Special school election is closing in fast
Over the past few months, the School District has attempted to provide you, the taxpayers, with information to better understand the building needs of the Minneota Pubic Schools and the reasons the District has called for a special election to provide $5.25 million in funding for our building.
The School Board has been continuously analyzing and prioritizing the needs of the building and they have completed several projects over the past few years.
Due to the scope and cost of this project combined with the dire and imminent need to address issues and bring the building up to code, calling for this special election became necessary at this time. In this final article, I will review the facts and answer any FAQs.
Election Facts:
Amount of funds requested to make improvements: Not to exceed $5.25 million.
Ag2School Legislation: The Ag2School Bill was passed by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by Governor Dayton during the 2017 Minnesota Legislative Session. This new law gives a tax break to all owners of agricultural land on past and future school bonds. Given this, even if the bond passes on August 22, 2017, taxes will DECREASE on agricultural land. What is the projected interest rate of the bonds? The estimated interest rate is around 2.95 percent to be paid over a period of 20 years.
Date and Location of Special Election: Tuesday, August 22, 2017 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Minneota Public School Conference Room. The school is the only polling place for this special election. All doors on Monroe and Fifth Street will be open for the public to enter to vote.
Availability of absentee ballots: Absentee ballots are available now until Election Day in the Minneota Public School District Office. We would like to remind college students who temporary live at college but have maintained a permanent Minneota School District address to get their absentee ballot before returning to college.
Major projects included in the 2017 election: 1950 and 1951 elementary bathrooms, 1958 locker rooms, an additional visitor’s locker room, replacement of old tile flooring from 1950s, 1960s and 1970s (a large portion of which still has asbestos in the glue), new elementary and locker room air handlers to meet health and safety standards, new energy efficient windows in the classrooms, new classroom doors that meet health and safety standards, new LED lights in all the hallways, classrooms and gyms, and expanded learning space for kindergarten, preschool and FACS (home economics) rooms.
Review and comment: The Minneota Public Schools submitted their plan to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) for a review and comment as required by law. The MDE reviewed the proposed projects and gave the district a positive review and comment, meaning they agree the projects are worthy of being voted upon by the taxpayers.
Major projects completed the past 15 years: In 2004, a new practice gym/lunchroom, wrestling room, and kitchen were constructed. In 2008, outdated air handlers were replaced with newer units to meet health and safety requirements. In 2015, the front offices were remodeled as a first step toward an enhanced building security upgrade, and in 2016 the bathrooms across from the competition gym were remodeled, a new concession stand which complies with current health codes was constructed and additional outdated air handlers were replaced to meet health and safety standards.
Enrollment: The District projects there will be 525 K-12 students enrolled for the 2017-2018 school year. Our enrollment numbers have been steady and we don't see any significant changes in the foreseeable future. The District currently employs around 90 staff members.
Will we need a new school building in the near future? Besides the projects listed above needing improvements, our building is in good shape for being 60-80 years old. As far as needing more space in the future, we believe there is adequate space for an up-tick in enrollment. After these improvements are made, we expect this building will serve our students for many more decades.
What funds were used to remodel the front-end offices and why were they remodeled? The front-end offices had not been remodeled since they were built in 1958. They were built in such a way staff had no way of knowing who was coming into the school or who was leaving, which we determined was a major security risk. The offices now allow our staff to require visitors to be buzzed into the office first before entering the rest of the building. Also, by creating one space for all office staff, we are more efficient with our time.
The school was able to save up enough funds to completely pay for all costs of the office remodel. This means no new taxes were raised for this project.
Why did the school board decide to remodel the Viking Hallway before remodeling other areas of the school, and what funds were used to pay for these projects? The improvements we made to the Viking Hallway were high priority needs just like the other areas of the school that are being proposed in this election. The bathrooms across from the competition gym were original (1958) and had a very bad odor which we could not eliminate and they were not ADA compliant. The concession stand was out of compliance with health and safety standards by having tables and extension cords in the hallways. We were at risk of having our concessions shut down by the health department.
The sewer lines needed to be dug up and replaced since they were badly deteriorated. Also, the air handlers serving the competition gym, kitchen and fitness center were old, inefficient and at risk of breaking down.
The money used to fund these projects came from two sources: health and safety and existing school funds. The health and safety funds are approved by the State of Minnesota to help pay for specific items that were out-of-compliance.
Why did the school board buy the Bernardy property across from the elementary school? The District has never had a way to house and protect their vehicles (the approximate cost of all these vehicles is over $100,000), and we have seen the wear and tear the outside conditions cause. Since the Bernardy Property was so perfectly located in relation to the school, the School Board decided to purchase it to build additional garages to house our fleet of vehicles.
The plan was always to try and find a way to get the house moved to another location so it could still be used by a family, and we were able to achieve that goal. The School District consulted with the City of Minneota before the purchase. The city officials assured us they will continue to consider the property to be residential, even after the garages are built, so there will be no zoning issues.
Can any of the funds being requested through the vote be used to pay employee salaries? No. The funds are considered “restricted,” meaning they only have one purpose—to make building improvements.
What happens if the vote doesn’t pass? If the vote is not successful, it is likely each of these projects will have to be done separately over the next ten to fifteen years, driving the total cost up significantly. Also, there is no guarantee the plumbing, sewer lines, tile floor etc. will be functional much longer. If we don’t have the funds to take care of the infrastructure now, it may cause us to permanently shut these areas down, creating major problems educating our students into the future.
A final community meeting will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, August 14 in the Minneota School Choir Room. A tour of the facility and a question/answer session will be conducted. It is our hope that the taxpayers will take advantage of this opportunity to see the building first-hand.
If you have any other questions about this proposed project, we encourage you to contact the school administration or a school board member.