More parking, caffeine coming to Esko

A good-sized crowd turned out for Monday's open house highlighting Esko high school's new flexible learning space for juniors and seniors, a place students can gather to study for their various College in the Schools classes. Guests at the open house got a bonus on Monday: free samples of coffee from the new student-run Kahvia Coffee shop opening soon inside the learning center. Kahvia means coffee in Finnish, and is a little more straightforward than Esko's "sisu" motto (which has no direct translation to English, but has been described as guts, grit, or stubborn courage in Finnish).

The coffee shop is being run by students in Esko's new entrepreneurial class. They will work together on the coffee shop as a business, but each student will also craft their own business plan as part of the new course, said superintendent Aaron Fischer, who said the coffee shop will be open two hours a day.

Fischer said a number of students came for the open house, plus most of the school board, parents and friends of the students running the coffee shop.

As for the learning center, the new space will also help older students transition toward college life, which is more flexible and less supervised. So far, so good, students told the Pine Knot News in its Jan. 3 story. "It's the best," said senior Chiara Houser.

The Esko School Board also held its organizational meeting Monday, Jan. 13.

The board selected the same school board officers for 2025 as served the past two years: Jerry Frederick was selected as chair, Todd Rengo as vice chair, Margaret Sunnarborg as treasurer, and Steve McConnell as clerk. Other board members are Leona Johnson and Rob Johnson. Board committee assignments will be the same as well, Fischer said. Board meetings will still be held on the second Monday of the month. In other annual actions, board members selected the Pine Knot News as the school district's official newspaper again and approved a resolution limiting open enrollment.

Fischer said the board votes on open enrollment every year in January.

"That allows me to close grade levels when they're full," he said. "People can still apply, but there's no guarantee they'll get in."

Parking lot funding

Board members also approved the sale of $895,000 in general obligation tax abatement bonds Monday. Fischer previously explained that the state legislature made it possible for school districts to approve abatement bonds for parking lots without needing to hold a voter referendum. Property owners should not see a tax increase from the sale of abatement bonds, because the district had expiring debt. Instead of school taxes going down, they will roughly stay the same.

"It was a great sale," Fischer said. "It went very well for us."

Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay for a new parking lot and possible improvements to two existing smaller gravel lots, if there's enough money after bids are selected.

The new parking lot will be constructed on a former residential lot at 25 Lincoln Lane, adjacent and just east of school property, behind the former RAM Insurance building, now the Esko Education Center. According to plans presented Monday, it should add about 84 more parking spots to the campus. The district is also hoping to improve a parking lot between a nearby dental and business tax office and a tiny lot with seven spots next to the custodial doors.

"All three lots will go out for bid: the main first and the other two as alternatives," Fischer said. "If there's enough money, we'll tar all of those."

Bids will likely go out in February, with work tentatively planned for summer.