[Music] [Music] Good evening. The time is now 7:00. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education work session for Monday, November 3rd, 2025. Please come to order. We'll start with a quick quick introduction beginning from my right.
>> Heidi Kedar, >> Sheila Prior, >> Dan Janestra, >> Paris Pendi, >> Valentina, >> Sarah Johansson, >> Chase Anderson, >> and I am Milen Sony. Thank you everyone for attending. Uh this is the second of
our two work sessions for work sessions for this afternoon or evening and we have one item on our agenda and that's the finance and operations report in which we'll get a facilities update and I will ask Dr. Anderson to introduce our
guests. >> Thank you Mr. Chair, members of the board and those in attendance here tonight. It's my pleasure to introduce uh two very important strategic partners uh with our facilities planning that we've been engaged with and working with for over 15 years actually in our
district. And we're very appreciative tonight for S. Baggley from Mold Architects and Engineers and John Hunick from Krauss Anderson uh here to present the work that's been really uh uh in the throws of a lot of thinking and working
for a three to five year period probably when we look back on it. So this is probably no less than our third, fourth or fifth chapter of uh construction project considerations and uh working toward uh being responsive to the growth
in the community. Um in the uh last 17 years we've built two elementary schools, a new early learning school, added on to our high school, and uh added a number of classrooms on to uh most if not all of our uh schools in one form or fashion. We've done a lot of
long-term facilities maintenance. We've done uh a lot of just general upgrades and improvements uh throughout the district. So I say at PTA meetings in the fall every uh every year that our facilities have never been better than they are right now. And it's true every
year because we have committed so much uh energy and focus on ensuring that our our kids have a great place to learn in and our staff members a wonderful place to work. So I know we have a number of slides to get through tonight and a lot
of ground to cover. Um, we have also not only been working uh over a three to five year period, but probably more intensely in the last year or two to really streamline and refine determine what are our facilities needs and what do we need to be doing in order to
prepare for the future. Um, if we go back in time when we opened uh Metal Ridge in 2015 and then uh Northwoods in 2019 and think in terms of what we were uh planning for in that year two or three before each
one of those time frames, it was anticipating that we would have a large number of students that would be joining our district. We now have about 850 students in each one of those buildings. So, uh, it certainly did materialize and, uh, even though you can't have a
perfect crystal ball on the front end to know exactly how everything is going to evolve, um, I would say that those two buildings were timed uh, nearly perfectly and met the growing need uh, within our community. So, we're kind of at that point again where we're taking a
look at not only our elementary enrollments, but also our middle school enrollments um, and our high school projections as well. So, you're going to hear a lot of information tonight about the enrollment projecting that we've done. You've heard reports uh uh earlier
from uh a demographer who did some uh enrollment uh study uh work for us. Um we had a a second partner that worked with us on that who also helped us with the attendance area changes that we implemented this year. You also had a recent uh report from Peter Leatherman
about a community survey that was done about the level of support and level of awareness about facilities and uh the growth within the community. So there will be specklings of all of those things I think tonight and uh a little more specificity
and uh in general what you're going to be hearing tonight is an overview uh from S and John and they're here with a couple of their associates as well who uh may uh offer some insights as well along the way. But um as you know we
have a meeting next week. I'll let uh Sell andor John speak a little bit about what the steps are so that we don't uh get uh duplicate duplicate too much information. So uh without elaborating further I'm going to turn it over to S
and John. And [Music] >> thank you. Good evening everyone. Um so we are here to present the recommendation from the task force that has been doing um hard work as well as district leadership. um and glanced behind me right before we got started. I
think we have a couple task force members in attendance tonight. So, thank them for being here and um I will make sure to cover um all of the work that they've done. So, to start um the district has an ongoing committee called the facilities steering committee as well as the um strategy leadership team or sometimes
referred to as SLT. And as Superintendent Anderson said, um it's really been for years trying to track when it's going to be the right time um to uh accommodate projected growth. Um but that got a lot more intense over the past year. This year was um experienced
quite a bit of growth that led to some facilities changes that you had to um implement this past year. Um and we did a lot of work over the summer to prepare for this task force that met this fall. Um Walden Cross Anderson have been helping by doing test fits and looking at concepts budgets. And just a little
bit of hearkening back to times we've been in front of you recently. Uh we did an update on June 23rd and August 25th. Here is a timeline um of a road two-way potential bond referendum. Um I'll kind of walk you down the road here for a
second. Um at the top there, you can see the facility steering committee as an ongoing activity. The community task force um engagement was September and October. I'm going to actually go through what they did at all four of their meetings this evening. Um you heard from Peter Leatherman of Morris
Leatherman Company um for that community survey number two that happened in September. In October, we've been working to refine the cost of in the proposed plan. And then you see in red today, November 3rd, right where we are on that journey. Um, uh, this timeline
suggests that if you were to ponder an April 14th, 2026 bond referendum, uh, that you would need to, um, adopt a recommendation sometime this month and submit a review and comment to the Department of Ed no later than November 25th. So that is, uh, in state statute
when that has to be to them. um or I should say there are timelines um of when you have to publish the letter you get from the commissioner and that um there's a window of time of um when it has to be in the paper and so to make sure that you have time to do that um especially since not every paper is
published every day these days, right? Um so it's our recommendation that um it be to them no later than that day. Uh then you can see um other things that have to happen leading up to a potential bond referendum. Of course, there's communications planning, big burden of responsibility to get people informed
about what's being asked for. Um there's a deadline to certify ballot questions uh no later than January. And then you start to see things like launching campaign awareness, community meetings, um there on the timeline towards the bottom, you can see that publishing that
letter we have to get back from the um commissioner um and then getting out the vote. So, that would be the potential timeline for an August referendum. As I mentioned, the SLT has been doing a lot of work to get ready for the task force. Um, we did have a series of
focused meetings this summer. Uh, so I listed those here and what we did at each of them. So, in June, we reviewed enrollment projections and talked about planning targets as well as, uh, recapped the survey that you did back this spring. In July, you can see we reviewed solutions to address capacity
challenges at two different uh work sessions as well as um a few other adequacy topics. And then in in August um we did a lot of uh discussion about getting ready for the task force and um we debriefed the work session that you all had on the 25th.
The charge for the community task force uh was to review key data, explore potential options, and develop a recommendation for addressing long-term facility needs. and that would be presented to Superintendent Anderson and help inform a proposal to you all here at the board. They met four times. Uh so
that was September 17th, October 1st, October 8th, and October 23rd. And the goal was to have them submit a recommendation by late October. Uh we did have the better part of the um strategy leadership team attend each um meeting to serve as resources, but they
were not official task force members. So the goal for the facility or community task force on facilities of who we wanted to be on it uh was to be about 15 to 20 people representing a diverse cross-section of district perspectives. So you can see a few of those perspectives listed here right
from um you know community education liaison committees, parent advisory committees, finance advisory, right? A um all of your different input groups. And then on this slide you can see um the individuals who ended up um serving on the task force of which we have
several tonight. I want to thank all of them for their commitment. Um people were diligent in attending all four meetings asking great questions. We had um quite a bit of correspondence and followup between meetings of people asking for further information or clarification asking us to bring things
to the following meeting. uh we ended up sending out uh recordings to some of your work sessions if people wanted more information on enrollment projections for example. So I really feel um uh that there was a real seriousness to the task that they brought um and there was great
attendance certainly a few people had to miss a meeting here or there but they were recorded meeting minutes sent out so I think people did their uh responsibility to stay caught up and we're very thankful for that effort. Um, so now I'm going to just go through what we did at each of the meetings, um,
in a ideally abbreviated way. I'll try to keep it moving. I know you've already had a long day. Um, so you can see in the upper right hand side of all of these slides, I wrote, you know, from task force meeting blank. Um, it just to indicate it was a slide directly taken from their presentation. So at the first
meeting, we did introductions and norms. We reviewed that same timeline. Um, talked about process and then we did a lot of educating of just the district's facilities. um you know where they are, how old they are, when they've been added on to, what programs they serve.
Uh we talked about the capacity of the DIS district's facilities, how many students they can hold. Uh and then we did a lot of discussion on enrollment history and facilities responses. Uh Superintendent Anderson hit some of the highlights in his intro, but um we thought it was important to kind of go back to the last couple of bond requests
and explain, you know, how they correlated uh to district enrollment history. And then we ended uh last but not least on enrollment projections at that first meeting. Here is a graph of the district's K12 enrollment history going back to the
2012 2013 school year. These are all October 1st uh numbers. So you can see that goes back to having just over 10,500 students um going through a rapid increase all the way up to the 2019 2020 school year getting just over 12,000
students. um and then picking back up and now this school year crossing that 13,000 students for the first time ever. So when we talk about what happened uh as a response to that growth experience, uh I won't read all of this to all of you. Um but you can see these were kind
of the major things that happened in each year. So in 2013 there were additions at three elementary schools for all day kindergarten. That's when uh it was adopted by the legislature to be funded the previous year. Uh 2014 was the passage of the bond referendum to
fund Metal Ridge as well as the uh most recent addition to the high school. Uh 2015 purchase of the Elm Creek building that was used for Wisetta transition for a period of time. And then lots of moves in 2016. You can see here early learning school moving into lease space. Um a few
district departments moving into lease space, the high school and metal ridge um additions and new building opening. Following that, um, you were already ready for your next elementary school. So, in 2017, uh, the, uh, bond referendum to fund Northwoods Elementary
School passed. Um, and that also included some district-wide work for site safety and media center improvements. Uh, and that is when the addition to Metal Ridge opened, right? So, before a new building's even done, adding on to it because of the intensity of growth. Uh, 2018, the district
purchased land in the city of Madina for future school needs. We'll show you that site plan tonight. And then in 2019 is when Northwoods opened um and there was um some leased space that um a lease ended and moved to different lease space. That is also the year you bought
the Highway 55 warehouse. In 2020, the early learning school at uh as an addition to Oakwood was complete and opened which helped eliminate all leased space in the district. Um and three of those um departments formerly in lep space um lived on the second floor of the early learning school for a
period of time as well as adult basic ed. And then in 2022 was when this building was purchased and that's training space, schoolboard meetings and um served as temp space for administration as the transition program was experiencing so much growth that um they needed to move into the formerly
former uh district administration building or DAP. Um and so that's the same year the district service center was um purchased and all departments can now be together and it was all really in the effort of addressing student growth needs. So we were doing a lot of moving
around of adults to accommodate student needs. Um when it comes to capacity of the buildings, I didn't include each individual capacity map. I certainly can if anyone's interested as a follow-up. Um but you have capacity for just over 5,700 elementary school students. um 30
just over 3,200 middle school students, just over 4,000 high school students. So um that just over 13,000 and that's what you reported as having for students for this year, right? Essentially. So um there is a need essentially at all grade
levels for additional space as you look into the future. This is a graph showing the enrollment projections over the next 10 years. Um so you can see the um data point indicated. This graph is um taking into account the multiple projectionists
that the district engaged with. Um so you can see that this chart um shows exceeding uh 14,000 students in that 10-year time window. So as I just said, the district's projected to exceed available building capacity at every grade level um by the
202728 school year. um when it break down into um kind of grade level bands based on how you use buildings. This is the graph for K5. So the dotted blue line represents the capacity of all your elementary schools and the yellow line represents that
enrollment projections. Um so you can see here already over projection or already over capacity at the elementary schools. Um and the um you can see the the high point being at 6,68 students. There are some factors to discuss here.
um when it when it comes to a 10-year enrollment projection for elementary school students, there have to be assumptions made around um birth rate and development um that is not known. So there's conservativism built into the projections. So you can see that they um indicate almost a decline of sorts, but
really what's going on is that they really they only take into account um development that has permits actively in hand or under develop. So we can't know what those are and so it it kind of shows a flatlining of that type of growth. So, um, not an enrollment projectionist myself, but we did have to
talk about that at the task force quite a bit of what does that mean and does that mean we're actually going to decline? Um, here is the 68 graph. So, you can see here, um, you're very very close to the capacity your buildings at the middle school level. Um, and then you
can see projected in the 202728 school year to exceed that um, and to start to get up into the nearly 3,500 in the 2930 school year. And then last but not least, we have the high school. So, the capacity of the high school is just over 4,000 students
at 4,69. Um, and you can see the projections for the high school are actually getting up into the um just over 4,900 students in that time window. Um, so significant pressure uh projected to be experienced there. Um, lots of discussion certainly at each
task force meeting and a lot of information sent out between. Um, so then we always left space at the beginning of the meeting for thoughts since last meeting kind of what's been on your mind, have you talked to anyone about this? Um, what questions do you have? So, we did a lot of reporting back of information. Uh, then the planned
agenda at uh, meeting number two, we talked about safety and security. Uh, we talked about other needs as a growing school district other than just having a seat for everybody. Um, and then the ideas that had been brainstormed thus far to address those needs. Um, so we
ended up showing a few diagrams to the committee. When it comes to safety and security needs, um, the philosophy in the district here is that hardware, software, supports, and action plans all work together as a system. And you always want to strike that balance of
being warm and welcoming for families while still being secure and safe. Um, we had a lot of questions from task force members of what do the buildings have today and what do they have consistently versus what what do some buildings have versus what do other buildings not have. Um, and it you know
there's no shortage of available um improvements, right? So, there was a lot of discussion about some recommendations of how things could be improved districtwide. And so they're summarized shortly here as intelligent access control and screening, layered building
and site protection, and site unified emergency communication and mass notification. Um, so when it comes to intelligent access control and entry screening, there's some recommended improvements. The goal would be to have a single secure point of entry at every school to make sure we know who is in the
buildings at all times, including a um digital video intercom system to be able to visually identify and communicate with people. Uh expanding access control, aka card readers at our facilities. Uh uh updating the visitor management system to check against some
national database databases and print identification badges. Um and keep records. That's one of the great examples of improvement from the the paper record as well as enhanced video surveillance um including things like parking lots.
When it comes to layered building and site protection, we talked about updating some classroom doors with security locks that allows um staff to lock from the inside and not have to go out into the hallway. um some response triggers um and unified communication
systems and then perimeter security to um deter uh certain activities. Uh communication is obviously an essential part of um any emergency response plan. So talked about ways that things could be um done more quickly,
more more clearly and more accessibly. Um so there would be a proposal to have a district-wide notification platform um multimodal alerting. So, what that means is really getting to read something, getting to hear something, and getting to see something, right? Depending on if you're in a loud space or have a um
disability, things like that. Um, and then just the ability to integrate systems. There is a um a significant amount of technological improvement to make things more unified. And as we all know in an emergency, the simpler and more connected things are, the less
steps there are to remember to do. Um so that recommendation really came to the task force from um that district security uh committee. So we had a lot I would say we had a healthy discussion at meeting number two about all those things.
Um kind of a a safety adjacent topic at Plymouth Creek Elementary. Um so the um actually across the street from us, right? Um so that uh building does not have the same sight safety features that all of your other uh elementary schools do. So right now the buses are parking
on the red highlighted fire road behind the building. Um and uh historically the district has relied heavily on this parking lot um to kind of make that site work. Actually one of the main rationes for um buying this piece of property, right? Um and so the um there's a desire
to have a true sight safety separation of buses and cars at this site and the land that this um building sits on presents that opportunity. So we talked about that of creating we call them a bus loop. Um other needs. So when we talk about um
serving students a few topics came to mind. Uh adequately sized kitchens to prepare and serve food for students. Uh you have a few buildings that require offsite um preparation and transportation because of inadequate space. And there's really a desire for that consistent experience across all
buildings for all students. Um, and I'll I'll kind of get to each of these one at a time. So, which buildings have inadequately sized kitchens? So, you have three elementary schools and one middle school. So, that's Birch View, Greenwood, and Sunset Hill. And then at
East Middle School, both the kitchen and the cafeteria are considered undersized. When it comes to that comparison of how big they should be, um if you look at the Department of Education guidelines um for kitchen and cafeteria sizes, you
can see the elementary spaces range from 220 to 400 square ft. And the recommendation would be to be between 1,800 and 2400 square ft². So I put a picture on the right hand side of the um kitchen at Sunset Hill. Um really the the operations has to spill well outside
of the space which is taking up dining space. Um and then at East Middle School it's 700 square feet and the recommendation would be between 3100 and 4600. Um the department of ed also has guidelines for dining space for students. Uh they recommend 15 square ft
per student. And so if you kind of take the 800 students or so being served there divided by three lunches times 15, it should be 4,000 ft² and it's about 2300 square ft². So about about half the size it should be. Um, when it comes to access to swimming
pool facilities, this is a topic that the task force spent a lot of time talking about. So, we started just with some kind of grounding information. Um, the district is currently engaged in a 40-year lease uh with Lifetime Fitness. Uh, that was um initiated at the time
the high school was constructed and um goes through 2036, 40 years later. Um, and one of the terms of that lease is that it's extendable at lifetimes discretion. Um we did talk about that the district has um pools at east and west but they are not suitable for high
school competitions. Um they don't have adequate spectator seating space. Um they don't have really what you need from a number of lanes to run a meetat perspective. Um do not have adequate diving accommodations. And then one of the challenging parts with pools is the many people who use them want different
conditions. Right? So there's certain people or certain groups using pool facilities who want them cold because that is great for athletic competition. So that's really what a high school competition pool wants to be. Um as opposed to maybe a more of a community swimming lesson for young children
really. You seek to have more of a warm pool and that's not the type of thing you can at the flip of a switch do. Of course you can change it but it takes time. Um so it's it's challenging to share between those types of space users. So the east and the west pool are used um the east middle school pool is
used predominantly for community programming and the west pool is actually used by the high school athletics program um for synchronized swimming. Um and so again some of those considerations in a pool environment are um temperature as well as ventilation um
to be successful. And then we heard a lot from um Scott Gangler's um served as a resource to the committee talked about the challenges with scheduling when you are not the owner of the space, right? Um daily practices is one thing, but I think where it really um starts to
become a challenge is in meets. So spend some time talking about that with the committee. Um of course when we talk about growth, um that growth will also hit your early learning school. Uh so we had to educate people on what the early learning school
is. Uh you know it's a um it's a one of your services that comes with a lot of acronyms and catchup right ECSE and ECF and what is that and who participates. So we did a little bit of that um as well as explaining the 2020 project. Um and the fact that the second floor was
um master planned to be expandable to add more classrooms. Um and we also talked a little bit about the correlation between participation in preschool programming and continuing in the district and how important that is to support the community. Uh we went through the rationale for
additional space. Um the number one is obviously increased demand and weight lists. Uh the district's been able to as you've had additional space in elementary schools offer additional um program uh availability in in other elementary schools. you know, if they had an extra room, you could open
another section. But as uh space needs have become more um under pressure, that's become less of an option. And so the early learning school presents a great opportunity for that. Uh we talked about the middle school flexible learning spaces. Um so the
picture on here is from West Middle School. Um and we heard from Ryan Carlson who also has been um helping the committee as a resource. um just talk about kind of the the heavy and inflexible and not spaceefficient furniture that is in most of your middle
school classrooms, which has not been updated on the whole um the challenges uh that that presents um and what um benefits that flexible furniture could provide. So, as a district, you've really implemented flexible furniture at all of your elementary schools, but you just haven't tackled it at the middle
school level yet. Um and much of it is at its really past its useful life. Um, many of those rooms, Ryan also noted at his building and at um at East um are not overly generous-sized rooms. So, efficiency starts to become a real
driver with class sizes as well. Um, and then we spent the rest of the meeting doing a small group activity that ended up rolling into a um a survey online because we didn't get through it. Um, just talking about solutions. Um, so I won't go through all the maps that you saw um there at the end. Um but we
talked about okay so what are we going to do about this right we need more seats at every level. So solutions at the elementary level um one solution was a new elementary school number 10 um on district owned land. Uh the discussion was to plan it for about the same size
as Meadow Ridge or Northwoods which is around 900 students when totally maxed out full. Um or are there any elementary schools that are good candidates for expansion? Um so uh we talked about um you know that that that a few buildings
have been studied for that. Um the challenge is that the buildings that have the adequate site space for expansion would put those buildings over a thousand students. And I think that's been giving the district administration some pause around ideal experience for elementary. Um and those are not
necessarily the buildings that would make sense logically from an attendance area perspective. Right? So, it's we maybe maybe we can expand in those places, but it creates long-term kind of um unintuitive attendance areas and that
is something that the district has to live with for forever, right? Um not to mention that that the cost of that solution was actually very quickly approaching the cost of a new building. So, we spent some time talking about that. Uh at the middle school level, you'll
see some similarities here. of course, um, new middle school number four. Um, the land that the district owns in Madina, I'll show you a site plan later. It's, um, just over 86 acres, so it is large enough to accommodate both. Um, and the discussion has been, uh, potentially for about 800 students, but
to be expandable. Um, so the you see in the notes over there, that would the approximate concept there would be that East, West, and this new fourth middle school would all be for around 800 students and Central would be around 1,200. to get to
that number of seats we need. Um we did discuss uh how the expansion of east and west could serve these growth needs. Um so that would put east and west also at 1,200 each students um in addition to central's,200.
The challenges there again are um site size. So fields and parking lots today would have to become you know places to build classrooms. Um there are already traffic pressures in particular at um
West. Um and then there's some aspects to the buildings that would be challenging to remedy. So you would have to really learn to live with them like narrow hallways, right? There's some bu those are some challenging topics that really can't be fixed. Um and so as we
talked with uh the task force and the district administration around um you know east and west being 1,200 student buildings, there wasn't much comfort with that being a good long-term solution. And then not to repeat myself, but same challenge with attendance areas, right? Trying to get people
actually to go to that building would require a lot of transportation and attendance area challenge is very disruptive and the cost was not that far off. If I remember, it was within about 15% of the cost of a new building. >> Correct.
>> Excuse me. >> 23. >> Um, that's less than 15%. It's like more like 10%. Um, so then when we talked about the high school, um, the expansion of the high school was really looked at in a couple of different ways. Um, one
was as an addition to the building and the other one was an expansion as a standalone building on the campus. Um and really the only the only reason to make it standalone was if you couldn't figure out how to add on to the building, right? Because um being detached means students having to go out
in the weather creates challenges for security and supervision and things of that nature. Um and as I said before, we need to find space for about another 900 students. So, we actually had a series of planning meetings with the high school administration to talk about for 900 more students, how much more of this
type of space do you need and how many more offices do you need and what would the counseling department do and what what might we do for physical education? And so, we kind of went department by department and um brought a recommendation of um how much space needed to be added. I do have a diagram
to show you later. So, then, as I mentioned, they got to see diagrams of every building. So, I just put a couple snips of what a few of those look like. Um and they did an activity um in small groups um that where they were given post-it notes and
they could ask you know put a green or a yellow or a red post-it note and a green is you know we get it we think this is a good idea. Uh yellow is not enough information to make a ruling like we need to hear more about this and red would be kind of we would have concerns or would struggle to recommend this
based as presented. Um, so they got I would say most of them got about halfway through the activity before the meeting had to end. Um, lots of great discussion and then they finished up as a homework exercise. Oops sorry. Um, meeting number three. Um, again,
thought since last meeting, we had quite a bit of followup to do. Um we did have uh Peter Leatherman that evening who gave the same presentation he gave to you all and there was um a lot of wonderful questions that the task force asked him um asking him for advice or what's happening in other communities
and what he's seeing as a Weisetta uh specific phenomenon versus more of a um statewide or metrowide. Um so he was with us for about an hour of this 2-hour meeting and then for the rest of the meeting um we did the survey followup
and um John presented um kind of rough order magnitude budgets and talked about how we budget potential bond referendum projects. Um so some of the uh questions that came out of that activity was a lot of um
wanting to hear more about what the proposed special education renovations would be. Um, there's this acronym SDC, speciallyesed classroom, and not everybody has been in one of those before or knows what a good one looks like or what it what features it needs to have. So, we talked about that. Um,
we had more discussion about what flexible learning spaces uh would do across the middle schools. Um, as well as the importance of consistency, especially if you're pondering another middle school, wanting to make sure that you have par with your other buildings. Uh we did have a quite a bit of
discussion of the overview of the rationale for having a single high school in the district. I won't go into that deeply tonight, but we did that night. Um and then um a code requirement to have storm shelters in buildings built essentially after 2020. So um on
the whole that a lay person would walk in the building and not really see much different, but we have to budget part of the buildings to have a higher cost per square foot. Um so this is a um snapshot from um that
evening that John presented of you know how do we how do we create budgets and maybe I'll just let you go through that quick. >> Sure. Um >> y >> um so yeah we went through and budgets on right there's no drawings that exist
yet the single diagrams that you have. So um we use a program called model logics and we plug in dozens and dozens if not hundreds of different types of building whether K built them, W built them or somebody else built them. And
then it needs human element into it, right? What is a site like? Is it a clean site, easy site, hard site? And that'll give us a average cost per square foot. So, as whether it's a new building, addition, heavy remodel, medium remodel, light remodel, things
like that, and then we plug them into a very big spreadsheet like you're seeing right there. That that brings out the cost. Um those costs need to include um all your permits, so boring, survey, so the furniture that goes into those new buildings and then everything that's
included, including site costs, um um things such as that. So, and then that's an example of model logic. So, when you plug in all this information, it'll give you a whole bunch of different examples throughout the state of Minnesota and then we nail it into
ways added, but that's just what the spreadsheet looks like. And then we did talk about projects too, um, public school and how bidding works. All projects are publicly bid and we did want to remind the task force of that. So what happens a year from now or maybe
more than that, right? Um when projects are pending a successful referendum, they go into design, then they go into public bidding, right? So all plans have detailed work scopes, advertise them for bids, uh interview the low responsible
biders, organize them, they then come back to the school board for bid approvals, um and being on or under budget, board approves, and then you move into construction. So we talked about that with the task force also
>> in that meeting we did go over some um costs by building is how it was presented kind of if all of the scope as discussed was pursued what would be the cost by building. Um so then um between meeting three and four task force
members um did a prioritization exercise. We sent that out again as a survey. Um there was a lot of people wanted to spend more time with it. Um and there was a request at the end of the meeting um for input from the leadership team for what what what they recommend we should do with all of this
right as people have been studying the problem for years. Um and we also did a lot of um ref between meetings um John and I and our our colleagues doing a refinement of budgets and uh potential tax impact. So then meeting forwards, our last
scheduled meeting, of course, thoughts since last meeting, couple follow-up topics. Um we reviewed the survey results and again just to be clear, this is their survey, not the Peter survey anymore. Um and talked about themes that the leadership um had discussed uh and
those recommendation considerations. So in the upper right hand corner here, you can see just a graphic. Um we asked them to prioritize like which projects um were the you know um critical, essential, important or less important.
Um and in general the uh task force and the leadership team had had a lot of um consensus and overlap between the way that they reacted to the survey. I would say there was more urgency on the leadership team about the pursuit of new buildings as it related to having space
for everyone. Um the as you probably uh heard people talk Peter talk about um there was less community awareness of the need for additional space right I think the community recognizes that you're growing they see the development they recognize that means students but
there's a lower uh level of awareness that you actually don't have room for them right so there was some people who are concerned about that um as well as just wanting to stay at a reasonable tax impact so of course people being practical um we did discuss us. Um there was a a
pretty strong recommendation about if there's an inclusion of a pool that it as a second question was advisable. So we spent a lot of time at meeting 2 talking about that. Um and I would say people being torn between knowing it's a need and if you want to have a high
school swim program that's successful, it's always helpful to have a venue. Um and being concerned um that if it was included with everything else um you know could that um drag it all down, right? So people were kind of concerned about that. So a second question was um
how many people felt was the right way to handle a request such as that. Of course um exact um packaging is up to the school board, right? This is coming as a a recommendation. Um we did talk about uh you know school finance is complicated and people were not sure
does all of this have to be bond projects? Is there anything that's qualifying for another funding source? So, we talked a little bit about um long-term facility maintenance and the tech levy and um lease levy. Um and then uh it was important for them to see um
the other image on this slide is the estimated tax impact uh chart that Ellers had prepared um at various scenarios what an average house would be. Um I have a more updated one on a future slide. We end up talking about that and really that idea that affordability means something different
to everyone. Um but wanting to make sure that we're putting out a plan that's successful. Uh we did talk a little bit that evening about the pros and cons of a phased approach like what if we did some things now and talked about doing some things later. Uh obviously the challenge there is um that projects do get more
expensive with time and it wasn't like some long window of time away, right? It was well gosh we need all of that in the next few years and we don't want to look like we ask and then just a year later ask again. that that they thought that that would be perceived negatively of
not being planful. Um and that there was a lot of discussion of making sure that whatever is put out um has district-wide impacts so that every school community or every building um would see something in it for them that it couldn't be only about growth in the north for example.
Um so when we talked we had uh two um uh meetings with the leadership team um kind of on either side of that task force meeting um and some of the key themes out of that um were that adequate capacity for all students is obviously top priority. Everybody needs somewhere
to sit. Um and then there was a couple categories. So there's a an essential program or experience alignment. Um a good example of that is like the kitchen projects. um that everybody should have the same experience no matter where they go to school. So that's kind of a category of project and then there's an essential program or experience
enhancement which is leveling everybody up like the safety and security projects, right? So that's not a parody issue but it's everybody could be better. Um and the goal was to really finesse the project scopes to get as much done as possible while trying to stay this slide says between 20 and 30 a
month for the average household. So there's been a lot of discussion about um you know what would that generate in projects and are there any other funding sources that we could tap into and so the the recom we left it with the task force as that um we actually had them do a I should say it on this slide
we had them do a um fist to five exercise is what I call it um not a not a tool we invented but it's a good one for developing consensus in groups um so we have people you know each one hold up the number of fingers and a five is I emphatically support this. I'm a
champion of it. Four is another positive vote, right? A three is a um you know, I maybe this isn't my favorite or it's not what I would personally choose to do, but I understand it and I accept it going forward. And then of course, anything under a three is various forms
of disagreement, right? All the way to a fist would be I, you know, I'm opposed to this. Um and we had everyone be a three or above. We had several individuals who were at a three. I think we had three or four of them. Um, and most of those were people um who I think
uh just really like to know deep um details, right? So, we were we were kind of voting on a concept of a plan, right, of trying to keep it under 30 a month, trying to accomplish all of these things and, you know, working more with the leadership team on exactly what gets included. And so, a few people I would
say, you know, it's like, I like the direction it's going, but I need to I need to see the final details. But we did not have anyone vote um under a three. Um so that recommendation summary, I'm sorry I've been talking for a long time. I promise I will open it up for
questions here soon. Um so that recommendation summary um Q1 um I we did not discuss this with the task force, but we we made them aware that um there's a likely renewal of the tech levy. So um and that that would likely be a question one on any ballot. Um, so
just for clarity, if this ever gets used in the future, um, I listed that. Um, so then the recommendation was that bond question one be I put the themes here, safety and security districtwide. Uh, that would be hardware and software
improvements as well as that Plymouth Creek site safety project. Uh, adequate capacity at all grade levels. And so the projects that would fall under that would be uh elementary school number 10, middle school number four, the an addition at the high school and a buildout of that second floor of the
early learning school. And then those pro programmer experience enhancements to have consistency across the district would be the flexible learning space at the middle schools, the adequate adequate kitchen and cafeteria space, um adequate gymnasium space. You have two buildings that do not have adequate
gymnasium space, Sunset Hill and West Middle School. um and various special education renovations. Not every building has an adequate uh speciallyesed classroom to handle students with special needs. So that was what was recommended in question one. Um
the um recommended total for that is 465 million. And then as as already discussed, uh the recommendation would be to have a pool as a second bond question. It would technically be a Q3, right? um and that that would be
contingent on the passage of question one. Um and so that would be an eight-lane pool with a separate diving well. Uh the discussions thus far have been located at the high school and that the recommended budget for that is right around 31. Um when it comes to tax impact, I
already talked about the goals to stay under um 30 um a month. So you can see here the chart on the left um is a chart that Ellers's made. This most recent version is from October 29th, last week. Um, and I've highlighted in an orange box, um, the average value home in the
district. So, $650,000. Um, so you can see broken down into a question one, question two in both questions. I blew it up in a chart on the right. So, you can see question one, um, estimated uh, tax impact is 29 a
month. Estimated tax impact for question bond question two is $4 a month. And if both questions were successful, it would be $33 a month. Um, again, these are estimates. Um, they have taken into account estimates of what you might get for an interest rate at a bond sale. Uh,
they estimate um, net net tax capacity growth, things like that. Um, so there's conservativism built into this. Um, and then I don't think I'm going to go building by building by building. Um, but I'll maybe talk generally as I click
through. Um, so you can see up on the right hand side, John said it before, um, none of these are drawings of designs. They're scope diagrams. Um, after a successful referendum, you would go through an engagement process with relevant staff and administrators. Um, and they would really help um, design
the projects. Um, so what we do is establish a need and a budget that would accomplish that need and then we get to figure out how after. Um, if you've never seen the piece of land that the district owns up in Madina, here is a graphic of that. So the white dashed outline is the acreage that you own. Um
it is I think 86.6 acres. Um there is a um a couple of identified wetlands on that site. So you can see there's a large one on the west side, kind of a anvil-shaped one on the north and then a one kind of in the center south. Um but it's still plenty of acorage if you were
to pursue two buildings on that. So that's what the black shapes are. Um the one in the bottom right hand corner is just the outline of Northwoods or the footprint of Northwoods for reference as um as well as the playgrounds and um parking and then uh a potential middle
school kind of of the approximate right size. Again, hasn't been designed. Um then for your reference, we did include um diagrams of every building and a bulleted list of those themes and how it would apply to them. Again, I think for out of uh respect for time
tonight, I won't click through all of them, but you know, here's an example of um Birch View, which would have the expanded kitchen and some site work. Um some improvements for special education, and then safety and security is everywhere. I think I'll click through and we can come back to anything if
people would like to. Um I think I'll probably hit the high school just since I referred to it earlier. Um so this is the um proposal of how Weisetta High School could expand to accommodate 900 more students. Um so there would be a proposed addition to the north again
shape to be determined, reroute the fire lane around the building, uh relocate the tennis courts and expand parking. Um this would require um ongoing discussion with the city of Plymouth who owns some of the land that this is shown to take up. And then you can see bolded on here,
this blue footprint does assume the footprint of that eight lane pool if that were to be successful. So that's already shown in the in the blue shape. Um so then again going back to the timeline, um we've got a couple of
meetings ahead of us uh scheduled. Um so we've got the meeting next week. Um and then the November 24th meeting would be kind of that last chance to authorize to submit review and comment. Certainly next week is an option for that activity but it's um needs to be done before
November 25th. Right. So with that I would take any questions, comments discussion. >> Thank you S and John. Um wow that that's how many slides was that? >> I'm not sure but I had already cut it back about 80. So >> 80 slides. Wow. Okay. Uh, you speak
fast. That's good. Um, any questions, comments? Yes, Dan. Okay. >> Thank you so much for the very fascinating presentation. I'm very happy to hear that uh facilities study for additional kitchen and cafe uh space.
Um, cafeteria space has been, you know, underway and we're making that really important investment. Um, I have uh two questions. The first is when you showed that diagram of a storm shelter as it would apply on the high school's footprint,
>> are there any, you know, programming or academic applications of that space or is this something that just kind of has to sit open? >> Oh, that's a great question. Um, so what what the code requires is for in almost all instances any expansion of a school
facility or a new facility to have a part of the building that is strong enough to withstand an F4 tornado. So it's hardened hardened construction and then we have provisions for um getting water there, need to have bathrooms there, have to have backup lighting,
things like that. Um so it can be it can be totally usable space every other day of the year. So, in this case, um, this just shows the outline of how much space would have to be hardened to accommodate the, you know, 5,000 students plus staff. Um, but it can look like
classrooms, it can look like gyms, it can look like cafeteria space. So, it doesn't have to look like, um, a wasted space. The walls will just be thicker, likely a concrete roof, things of that nature. And, um, you might have even in your, if you're ever in other school district buildings, you know, there's
more than 50 of these built across Minnesota in the past 5 years. So, >> excellent. Um, and then to ask about the um $465 million price tag. >> Sure. >> Um, you know, it's
got click back. Click click with that one. >> Yeah. Um, is that dollar amount fairly finalized? How much might it vary over the next several months? >> Sure. And maybe I'll start. You can talk about that, too. So you do as a board
have to set an amount that you cannot exceed, right? So that needs to be a not to exceed number that would be on um what the ballot of what a voter would see. Um and um so I would say that we've been working to establish budgets that um
really protect your options in that regard. Right? So we want to make we understand the district's expectations around quality of facility. Uh we've been doing a lot of checking of how big things need to be. Um, we've had several focus meetings with civil engineers to talk specifically about site and
utilities. Um, we've had a year-long study talking about traffic impacts at the Madina site, potential, I should say, traffic impact. So, I mean, there's a lot of thought into that number, but that number needs to get it all done and it can't go up later, right? So, that's what's important.
>> Excellent. Thank you. >> So, what's what's the contingency that has been built into that number? Do you have >> roughly like 10 15 20%? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So in contingencies on a newer building, your contingencies are
typically less because there's less unforeseen like when you get into a messy remodel. So the newer like the middle school and elementary school are in that 4% for contingency. Uh and then they creep up from between four and 10. So if it's a really messy remodel,
contingencies will be closer to 10. If it's a lighter remodel, contingencies will be five, six or seven. So contingencies are planned in. >> Okay. So when we look at new Can I go next? Okay. Sorry. >> So when we look at new schools, right? Um
were there any discussions around hey we have to again realign the the schools and everything. Right. So has that expense been accounted? because at some point in time maybe we have to again change the boundaries and things like that.
>> Oh, sure. Okay. >> Um we had a couple task force members passionate around this topic as well. Um so to my knowledge there's not been any attendance area planning yet. That's more typical kind of as a new building opening would approach. Okay. I think suffice to say anytime you open a new building you have to create an
attendance area for it >> um that we would want to make sure has followed kind of the process that you've used in the past. So acknowledgement that it needs to be done, but this group didn't work on it. >> Yeah. >> Um and I probably should have started with that. So I'm glad you guys
summarized all three meetings just to show what happened in each of those meetings, what topics were discussed, um how did we arrive at the final recommendation to see that journey and I think even folks who are listening or they might look at the the presentation
later. I think it's a thank you for doing that. Um I'm going completely tangent. Okay. Okay. It's worth so one of the options that I was expecting which I did not see on the you know new schools or making improvements. So and
it could be a timing thing but we have a neighboring school district who's shutting down three schools. Have we looked at that option? It's close to Plymouth. Can we buy those schools and repurpose them for Yetta? Would it save us ton of money or that's like big no no?
>> Um well I'll maybe let Superintendent Anderson speak to what's just what what I'll say is I know to be true legally it is it is legal to operate a own and operate a school building outside of school district attendance areas. >> Okay. >> I don't know that I can think of a
single instance of it being true or the case. >> I don't had I don't think there's been much discussion though. I'm not aware of a case of that either. Yeah. So, I think >> I think what I heard you say is you could lease space outside the district. >> I actually I I had a school district get
a legal opinion that it's legal to own and operate a school outside of the district's attendance area, but I think it would be unusual. >> Yeah. And like I said, it just the timing there are, I think, three schools being shut down very close to Plymouth
boundary. So, that's where I was like, okay, >> sure. >> Yes, we bought place in Madina. I totally get it. But would it be much or not cheaper, but less expensive to repurpose existing schools and bring them under Wisetta boundary versus building new ones? So,
>> I'm not attached to that study, but I did um I did read the report that was published and I do know some of the buildings they've identified as being recommended for closure are in somewhat poor condition as well. So, I do think you'd end up investing >> Yeah. again >> money. Yeah,
>> I might suggest to you that those buildings would be on the east side of our district when the growth >> that's the hard part >> in the future is going to be more >> you probably have to do a lot of domino bumping of people attending and driving you know that leads to people driving past a school or two or three to get to
their school which is a challenge. Yeah, >> I think Trevor did you have something you wanted to share as well? >> Oh okay. No, I was just confirming what Sal said that it is legal, but a lot of other things to consider with that. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you, >> Valentina. >> I have a question about swimming pool. My son happened to be in swim team and they were renting uh for certain team at a brick. brick is quite expensive private school and to be honest their
swimming pool did not look any fancy. It was looking quite like a dungeon to be honest. Sure. >> But they were practicing as a swim team. Uh why east middle or west middle school uh swimming pools cannot be used for
that? It's my first second within swimming pool. Did we ask even what is the uh lifetime fitness? I I suspect for them it's a business too. They're making money out of it. Do you think that they will be uh cancelling uh this uh
contract uh in future? That's why we are thinking about swimming pool and the third one is swimming pool. Is it once or is it needs? What's >> Sure. All good questions. Um I'm going to start with the first one. Um, so east
and west would have to I would say that those pools would essentially either one of them would essentially have to be demolished and reconstructed to serve that need to have the right number of lanes and the right depth and to be the right length and to have the right spectator seating space. So, um, none of
them would really today represent that. It's not really like a simple like fixing the tile or fixing the drainage system. So, it would be a pretty major thing. Um, I'll I did not estimate that to be clear. Um, I think there was discussion about if the district was going to own a high school athletic
facility and it can fit at the high school to reduce student travel time that that would that would be great. Um, I don't know what discussions with Lifetime have looked like. So, I might have to defer to a district employee on that question in the middle there.
If there's been discussion with Lifetime about the extendability of the lease, we might have to report back more. Yeah, I don't know that there's been recent uh conversation with that. I think the conversations that we've had is being in a position to control our own destiny. When you're utilizing somebody else's
facilities, um you're always somewhat at their discretion whether those are going to continue or not. And it does take some time to plan for and incorporate a facility such as a swimming pool into a larger construction
project. So the conversations that we've had is do we want to position ourselves to be in control of what the future might look like for our high school swim programs. We also know there would be and and this wouldn't be a reason to do it necessarily, but there would be huge demand from swim clubs and other
organizations within the community and adjacent communities to utilize that space um when it wasn't being used uh by the high school and having control over the scheduling uh would be a big component part too. So, it's possible
Trevor or John might have some additional insights, but those are some thoughts that come to mind for me. >> And then I think your your third qu Oh, go for it for Trevor. >> No, I was just going to say the only thing to add there too is we saw that the the lease was a 40-year lease and um
that's a long lease. A lot of things changed in 40 years. So um the fact that it has made it 30 or 29 or 30 years with um no changes is I mean the programming itself within that facility between 1996 and now has changed a lot and it's put
just a lot more um burden and stress on that facility which then puts the stress a little bit on the lease itself. So I think just know that um things have changed a lot since 1996. So, it's a um I think there's just a little added more
added attention to the lease itself. >> And if I could just add on to it, what you're saying, Trevor, is there are more we have from from 30 years ago or 35 years ago, we have a lot more students in our district and so there's a lot more need and so we probably need more
facilities to accommodate all of the programming. Is that what you were getting at? Okay. Since we're on this topic, I can I just ask my question real quick about the pool if you you know is is it a possibility to generate a little bit of
revenue for the district or is it kind of negligible and it wouldn't be the reason we would do it but would it help pay for itself somewhat? >> I think if you looked at it like a will it will it pay for the cost of its initial upfront investment that would
take you know quite some period of time. Um and then I think the the answer to the question and maybe Trevor has some thoughts. You know, it would be um you know, a calculation of operating costs and what you would choose to charge, right? You know, pools are are not known
for being money makers. Um but I do know that there is high demand. So if you're if your unique climate can supported of kind of getting it full enough to start I think many districts are happy with I don't know breaking even is sometimes what I talk about for a facility like that, right? is to offset the utility
costs and the custodial costs and the maintenance costs and you know pools are intensive spaces for sure. >> Yeah. And there's always the uh difficult to quantify um benefit of you know should we be able to host you know
larger events from teams or programs that might come from out of state or outstate and you know that just in you know infiltrates money into hotel rooms and restaurants and those kind of things. So, >> I think people do studies on those, but
I think it's hard to quantify exactly what that means, but it's certainly a a benefit to the community to have a facility that might be able to serve those needs in the future. >> And oh, I was just going to say Valentine had a third question, which was, is it a want or a need? And I think
that's an interesting it's an interesting topic that the task force spend a lot of time on. Um I think most would say that they could understand why that that would why that would be needed but it didn't um come it they wouldn't want it to come at the expense of your
educational offerings right so there was a lot of discussion around should we include it in Q1 should we not include it in Q1 and there was many people who expressed great discomfort at kind of lumping it in with everything right so it was kind of a let the community make that decision kind of for themselves
right because it seems like it could be a topic that would garner a lot of discussion >> clarification with swimming pool correct me if I'm wrong my understanding to in order to have competitive u pool so that you can have other schools coming and
competing you have to have 50 m pool which is quite expensive my understanding that's at least what we heard that's why we when we our team was competing had to take some quite far away is it I don't believe that's required for the
state high school league. Um I can see the value in that. You know, they call it a long course pool. Um to be clear, this this budget here is not for a long course pool. So that would be a >> I don't remember what we came up with. We talked about it at one point. >> Yeah, >> it would be I think approximately
in the 40s somewhere. It was like another $10 million to be a long course pool. So I don't think I don't think that would be a requirement. you know, many are passionate about what as many controls as you, right? And so, you kind of have to decide your own, you know, where you want to be. Um, but I do think
a new building will create a lot of discussion opportunity, especially as we go take tours of other people's new buildings. That's a feature people really like to talk about, you know, because families want to know what what's keeping their children safe. So, I could see that um spurring more discussion, but I do know it is
regularly revisited. Yeah. So there's still space and maybe I should wait for you to answer as well, John. >> Yeah. I was just going to just expand a little bit like you know as as things happen and and we go through this and we've gone through this over the last 10
or 15 years. We are there's constantly challenges that come up or there's opportunities to make improvements and we have that safety and security committee that meets. they review all that review, you know, along just the laundry list of things and and as we go
forward, there's also new technology and new ways to do things. Um, and so it's vetting all of that out as we go. So even as we look at this, I mean there we are making improvements as we go. >> The intent of this is it really speeds
it up. like it really allows us to then look and remember we did a whole bunch of work in 2016. Um so you think of all those cameras and all those door access I mean they are getting to the point that they're 9 10 years old so
technology has changed I mean we can look currently as we do have as we have camera failures we replace it the new cameras you can pick them out just by looking at the screen the difference so things like that is what is what we're doing. A follow-up question on that. Does that fall under long-term the LTFM
or does that because it's replacing and you can slightly upgrade as you're as technology changes or is that separate >> in some cases? In some cases, it's falling under the tech levy in some cases and some of this stuff. It it depends on what it's doing
>> and the and the function of it. >> Um, thank you for that. Um, and then my second question is because we all still hear about this. I will tell you, we are a district that is committed or has been committed to one high school and the
question continually comes up. Would we ever have a second high school? Because we have new land in Madina. Is it possible to have a middle school plus an expansion of that to be another, you
know, a satellite spot for a high school or high school programming or somehow because I think for a lot of families, 4,900 students sounds like a whole lot of people in one building. Um, and so I'm wondering what the rationale is and why we are still committed to a one high
school community. Sorry, I was just looking for um as we work to answer some task force members questions around this, we went back to some of the messaging from the 2014 bond. Um and I know it's kind of a long answer, but I think um when we reviewed
it, I I I believe the group decided, you know, these things these these um reasons are all still true and it was relatively succinct. Um I will answer your kind of Madina space question, too. So um this was back from the 2014 task force. It says what options were
considered for addressing growth at the high school and you had a task force at that time. They explored expanding the high school, building a second high school, creating a separate 9th grade campus, creating a separate 12th grade campus, adding a fourth middle school and changing grade configuration. You
can see a couple lists here. K569 1012. K6 79 1012. um and that after thorough review all involved were unanimous in their support for maintaining current grade configuration as best practice and expanding the building. The reasons were a wider range of opportunity available
for students, concern about disparities that would exist between one larger and one smaller high school, continuing the excellence in place at the high school, positive case studies of other successful large schools, maintaining community unity, better preparation for transition to college and long-term
operating cost efficiencies, and in 2014, it was um estimated that operating a second high school would exceed an additional $12 million over 20 years. So, um I we did hear from um Scott Gangler about um the work that the high school does to make learning relevant
for every student and the work they do to study and work with other high schools across the country to make being a large high school successful. Um and I one task force member said I don't remember which one of them otherwise I'd give them credit but um obviously something's working because you're
regularly you know at the top of the list right so I think there are concerns to be had but the the administration at the high school works incredibly hard um to make that a good experience for students and families um and they would continue to do that >> well and I think what I appreciate here
is that the reason that we're continuing on with a one high school is really based on the student experience and academic excellence and then everything else is kind of a byproduct. So the efficiencies and the financial piece of it are a byproduct of it, but we're still focused on our on what's best for
our students. So >> and the the acreage you own um in Madina um that would need to be the department of education would recommend essentially that entire acreage for a high school. So, I would say it would be inadvisable to have more than a high school on that land,
>> even if it was just a smaller because if we could So, if the if the uh capacity at the high school right now is 4,000, what is it? 4,69 students. That's our capacity. >> Yep. >> So, to get take that extra thousand students, you know, if we had a smaller
high school, that would still be we would still need a lot of that acreage. >> Uh, so there's a couple things there. Um maybe if I go to this for a second. So the department of ed has a guideline uh recommendation. It's not a rule, it's a guideline um of site size. So they have
a table that says for this site, this type of building and this many students, you need a base of this many acres plus an acre for every 100 students. And that is supposed to be of we call it buildable land. So not steep grade and not wetland, right? And so um you while
you have an 86.6 6 acre site. You can see that um just slightly over 22 of it I believe is wetland, right? So we're really down into the you know 64 acres or so. Um and that would be very very close to the Department of Ed guideline for what you would want for a high
school. Um so the recommendation is 10 to 12 acres for an elementary plus one per 100. And then a middle school is 25 to 35 acres plus one for every 100 students. And the high school I think is is it a base of 60?
>> I think it's a base of 60. >> Is it that big? >> Might be 50. I can go I can go look. But um because they think about you know how many more people are driving and just the significant amount of field space you need for high school athletics. So um you know the acreage does get taken
up fast for a secondary building for sure. That was a really long answer. I'm sorry. Click back. >> Uh speaking about safety and security, um we saw during presentation from uh Morris Leverman, we saw obviously after
September events that many parents are very concerned about its priority. It's number one safety and security. So looking at um I mean bullet point which you provided what else I mean as for cameras and all my understanding is we
already at least from presentation from um uh Wade I remember he was saying we are top of the line already with that am I right they were already at least around high school
and um other than cameras what else can be And are we looking into anything like uh one more time I'll bring that school uh Lakeville uh district is doing for um so that parents have um peace in their
mind that uh kids will have more chances if in the event of unthinkable kids will have more chances to survive. >> Um I do want to take the first part and then I can do the second part. Okay. >> Yeah. And I'll go back to what I said
before and and that is we we can have the top of the line and every year that that camera is in place, there's always something better. So part of this is to actually look at that um and to look at the feedback that we get from buildings
in terms of it. There's any number of things that can be in here. Um we will have to prioritize that. But um we we can say we have top-of-the-line cameras and we do have a lot of cameras. We have a lot of views and a lot of
different things, but those cameras have a life a shelf life and a life expectancy. Um and that's what we're running into right now. Um we just went through and and did a a card access upgrade in terms of some of that stuff.
So we have been making improvements. Like I said, this is really to accelerate that and get us to where we're where we want to be. >> Um, when it comes to your topic about what other school districts are doing, I'm pretty familiar with what the Lakeville School District has been
doing. Um, I think it's important that we not disclose too much of that at a public meeting because some of safety is um the security of that information. Um, but I do know there have been a lot of discussion around um hardening products that could be implemented. You just have to have a discussion about um what it
does to school atmosphere, right? And how how it looks, you know, how visible are things, how not visible are things to to users >> from the video they provided. Obviously, they also probably try not to show all the details. So, perpetrator will not
know exactly. uh it looks like they try to do such way that it's not as I mean right into your face but at the same time at the event of situation you have um
uh you have more chances to survive. >> Sure. >> Okay. So I have a couple of questions. Um know we talk about $29 per month increase in tax. Is that right? It's about 29 >> on the on the 650,000.
>> Get back to the tax. >> So that Yeah. So that is a part of what I would pay. Let's say I had a 60 $650,000 home. I would pay $29 a month extra for the these buildings for the school district. I also pay additional property tax that
the city actually levies on me, right? because they want to build roads, they want to build facilities and all that. So, are we considering that as well as a burden for the taxpayer? >> What I'll say is this is modeled based on your taxes, but of course, when
people go to the ballot box, >> all of that swirling around in their in their head and their heart. So, you have to be cognizant of what other entities are doing, right? >> Um but we can't control it. So, this increase is not taking into account any known um city or county increases.
Wanted to bring that out there so that people understand that this is not the only tax increase that they will have. >> Correct. >> Um the Q1 nonrenewal of or renewal of tax levy uh tech levy. Did we not talk about that because that
is a that is a requirement for the next year you know during the referendum and will it will it not increase the taxes at all? >> Um we just didn't talk about it in the task force just because it wasn't a facilities topic. Okay. um they were just advised that the district would would likely pursue a renewal. And so we
just wanted them to understand that if there was a bond question, it likely wouldn't be the first question. >> Okay. >> Um I don't >> it's a renewal. It's a renewal of an existing levy. >> So no tax implications additional >> essentially. No no tax impact. Is that
correct? >> Okay. That's for us. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So can you go back to the the the end of the of the task force meeting two? You had those yellow, the blue, green, and a red box. >> Yeah. >> Right. You had those questions.
>> This Oh, no. I know what you mean. >> This >> this one here. >> So, what what was the result of this? What what did we find out? >> Sure. So, um what I would say and um I'm going to talk in generalities a little bit because we did have I think it was five different small groups and then
people finish it individually at home. trends were that there was a lot of support for capacity expansion. Trends were that people did not understand why special education renovations were needed. So, we had to do a lot of educating at the next
meeting. Um there was a trend of people um wondering um some it was phrased a couple of different ways. One was um why didn't you build out those classrooms already at the early learning school? or if that other funding source could have built the other learning school, can we not
use that funding source now? So that out of those post-it notes arose a little bit of an education around school finance and explaining that yes, that is an available funding source, but it does not generate um the you know the amount of money we need here. Um other things
that were yellow um where there was some concerns, you know, this is before people knew the survey results from Peter Leman or budgets. So there was people concerned about dollar amount and being sensitive in the economic climate
that we're in. Um there were people who had red post-it notes on the pool worrying what it might do to the rest of the projects, right? Like is this going to be a divisive issue? I'm trying to think I do have a document that outlines all of them. Um trying to think of other
main themes. I would say anything that was yellow was just really people wanting more information and so we brought that back to meeting three. Um there was a couple people um concerned around um the pace of the study right of you
know there there's a few of us who like to take our time with things. Um and so they were wondering you know can't we just take more time to study it? that, you know, we did spend some time talking about that this has honestly been studied by the district for years, right? And the problem is only getting
closer and closer to our face the longer we take to study it. And so there's there's great information from a variety of projectionists that this is going to be what's coming to you and waiting will have consequences of overcrowding and maybe further attendance area adjustment. So you know there there's
some of those on the task force I think who would have loved to study this maybe themselves for quite a bit longer time just to give voice to that. So this was a task force of 20, right? 20 >> I think it was 18 in total. >> 18. So >> 18 >> if I'm understanding this correctly,
some some were in the green box, some in the yellow and some in the red. Is that right? >> Yeah, they did they did. >> What was the ratio? What was the ratio of that that green, yellow, and red? >> H >> just >> I would say at the end of meeting two
mostly yellow because I think they were drinking from the fire hose of information. >> Okay. I think Peter Peter Leman's presentation I think answered a lot of questions in people's heads around what's going to be reasonable to ask for. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> So better than red, right? >> Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean there was some but I would say >> you would have been in trouble. >> It was a classic bell curve, right? You know of of you know right now I actually don't know enough to make a decision and I would say over time we had more people move towards comfort but we just had to
educate. >> Okay. Good. Thank you. We have one more Valentina. Okay. >> I'm glad to see that uh uh some schools are going to get kitchen if uh obviously things will uh go through because it's
um all schools need to have all students need to have the same experience. Question I have related I mean kitchen understandable why we need it. Um but when you are calculating square feet nowadays to be honest after kids started
having free uh lunches obviously more students are eating. I'm wondering if it's going to diminish uh if uh to be honest free lunches will will no more uh being supported.
That's my first with kitchens. Uh I mean will it be still useful um useful um square feet if they they will build it? Um, and another one is as for uh uh
kitchens. I was thinking maybe silly me if since we are up to capacity at least that's what I'm hearing we're building new buildings then it means that other schools will have uh less pressure not as much uh mean uh there are some rooms
are going to be emptier less kids in classrooms. So why do we need all of a sudden to put more money in our school buildings other than as I understand kitchen looks like it's I mean it's a good idea to do. >> Sure. I'll start with the kitchen topic.
So um you know I think it'd be a good exercise uh that I'm sure the um culinary wellness department could provide participation rates over time that we could look at you know pre and post um funding of um free school meals.
Um, I don't think that even I don't think that if those programs were cancelled that that space would not be used, right? Um, you know, the kitchens are in the case of I don't know, let's pick on Sunset, I think it's somewhere around 10% of the size it really should
be. So, there's a significant number of students that participated before it was a free program and right now it's having to be prepared offsite and, you know, transported daily, multiple times. And if they run out of something, they're just out for the day, you know, as try
as they might. Um, >> you hear about the quality of the food. >> I was going to say some some food, I mean, texturally it's hard for food to to hold up over, you know, over time when it needs to be planned. So, I I guess that's a long answer to say. I I personally don't think they would be underutilized if the free school lunch
program was under was defunded or under. >> If we might add to S, >> please. um as a principal, a former principal, the same number of kids have to utilize the space whether they eat the lunch or bring their own or whatever. So >> um we would still need the same amount
of cafeteria space and in many of our buildings that's part of the issue is that there's not enough seating and so forth. >> And then your second question was I your um assertation is um or your assumption is correct that if there was more space then you know the buildings you have
today would feel less pressure. Um, so if you go through the um I didn't go building by building just in the interest of time, but if you go through the recommended improvements, they're pretty modest at most of the buildings, right? It's, you know, um, a minor special education improvement at a couple of buildings. Um, of course, at
your more newer buildings, there's not much at all. Um, there's a few aged parts of some of your older buildings like East and West that are recommended, but on the whole, the renovation of existing facilities is um, not a large driver of cost here. So, but um we did
include a a map of every building and like highlighted in a color of what is proposed to be touched. So, um I I don't I don't think it'll be the case that you will you'll still I'm going to say that a different way. You'll still have
students with special needs who need specially designed environments even if you aren't overcrowded anymore. So, I think those needs will still be there. Uh so it is because special I mean at least uh based on um presentation last year we saw special ed looks like uh
bigger percentage nowadays and bigger needs then am I right? Yeah, I would say I think if if anything the district's been experiencing kind of a higher percentage of students needing special services, right? So, >> okay. Okay. >> Can I ask one?
Can you explain please um how did your group feel about elementary because I am still I personally not still not sure based on my understanding this year we prognosed certain numbers but they did
not come to fruition on elementary level at least I heard we did not get um 96 students what we were um anticipating to get and uh when you pull that uh enrollment um yeah
it looks like to be honest through uh years it comes down in uh Hazel also told us obviously in Minnesota we're at 1.7 I mean birth rate is going down so how
confident was your group that what are we going to do with elementary school other than maybe we are going to do open enrollment to fulfill uh to fill that uh building. >> Sure. I can talk about a couple things the group talked about. Um what I'll say
is we had a couple people in the group kind of were we had um people worrying were we planning for enough space more than we had people worrying about planning for too much just because of the recent experience with the um metal
ridge metal edition and Northwoods. Um, so this graph, just to go back to it, the yellow line is actually an average of multiple projections, right? So that means that you had a projection or two that actually outpaced that or had more intense or faster pace growth and some
that were either at that or lower. Um, and the district thought that was responsible to to show that to the task force, kind of say, you know, we had four different studies done and this is what the average of all of them are. Um and there were several people who were pretty vocal of are you kind of are we
sure this is enough. We did not have a lot of discussion about um and nobody voiced strong opinions that they didn't think those children were coming. I think they drive around the community. They see the development happening. They
see the district's enrollment um history. Oh, oops, wrong one. This one chart. Um, and so there was more concern about are we planning um the right amount of space, but I I didn't ask. So nobody volunteered concern with that,
but I didn't ask specifically. >> Based on your graph, it almost feels like middle school and high school are kind of in need. Unless I'm reading it wrong. >> Well, the the benefit of those students from a projection perspective is that they exist. So that's the hard part with
an elementary school projection is in the 5 to 10 years there's a lot of assumptions that had to be made and like I said the pro several of the projectionists hold development only to known developments or have permits pulled or on the books and so since most
developers don't plan that far out you know those factors start to be held low um I agree with you that Hazel's birth rate information has I'm sure changed the trajectory of the district's growth. Yeah, I might just offer to that oftentimes in enrollment projections, I
I'll use the stock market as sort of a metaphor. You can't base it on any one given year, but you have to take a look at it over the long haul. So, when I started here in 2008, we had 9,600 students, of which about 8,000 were residents, and we had about 1500 open
enrollment students at the time because we had capacity in our existing buildings at that time. So, we've increased from about 8,000 residents, I think, in 2008. These aren't exact numbers, but pretty close, I think, up to about 12,750
resident students. So, if you look at the average, it's about an increase of 200 students per year. So, this past year, even though we were under projection, we still grew by 150 students or so, I think, this year. Or was it closer to Oh, it's about 200,
I think, this year. >> Last year was an anomaly that we went up about 400 students. So it was really kind of a surprise that we accelerated that quickly in one year. But if you look at the average over the the years, I think we've been in that 150 to 250
range for an average of about 200 students per year. And in looking at the available unbuilt out space yet, those are all factored into these projections for elementary. And that is the most difficult because the second half of that chart, those kids haven't been born
yet. So we're predicting and projecting what that growth rate is going to be. and the movein percentage has contributed to that as well. So the birth rate is one thing they look at. Some districts have a higher than normal movein rate. I think we're one of those and we have been um for quite some time.
So um that's the way that that um I would look at it. And in our recent conversations with the city of Madina, they they're projecting 600 to 800 new homes being built in uh the city of Madina that's part of the
Weisetta school district. So let's go to the low end of that. Some of those housing areas might be developed into multi-unit apartments, etc. But if we get 600 houses, I think that's 600 elementary kids, right? >> Well, and at a birth rate of 1.7, it
would be a little more than that. But I think Hazel's point is that that's been declining, right? So, >> yeah. And she did say that as as a community matures, that growth rate will level off. But, you know, I think we should be kind of okay with that leveling off because what
we don't want is to build a new elementary and have 700 kids show up the first year. So if there's 450 or 400 kids there and we know that we can build out over a 5 to 10 to 15 year time frame with that building as it gets closer to
its capacity. That would be kind of a nice change from what we've been experiencing and and sooner or later they are going to run out of available spaces to continue building homes because we're going to be pushing up against the western boundaries of our district. So, I don't know. Those are a
few thoughts that come to mind. And I think we're also trying to create some ability for agility and flexibility within our buildings because if it has a cap if a building has a capacity of 750 kids and we have 750 kids in it or maybe
even 800, you don't have the uh a principal doesn't have the operational capacity to be able to make adjustments as needed based on the unique students that you might have in your building from year to year. So to have a little bit of space within each of our
elementarymentaries so that principles can navigate and implement programs that work better. I think you know that would be a really good long-term goal as well. I don't know if that helps or not but a few thoughts that come to mind. positive thing from community. I heard actually
some students who go to private school uh decide to come to high school because of a choices and because apparently private schools do not allow to uh travel to take this like PSO uh style at least that's what from one very well
recognized student from Wisetta. It was interesting to hear uh that feedback because high school provides choices and uh if you're thinking about certain career high was at a high school according to that student provides many
choices. >> It's pretty amazing the opportunities I have to agree. >> Thank you. They they helped you right with this stuff. >> Yes, my colleagues Aaron and Ellie are here and John's colleague Jason isn't here but we'll give him we'll give him a
kudos. >> Thank you. Um, if I could just add, so I think S that the point of this presentation, right, is so that we have a deadline of the November 25th to get something to the state. And so that would require the board to be voting
likely next week on this. Is that correct? I >> think we've been working to set you up for that as a as a an option for you. Right. So, we wanted to make sure you had information tonight, ask questions. um other uh there's been work to
finalize that projected tax impact um and discussion of um like refinement of ballot language and things like that and resolutions. >> So it seems like we've had a very thorough study and an extensive community um participation in this that
came to these recommendations and I very much appreciate that. Um, so board colleagues, if you do have any questions in the meantime, the likelihood is that this will come to the board table for a vote on a vote on November 10th. Um, so reach out to me as the facilities chair.
Um, and I'll work with Chase to make sure that we get you all of the answers that you need ahead of that vote so that we're ready to go. >> So I I have a question. November 10th, it said discussion continues and November 24th. So what's happening on November 24th then? Um that would just
be the just because you have a schedule date that would be the you know last day for that would say that's the last moment you could make a choice because the review and comment the last day you could send it is the next day >> the vote is on the 10th though >> I I believe that's been the plan but I I just want you to understand that you
have that as an option as a board. Okay. >> Um and if you don't I think it would you would slip a date if you don't do that. I think it would be very tight. >> This is really important. So let's just make sure everybody understands what they would be voting on. Sure. >> Next next Monday if that if that's the
where we land. So if you could just clarify. >> Okay. I think I have the draft resolution. >> Uh that's the ballot language. Um so this is the draft resolution that we have um relating to a special election.
Um so here I'm going to go right here. So it is that the board has investigated facts declare it is necessary and expedient to A renew the capital project levy. I'm not going to read the whole paragraph b issue general obligation
bonds in an aggraate amount not to exceed 465 and c school building bonds in an aggraate amount not to exceed 31 for that bond question too. Um and so I'm sure we could get a a copy out of this.
So the resolution is long to call an election but and then there would be um the notice of special election and then I have the uh these are the poll combined polling places and then signed by the clerk. So this
resolution would be all of the actions to kind of get those things in motion. Right. So, plus the approval, I'm sorry, the review and comment will be a separate >> um given us permission to submit it >> and then once we get that submitted and
organized, you'll obviously get a copy of it. So, >> so the question I have so that review and comment would be one thing the board would vote on that to authorize us to submit that to the department of education. >> Correct. >> So, that would be one vote. A second one
would be the ballot. So there's the ballot language and is that like a companion to this resolution or is this resolution for down the road >> for the ballot question? >> Yes. >> Um we're recommending to do it at the 10th or the 24th because it's ready.
>> So it would be a resolution and the ballot. >> Yeah. It' be two different two different approvals but >> right >> same meeting. >> And then I think it's important just to clarify too. So that's the important next step to help us stay on this timeline. So that possibly we could have
an elementary open 28 and a middle school open 2930. >> Yeah. >> But there would be I mean this isn't like the the final final vote to call for an election as Right. Or is this the call for an election?
>> You could choose to do that because you have you have up until um in January to do that. So you it would be I would say that would be it's not a must here in November. You would have between now and that last chance date in January to do that. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
>> So go ahead. >> Yeah. So can I clarify your question? So the question is, so we would vote next week to keep the process moving forward to allow us to meet the 25th deadline, but the vote next week would give us options, but it wouldn't lock us into
anything and we'd have a second we'd have up until January to fully lock into the vote. Was that your question? >> I to call for the election. Yes. But it is, you know, the review and comment document does include, you know, the scope and budgets and schedules of the
projects. Um, and I have had them ask for the ballot language as a follow-up. So, like, yes, it is strange that those requirements are so out of sync. Um, and you don't have to use all that extra time, right? But if you were to choose to change projects, then I would say the
review and comment would either need to be rescended or amended and I'm not sure you'd still make April. Yeah, >> correct. >> So, the best case scenario and actually maybe the recommended direction for us to go would be to have
that authorization for the review and comment and the resolution with the accompanying ballot language for the board to take two separate action items at next week's meeting. >> Yeah. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Yeah. And just maybe a little context
because it seems there's probably a little confusion between the 24th and the 10th. Um, and Heidi, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but there was discussion at the facility steering committee about this. And there was a little discomfort in bringing this forward on the 24th, which is a work
session versus the 10th, which is a regular schoolboard meeting at 7:00. So, that's what felt better. Um, and hence the reason tonight was added onto the schedule to really go through this and take a look at this resolution because
this is what would be put into the review and comment. And like Sal said, yes, it could change, but if it does, you're risking MDE coming back and saying you no longer have a an approved review and comment. So, you have to start all over essentially. So,
>> so to give us the best possible timeline, you would suggest and or recommend that we take that action next week on those items that I mentioned before. I just wanted to make sure everybody was clear on exactly what are we going to be voting on. So, >> yes. >> And if you don't have clarity on that,
now would be a good time >> to ask. >> Yes. >> So, I'm I'm still confused. You said January is also >> I'm going to bring up a document. One second. Right. >> Your microphone's not on.
>> Thank you. >> Oops. Sorry. >> I I can help clarify the date situation. January 20th would be the last possible day to inform the county that we are having a ballot question on the April
14th election. >> That is the last possible day. They request far more advanced than that. But >> but >> legally you can wait. >> It does not have to be done next Monday. Right. >> That's just the ballot question part for the county. That's not the same as
>> Yeah. I'm I'm just going to go through this is a document created by Ellers. I'm just going to go through it really quickly. So you can see potential election dates in 2026 across the top. So focus in on the April 14th. So you can see here the review and comment materials to the commissioner board must approve of application prior to
submission. That's that November 25th we've talked about. And then what what Amy G is talking about is there there are a lot of legal steps to calling for an election. Um so this adopt formal resolution calling for the election that has to be at least 84 days in prior to
the election. So as she was saying the last day you could possibly do that is the 20th. So there's nothing stopping you from doing actions together. But for whatever reason they the legislature as they've made these rules they put the review and comment kind of ahead of the
calling for the election. >> So what can you repeat again? What are we going to do on November 10th? What are we going to approve on November 10th? >> I believe we'll have resolutions prepared for you to authorize the administration to submit the review and comment >> and a resolution to call for the
election. But you would have the choice of what you do with those things, right? Is that fair to say? Yep. Okay. >> And in order for us to meet that suggested timeline, >> next Monday would be the best way to do that. And the recommendation
>> we're making to the board is essentially >> correct. >> Um let's prepare ourselves to do that for next Monday. >> And this will not require a presentation or anything, right? You just bring the recommendation and the resolutions. >> Correct. >> Correct. Okay. >> Yep. We can talk about things again if anybody wants to. We'll be here and
ready to have discussion. But >> I was just going to reinforce. Yes, we'd like to have you here next month. >> Of course, we will be here. >> Can I can I clarify? >> Yeah, but >> I still also have a question. I guess that I will agree with your group of 18.
Uh it's a task force force, but it is group of 18 for the community of this size. I'm a little bit concerned that I feel rushed that we don't hear uh any feedback from the community. 18 people
is not community and uh can can it be done such way that we give enough time and space for community to hear this presentation and maybe uh send uh they will be able to uh voice their if they I
mean their concerns or if they their um pros or concerns that is a little bit troubling for me that I feel rushed to to be honest. >> I'll let the board talk about schedule.
What I would say is the community survey um did reach more community members and I think the task force took comfort that the projects they were pondering were generally highly favored by the community, right? That um most projects
had um what Peter called um commendable support out in the broader community. So, I do think that gave some task force members comfort, but I totally understand your concern. I think the the challenge is the district has been studying its enrollment growth for a few
years to check what a post-pandemic trend line looks like and now we see what's going to happen and it's going to come pretty soon, right? 2027 is not that far from now. Um, in fact, we're not going to get a building open on time. um and escalation every year for
projects will will add to a dollar amount like this. So I I appreciate that. Um I think for a few of us who have been a part of it, it feels we've been studying it for years and it just hasn't felt like the right time to ask before now. But your personal um feelings of the process I totally
respect. >> There will be a vote so people will ultimately get to decide. There will be a vote. >> Yeah. >> You the board vote or the public vote? >> But the public vote. So >> yes. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> I get that.
>> I Yeah. I I think we should go ahead. I think we have had this community task force, community surveys by Peter Leatherman and so many other surveys, so many other I I don't know what else the community will will contribute to this. And the
representatives on the task force are like the CFAC, the PTAs and all those I believe are are representative of the community in my opinion. But uh so I think we should go ahead.
>> So we'll plan accordingly for next week and >> I I would say so. Yes. >> And we'll welcome you back then. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. So again, thank you S, John, and everybody that participated in this
process. Um, this completes our work session for this evening. Uh, the time is now right on the dot at 9:00. The Wisetta Public School Board of Education work session for Monday, November 3rd, 2025 is adjourned.
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