Members of the Victoria audience suggested repeatedly that the "free" Chaska parcel, since it is currently vacant, be used for the 2004 elementary school rather than the 2001 school provided for by the referendum.
The panel continued to reply that neither the City of Chaska nor the Chaska developer would guarantee that the "free" land would remain "free" to the School District.
Replied Frank Scott, administrator of the Victoria Athletic Association, "It can be acquired, and you don't have to use dedicated parkland immediately."
The superintendent indicated that developers in a city can choose to contribute cash in lieu of parkland as part of their development, and then there would be no free land on that site for another Chaska school.  However, Nancy Mancino, mayor of Chanhassen, informed the audience that a municipality can dictate whether the contribu-tion is in the form of cash or dedicated parkland.
Said school board member Kelly Von De Bur, "If we do change our minds, we may not have the Chaska site even available in the future."  (In fact, there may not be a Victoria site available in the future!)
Asked resident Kathy Paulsen, "What do you owe to Chaska?" 
Other residents also spoke at this passionate, impromptu, townhall meeting.  Concluding remarks came from resident Tara Keehr …
"This town needs an elementary school.  A school brings other benefits to the town as a whole.  It keeps our land values.  A lot of the benefits are intangible.  A lot of Victoria people voted for the referendum because they thought we'd get the school.  Many of us feel we are not represented.  Chaska gets everything.  Our kids shouldn't be treated as non-entities.
"It's not a win-win situation, as you say, for the people of Victoria.  Your responsibility is for all the kids, not just Chaska's.  We've been waiting for a school in Victoria.  I'm respectfully asking the board to re-examine and re-evaluate to get a school here.  Victoria is growing at an exponential rate.  I'm asking respectfully."

VICTORIA HAS CONSIDERED ITS OPTIONS:  LITIGATE, COOPERATE, OR GRADUATE.  It has decided to graduate and go on to bigger and better things -- like a Charter School.  The rest of this story is in the paper issue of The Victoria Gazette.