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“The only position that is really safe is classroom teachers--Anything beyond that could be jeopardized,” Hancock Principal Marjorie Abrams said.

Abrams said it is hard to tell exactly how this budget cut would affect the school. Abrams said that of Hancock’s enrollment of around 600 students, 85 percent are part of the reduced or free lunch program, and a large percentage of Hancock’s students are classified as ‘special needs.’ One of these groups is the English Language Learners (ELL), who as the name implies are students who need aid learning English. All of those programs are rather labor intensive, and require support staff, which may have to be cut if the referendum doesn’t pass.

The unique student needs at Hancock require many non-classroom positions. Abrams said that these include educational assistants, who work with ELL students, helping them with translation and learning English. ELL funding comes from the district funds that are spread out amongst the schools. Hancock could lose $72,067 from the district in ELL and special education allocation, Abrams explained this could equal losing three teacher assistants or educational assistants that are essential to Hancock’s unique needs.

Another one of the positions that could be cut is Hancock’s liaison officer to the university. Hamline and Hancock have shared collaboration since the inception of Hancock.

Shannon McParland, Curriculum Coordinator and liaison to the university, said that in the past Hamline has helped support Hancock students through the collaboration.

“What we have going with collaboration is built upon both ends being benefited by it,” McParland said, “but it also has to do with the quality of the work, not the quantity. If you don’t have all the support systems you need in place, the quality of what you do will be affected. We have some amazing things that work well with Hamline, and I would hate for them to be done with not the quality they could be done.”

Samantha Henningson, Hancock/Hamline Learning Community Coordinator, added that Hamline students are a good support system but without professional staff their help can only go so far.

University students can volunteer at the school in a variety of ways, including reading and art programs. As the collaboration’s mission statement says, Hamline students are also meant to benefit from the collaboration, “Each member of our community is both a teacher and a student, engaged in a journey of life-long learning on a campus that provides a rich variety of resources to support that learning.”

“The referendum not going through would really stress the collaboration in a big way. We could use the collaboration for support if there are cuts, but non-professional work study students can only do so much,” Henningson said.

McParland also said that class sizes could potentially increase, causing yet another strain on the collaboration and Hancock students in general.

Beyond the Hancock/Hamline collaboration, Hancock’s all-day kindergarten program could be threatened. Henningison explained that the cuts could potentially end that, program, which as she put it, would be very stressful for parents because they would have to find care for their children during non-school hours.

Henningson said she is worried that because St. Paul’s voters are aging and most of their students have already gone through the school system and property taxes are going up, they will not respond positively to the referendum. On top of that, this year St. Paul doesn’t have to put tax increases on the ballot, Henningson said.

Henningson said that community groups have come together in a non-partisan manner to support the referendum. Their efforts have included posting lawn signs that read “Vote Yes for St. Paul Kids” and information leaflet bags with similar logos.

“Ultimately, this is going to affect each and every one of our futures. Because the children in the schools today are the leaders of the world tomorrow...to take it back to self-interest, they are the one’s that will be taking care of us in the future,” McParland said.