# South Washington County Schools *Public school district in Washington County, Minnesota; subject of one at-issue record entry on its 2022 and 2023 referenda.* South Washington County Schools is a public school district in [[Minnesota]]. The project's at-issue entry tags it as Independent School District No. 833.[^1] The district appears in the record in one entry. That entry concerns a capital request that voters rejected in a single question on August 9, 2022. On November 7, 2023, voters were asked three separate questions totaling roughly $206 million, and all three passed.[^1] The pack carries no enactment, litigation, audit or history row that names the district. The district's own election page is the primary record of what passed in 2023.[^1] No federal action in the pack names the district. At the state level, the [[United States Department of Justice]] announced on January 14, 2026, in release No. 26-21, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, that it had sued the State. The release uses the term "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime" for the State's apparatus. Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^2] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds that no other U.S. state has been so described.[^2] The complaint in [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]] (D. Minn. filed Jan. 14, 2026) is brought under [[Title VII]] of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. It cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times, including subd. 3(c), which requires an agency to explain its reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate.[^3] The district is not shown in the pack as a party to that case. ## Who South Washington County Schools put the 2022 and 2023 questions to the voters. The at-issue entry identifies the district by the tag "isd-833".[^1] The pack names no district officials or board members. ## In the at-issue record At-issue entry AI-Washington-077 is ranked 77, with a shock score of 56. It sets two votes side by side.[^1] - **August 9, 2022.** The district asked voters to approve $462,660,000 in a single question, and the question failed.[^1] - **November 7, 2023.** The district returned with three questions totaling roughly $206 million, and all three passed.[^1] The entry characterizes the 2023 questions as "the same program split into three questions." It states that the request "did not shrink by two hundred fifty million dollars" and that it "was re-partitioned."[^1] By arithmetic, the stated 2023 total is roughly $257 million less than the 2022 figure. The entry's statement that the request did not shrink therefore rests on its claim that the program was the same, and the pack does not itemize either ballot.[^1] The record shows the two requests and their outcomes. It does not establish the contents of each question, or why the request was divided. The entry lists two news sources as support, from cottagegrovejournal.news and patch.com. Neither source's URL is in the pack, so the district's election page is the only citable source.[^1] ## In the Minnesota record ### What - A single-question referendum of $462,660,000 failed on August 9, 2022.[^1] - A three-question referendum totaling roughly $206 million passed on November 7, 2023, with all three questions approved.[^1] ### When - August 9, 2022: single question, not approved.[^1] - November 7, 2023: three questions, all approved.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: South Washington County Schools, *Vote 2023 – Election* (n.d.) — the district's record of the November 7, 2023 referendum questions and results. It is cited as the primary anchor of at-issue entry AI-Washington-077, which also states the August 9, 2022 single-question request of $462,660,000 and its defeat. https://www.sowashco.org/vote-2023/election [^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — announces the suit against the State and the Attorney General's certification of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, *Complaint, United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn. filed Jan. 14, 2026) — Title VII complaint citing Minn. Stat. § 43A.191 eight times, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl