MI-B $29 million vote Tuesday

The proposed referendum for MI-B will build the school attached to Merritt Elementary School, placing the entire district on one location, which Superintendent John Klarich said will add educational opportunities and save the district money in the long run.

He is “cautiously optimistic” about Tuesday’s vote, highlighting the district’s efforts to gather input from the public, students, parents and other stakeholders throughout the process. That effort included putting in the leg work on meeting with city councils and townships within MI-B, hosting public meetings and discussions, and mailing required and additional material to residents.

“We did have a committee that was formed a year and a half ago that did a lot of work on this,” Klarich said. “Now, we’re just waiting for the public to let us know whether to move forward or not.”

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Getting to this point wasn’t a short wait. After vetting the needs for a school and drafting a path forward, the district sent conceptual plans for the new school to the Minnesota Department of Education in July.

After gaining approval, it went through a series of

stakeholder and planning meetings before eventually arriving at the IRRRB to seek about $1.75 million annually from the agency’s Iron Range School Consolidation and Cooperatively Operated School Account.

If approved Tuesday, the IRRRB funding kicks in, and additionally, the district will be bound to its $29 million bonding amount. But, Klarich said, when bids go out, the overall price could come in lower than estimates.

With a stamp of approval from the state DOE, MI-B can only make minor adjustments to the presented plan. Klarich said the district plans to meet with staff and seek out more public input on any final adjustments, if the vote goes in the school’s favor, before putting out a call for bids.

“Our best hope is to be operational in the fall of 2018,” Klarich said. “That would be our hope. Depends on passing this, going out for bonding and moving on from there.”

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As designed, the $29 million building is 88,000 square feet and attaches to Merritt Elementary.

The idea behind one campus is reducing the amount of bus routes to Buhl and back. Currently, Klarich said, two busses make the trip, but one has to make a second loop and cuts into class time. He estimates cutting bus routes down will allow for 40 extra minutes of class time for K-6 students.

Curriculum improvements would also come, he said, in the form of certain classes being offered every year instead of every other year. To name a few, Klarich pointed to physics, chemistry and calculus, with social studies classes also being shifted and streamlined to better match the appropriate age groups.

Up-to-date technology with the new building would allow for more telepresence labs in the schools, which allow students to connect with resources at other schools, universities and around the world through virtual classes and field trips.

“We have a small unit now, but we’re looking at a full one or two when we build this,” the superintendent said.

Critics of the school plan said it focused too heavily on athletics. A breakdown of the space shows 24,000 square feet, about one-quarter of the building, dedicated to two gyms, locker rooms and a fitness center, according to district handouts. The location at Merritt also puts the high school within walking distance to the practice football field and baseball fields.

Klarich said the two gyms will be used by both the high school and elementary school. He said the current elementary gym is undersized and will be turned into an early childhood area, while offering a regular-sized gym for Merritt students at the high school.

“We have one big gym that can be divided into two gyms,” he said. “Another gym, not as big, will be full size for our elementary students.”

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Potential cost savings for the district exist without a new school.

Regardless of the outcome Tuesday, MI-B will be working with St. Louis County Schools (ISD 2142) to share business office functions, as well as superintendent duties.

ISD 2142 Superintendent Steve Sallee said his district will provide payroll, human resources and some health benefit assistance to MI-B, a cost-saving measure for both districts.

But shared superintendent duties are still being worked out. Klarich said “nothing is concrete” and the sides have only discussed what-if situations to this point.

Sallee said he’s open to the possibility of splitting superintendent duties and it has been discussed by his board. His reservation was adding more work onto one superintendent for two districts, a role he served in before joining ISD 2142.

“I think if it was set up the right way, I’d be open to it,” Sallee said. “But I don’t want to work 80 hours a week.”

With MI-B being so close to Cherry schools, part of ISD 2142, Klarich said the districts are also in discussion of sharing vocation and fine arts classes. The MI-B School Board passed a resolution in February signaling its intent to do so, and Sallee and Klarich listed art, music, jazz band and choir as possible offerings of the collaboration.

“MI-B hasn’t had a marching band in years,” Klarich said. “We could have a joint one with MI-B and Cherry.”

Collaboration with ISD 2142 was a lynchpin in gaining IRRRB funding and Sallee said the districts are still discussing and brainstorming their collaboration efforts. He hopes to see some of it in place for the 2016-17 school year.

Klarich estimates a savings of about $400,000 between the ISD 2142 partnership and new, more efficient energy and transportation efforts at a new building.

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Tax impacts on the bond referendum are straightforward and minimal, said district associates at Ehlers, the company that helped prepare assessments for MI-B.

Over the 20-year span of the bond, taxpayers are on the hook for 15 percent, at an estimated tax rate increase of 7.49 percent.

That pales in comparison to if the district went the other route, an estimated $19 million renovation to the current high school, which would increase the tax rate by 37.58 percent over 20 years, according to the Ehlers documents presented to the district.

If the bond passes, a $100,000 home will see an estimated tax increase of about $54 per year, compared to $270 with the renovation, which has no IRRRB or state support.

But the IRRRB support has been the subject of questions to the district as well.

With the organization recently coming under fire from state legislators, it is now the subject of two competing bills in St. Paul, one that could completely alter its governance.

The state Legislative Auditor blistered the IRRRB in March, calling into question how the agency handles and distributes public money. The constitutionality of how the IRRR Board operates with legislators as the decision makers may be open to a legal challenge, the report said.

Klarich expressed little concern over the IRRRB governance challenges, which could, theoretically, also challenge the Iron Range School Consolidation and Cooperatively Operated School Account.

“This fund is in a dedicated school collaborative fund, which has dedicated dollars going into it,” he said. “Right now, I believe we’re fully covered with the IRRRB.”