LONG-RANGE FACILITIES UPDATE AT FEB. 3 SCHOOL BOARD WORKSHOP TO BE NARROWED DOWN TO A SINGLE PLAN AT FEBRUARY 20 BOARD MEETING

Should nothing at all be done in terms of school space for ISD 833 in South Washington County, it could be about to get crowded—and fast!

With 5,000 single-family homes and upwards of 3,000 multi-family dwelling units projected to be built in the South Washington County area by December 2031, the question of long-range facility planning came up at the February 3 ISD 833 School Board workshop. With 3,500 potentially new k-12 students projected in the next decade, the district will be lacking nearly 2,500 seats and overcapacity in 15 of its schools unless action is taken to remedy the situation.

Among those elementary schools to be most affected by projected enrollment increases would be Pine Hill, Bailey, and Grey Cloud Elementary, while the most affected of the district’s four middle schools would be Oltman Middle, followed in the high school category by East Ridge.

Overall, enrollment in ISD 833 is projected to increase over the next ten years from a present district wide enrollment of 18,271 students all the way up to 22,627 by 2031. With community review beginning in March 2020 and new plans soon to be “narrowed to one preferred plan” at the February 20, 2022 school board meeting at the district Service Center at 7362 East Point Douglas Road South, just what’s on tap, response and design-wise?

Two working options currently, down from three in January and each with its own projected price tag. Presented by Assistant Superintendent Kristine Schaefer and Dan Pyan as Director of Finance and Operations the two plans are called ‘Working Option A’ and ‘Working Option B,’ as follows.

Starting out with Working Option A, the prospective plan to be financed with a $425 bond referendum would include the following:

• Construction of a new elementary school “in a central location”

• Moving the South Washington Alternative High School to an existing space in the district

• Increasing current high schools capacity to 2,400 seats each

• Construction of a centralized transportation and operations center with sale of the current site

• Construction of a centralized district service center with consolidation of the district program center and sale of the current site, and

• The “smallest impact (of the two plans) on attendance boundaries for elementary and high school levels, and no change to middle school attendance boundaries for current families.

Broken down further into its separate components, Working Option A would include the creation of two early learning centers including the current Liberty Ridge Site II, Pre-K programming in most elementary schools, the renovation of current rental spaces to accommodate South Washington County Online community and special education programming, and maintaining transition programming near commerce and businesses in a renovated District Service Center.

As to elementary specifics beyond a new school in a central location, Working Option A would also include construction of classroom additions, renovation of bathrooms and kitchens for meal service along with renovation of early learning and special education spaces and the creation of shared learning spaces for student collaboration.

For the middle school grades meanwhile, Working Option A would include construction of classroom additions, expansion of cafeterias and kitchen serving areas, construction of new and secured entryways, and increase of the current school buildings capacity to approximately 1,400 students each.

Finally for the high school details, Working Option A would include the construction of classroom additions, expansion of cafeterias and kitchens to deal with crowding issues, creation of multi-purpose space for online learning, and Renovation of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and STEM spaces.

In addition, it would do a site redesign at park and Woodbury High Schools to improve the traffic flow and so increase pedestrian safety, while moving the South Washington Alternative High School to an existing space in the district and seek to increase current building capacity at district high schools to 2,400 students each, with potential future additions for increase this to 2,700 students.

Finally, Working Option A would include the construction of a what is termed a “satellite operations center” for both facilities and bus overflow parking, along with renovation of the current District Service Center and sale of the current District Program Center. It would create 3,394 additional seats in the district, with 751 at the elementary level, 969 at the middle school level, 1,494 at the ordinary high school level, and 180 for the Alternative High School, along with allowing the district’s “purchase of land for future use.”

As to Working Option B contained in the workshop packet, it would include the building and renovation details for elementary and middle school from Working Option A effectively unchanged, while adding construction of a new traditional high school with 1,700 seats while the current high schools would maintain their current capacity and potential future additions to increase high school capacity to 2,700 student seats each.

In addition, while there would be no changes to attendance boundaries for elementary schools, a slight change would be made to middle school boundaries and “extensive” changes to those for high schools.

Working Option B would cost a projected $582 million ($150 million over Working Option A) and be financed likewise through a bond referendum. The seats for elementary and middle school would remain unchanged from Working Option A while the high school’s total capacity would see a net gain of 334 seats over Option A, coming to a total increase of 1,828 seats total as opposed to 1,424 seats.

The South Washington County Alternative School, meanwhile, would see a 100-seat reduction under Working Option B, for a total of 200 seats in Option B as opposed to 300 seats for Option A. So how to pay for all the projected improvements?

Glad you asked. “Construction funding does not take money away from education funding,” the presentation materials from February 3 endeavor to make clear. Rather, a bond referendum would be in the works for South Washington County residents to decides if the District should be authorized to raise the necessary funds for the needed school facilities updates and expansion, with the bond option allowing the district to borrow money that would be paid back over time. The total projected tax impact on a home valued at $300,000 from Option A would be $22 month or $264 per year, while Option B would cost district residents an additional $34 per month, or $408 per year.

“This is the only method to raise enough funds for new construction,” the presentation states of a bond referendum.

As to next steps to cope with the challenges of South Washington County’s burgeoning and projected growth, there will be a review of feedback from the school board and task force, while the steering committee narrows the current working options to one preferred plan to be chosen for a referendum ask on February 20. The district would then seek to “gather community, staff, and advisory group feedback” on the preferred plan as settle upon after review, with a final plan presented for approval in April.