By Jolene FarleyThe Hills-Beaver Creek School Board reviewed information about the proposed operating referendum at a Tuesday meeting. Voters will visit the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 2, to decide on a proposal that would eliminate the current $229 per pupil unit levy and replace it with a $855 per student unit levy beginning with property taxes payable in 2005.More information will be mailed out to voters this week. "We are obligated to send a letter to all taxpayers," Superintendent Dave Deragisch said. In addition to the mailing and a published legal notice, the board scheduled a public meeting on the issue at the Hugo Goehle Gymnasium for 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 25, with a regular school board meeting to follow. Deragisch reiterated in the mailing that additional funds are needed to maintain basic educational classes and programs in the district. The school cannot possibly cut enough staff and programs to avoid increasing the operating levy, Deragisch writes. The school board approved cuts for the 2004-05 school year to compensate for a loss of revenue, and further cuts would be difficult.Future needs for the district include replacing two school buses and the school van, and repairing the boiler and chimney at the high school.Ramifications if the referendum doesn’t pass could include longer bus routes, loss of technology in the classrooms, elimination of school programs, reduction of classes that are offered, increase in class sizes, loss of staff positions and increases in school fees.For a comparison of district levies, turn to page 2 in the Crescent.Bond reissueThe board accepted a bid from Wells Fargo Brokerage, Minneapolis, to finance the current refunding of the 2006 through 2017 maturities of the district’s $1,950,000 General Obligation Building Bonds from 1997.The interest rates on the new bonds range from 2 to 3.8 percent, compared with rates of 4.9 to 5.5 percent on the existing bonds.This will reduce future debt service payments by an average of $14,252 per year for taxes payable in 2005 through 2017, with corresponding reductions in the district’s property taxes. New personnelThe board approved a $31,727 contract for Bonnie Burkett. Burkett was hired as the school social worker, a joint position between the Hills-Beaver Creek District, the Luverne District and Rock County Mental Health Services.