Building bond vote will return in Wrenshall

The Wrenshall school district will offer the third building bond proposal in two years to voters in May. While some might think of the past two failed attempts to raise taxes as a warning from residents, school board members have looked at the votes as lessons.

“We’ve had more time to dig into it,” said board chairman Matthew Laveau. “I think it’s a good, thoughtful plan.”

The district will have a vote May 14 asking for building bonds totaling $14.4 million. In April of 2017, voters soundly rejected a $12.5 million proposal. Nearly three-fourths of voters said no. Last fall, a $13 million question was denied by just 52 votes, 534-482.

There were questions on the 2018 ballot that helped refine the improvement plan, board vice chairman Janaki Fisher-Merritt said. Voters were clear that they didn’t want to spend a half million dollars to upgrade a 42-year-old pool that has been out of commission for a year. The current plan is to remodel that space to add up to four classrooms and improve locker room space.

Fisher-Merritt said the pool question has been the “dividing line” in past votes. While he would like to see the pool refurbished, he and board members got the message, he said.

“Either way, students win,” he said. “That’s democracy.”

He said the plan is similar to those in 2017 and 2018 for meeting improved space goals but with priorities refined by how voters responded.

Plans to build a new main event gymnasium have also been clarified. The school has had to jam students into its only gym since the recreation building space was deemed unusable due to issues such as a leaking roof.

Fisher-Merritt said the plan is to spend money to shore up the shell of the rec building and convert it into a space for industrial arts, or STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — education. Outfitting the space would come from in-kind donations from trades companies that are trying to foster a workforce of skilled workers, Fisher-Merritt said.

It’s both a building and curriculum improvement, he said.

Kraus Anderson, the chosen construction management team, has committed to working with the district on the rec building changeover.

“These companies are having a hard time finding a skilled labor force,” Fisher-Merritt said. The new space will give students a hands-on experience and provide options after graduation, he said. “This is a rethink on how we deliver education.”

The current events gym would become a secondary gym to a new main gym, with the two adjoining each other.

More than half of the $14.4 million would go to improving the air quality in the portions of the building built in 1956 and 1963. Fisher-Merritt said teachers and students need a more consistent indoor environment to focus on education. The oldest building hosts the elementary grades.

Fisher-Merritt, who is an alumus of the school, said that before the 1998 addition to the school, airflow in the warmer months could be controlled somewhat by opening windows. The addition inadvertently closed off that option, he said.

The older portions of the school are steam-heated by a boiler with no backup, making maintenance crews nervous in the coldest winter months, Fisher-Merritt said. A new heating and ventilation system would disturb some areas of the school where asbestos has been sealed, adding abatement to the costs. Windows would also be replaced to make classrooms more efficient.

“It all needs to get upgraded,” Fisher-Merritt said. The increased cost, in excess of $1 million more than last fall’s proposal, is due mostly to increased construction costs, he said.

Other items include better security and access at the school.

Laveau said the past votes, and time, have helped Wrenshall residents see what the needs are. “As time goes on, the community knows what we are trying to accomplish,” he said. “I think the community is behind this.”

There will be two 6 p.m. informational meetings at the school about the bond proposal, on March 21 and April 17.

“Having six months to plan and dig in has been helpful,” Fisher-Merritt said. “We need to maintain and improve the building for the next generation of students.”

He said the improvements can stand alone for the district and also enhance any considerations about Wrenshall consolidating with another district. Discussions with Carlton have been on and off for several years now, and the idea has been debated for decades. He said past bonding bills that led to building improvements in the 1950s and 1960s were a way of “shutting down the conversation” about consolidation.

“The investment has an eye to money well spent regardless of consolidation,” Fisher-Merritt said. “It could be a high school or continue as just a solid K-12 building.”