well as bond referendums. While I found the information pamphlet mailed to district residents about the upcoming $455 operating vote helpful, it was misleading. The same pamphlet and information were also given out during the public meeting.It was only by attending the public forum and asking the question did I fully understand the upcoming operating levy vote of $455 will be in ADDITION to the current $400 operating levy approved in 2001. The current levy can be in effect for the next seven years. Together, the current levy and the upcoming levy, if approved, will give Luverne Public Schools an $855 operating levy.However, only the $400 operating levy is actually depicted in the information pamphlet and was shown and explained at the meeting. This showed Luverne well under the state average and in the lower third as compared with other area districts’ levies. The chart and the information it supplied did not give an accurate picture that included the upcoming referendum vote. It led me to believe that the upcoming $455 vote may REPLACE the current $400 levy, meaning only an additional $55 levy was being requested. This is not true at all. The correct information was verified by Superintendent Schafer in the form of a question, which he answered without hesitation. I wish to share this information with readers so that they, too, will know this proposed operating levy will be an additional tax on top of the current levy. While Superintendent Schafer explained that Board of Education members do not have to ask for the full levy amounts, I have yet to experience any governmental agency that has willingly exercised that option.Mavis FodnessHardwick