001It's recording. >> All right. So, we're here in our work session. Um, as we move forward now, um, we're going to get a presentation from Witsap on everything from the start of the task force, kind of where how we got to this point, how the task force um, what kind of a over a recap of each one of their meetings so that everybody is aware of the steps and processes that went went through to get to this point to get to a recommendation. Um if you have questions, you know, try to hold those till the end because you might get those things answered if um throughout this presentation. They're going to go through kind of the entire um process here. Um it's very very encompassing of what what happened. Um but it's it's quite a
002bit. So, um, Lindsay's got a great presentation. And so, as we move forward with this, we're going to see that presentation and then as a board, we need to look at that what was presented to us from the task force and decide, are we ready to move forward with this? And then if so, if if we are, what does that steps look like? Some of that's going to be in the presentation of kind of a an overview of what this process looks like. Um, and then the next thing obviously if if we're not ready for that then then what do we need? What what more do we need to be able to be in a point where we're ready to move forward? As you will see, um, you know, it's not just a yep, we're
003going to do it, slap it on the ballot. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in between saying yes, we're going to accept this or no, we're not going to accept this or we're going to take this plan and we're going to get to a ballot. There's quite a process that goes through that and it's not a it's not a yep, we decided today and we're stuck in it, right? So, if we say we accept this presentation that they gave us, we accept what the task force brought to us and we get down the road a month or two and we've done some digging in and we decide, oh, wait a second, this isn't what we, you know, we still have that ability, there's many checkpoints along the way that the board is going
004to be asked to make decisions going forward. So, um, I guess overall as we look at this presentation and what the task force brought to us, that's going to be part of what the board needs to decide is are we comfortable with this? Is this what we want to move forward with? Okay. If so, now we have to do X, Y, and Z things before we are ready to present this to a ballot. So, um, just as you're looking at this, um, thinking about questions you have about what is being presented, um, and then at the end, we're going to just want some feedback. I want to hear what, you know, what each board member thinks of this and where where you're at as far as, again, this is a work session. We're not going
005to take any action today. Um, it's more of a similar to what we just did for the recording. Yep, I'm ready to move forward or no, I have these questions and I need I need these answers before I can make that decision. That's kind of where we're at and what we're trying to get to. Does that make sense to everyone? All right, good. And with that, we'll miss anything. >> No, you did a great job. Thank you. >> Okay. I think maybe what we'll do first is you know obviously you know Lindsay myself just through the process so far but we do have a good team member here >> right I was going to say let's maybe do some introduction just to make sure but >> yeah so Steve Zed load here has joined our
006K12 team um been with us three weeks so far maybe let you give a little background on your resume >> Well sure I've asked a Minnesota public school uh high school principal and Minnesota public school I was superintendent over in the Brainer public schools um for for six years, 17 years in Brainard. I've done a lot of work with Woods over the years. Uh first as high school principal um at Brainer and as superintendent as well. Um we've had a great relationship with Woods. Um part of my initial work is is to is to listen and learn about communities like yours and that's what I'm here to do tonight. I've I've seen some of the presentation, had some of the conversation already to try and get a little bit up to speed before I get
007here and uh and thank you for allowing me in. >> Great. All right, we will we'll kick off the presentation. Uh Maya, thank you for the great introduction um to this process. Um what the presentation tonight is um going to cover are these three preliminary items. So community task force executive summary. So we're going to give you a highle summary of the task force process. It was quite an in-depth process. We have a lot of information to share. Um then we'll talk about the guiding pinnacles, what those are and how they were established. That was a really um creative and commentfilled process that we're excited to share with you. And then lastly, the overview of plan B3, the one-site concept, which is part of that task force recommendation that you heard at your last schoolboard
008meeting. We'll start in with the executive summary of the task force. This process started last October, task force meeting number one. Um, all task force meetings have been held in this room. Some of you have joined us. Um so we started this meeting by gathering everyone, thanking them for joining, kind of explaining what the process of the task force initiative was for. Um we also did an overview of all of the past referendums within current history. Um just so everyone could have a good baseline understanding of how we got to where we are today. We also reviewed the past facility assessment of the secondary building that was done within recent um uh years and then also the facility assessment that our company was did for the north and south elementary buildings. As a part of
009that process, we also looked at educational adequacy. So facility assessment really looks at the brick and mortar of the building kind of those building tangible components. Educational advocacy is understanding how education is delivered inside of the buildings and how that compares to the Minnesota state guidelines through the department of education. And then we also gave an update on our educational focus groups. So during this process, Brent and I had the opportunity to meet with staff from each of the three facilities and also students here at the secondary building and talk to them about how does your existing facility work for you? Um what doesn't work and what could be improved in the future if you were to dream big. So that was a really fun process we got to update everyone on at that first
010task force meeting. So information overload was really the the theme of that first meeting. Then we set out on our tours. So we did building tours. We started at the secondary school. All tours um included tours of the interior of the facility. Kind of all the nooks and crannies. Did a full encompassing tour of the buildings, the exterior of the building as well as the site of the buildings. So, starting here at the secondary school, then we went down south. Um, took a look at the elementary school down there. We were able to enjoy lunch at the South Elementary School, which is an experience all in itself. Um, and then we ended the tours up at the North Elementary. Task Force meeting number two and three were back here at the secondary building. Um, so
011this was an opportunity for people to really digest the information that they've learned and what they saw on those tours. I think seeing a facility assessment book is one thing, but to actually walk through these buildings, feel the spaces, see students and teachers interacting in those buildings was another experience we were really glad to share with that task force group. >> Um, we took a survey of the group. So, this little blue screen here on my presentation is a snippet of the mentter survey program. So, this is an online survey that we use throughout the task force. So, it's anonymous. Everyone grabs their cell phone, they take a picture of the QR code, and then it links them into the online survey. Again, completely anonymous. We were able to collect live data from those that
012were in the room and then keep track of that data throughout the task force process. So, we asked everyone, what really stood out to you as far as the task force groups? Um, we also asked people to start to help us prioritize the different deficiencies that we saw at the buildings. So we looked at north, south, and the secondary building on what are areas of importance that you really want this group to start to focus on. We then started talking about cost estimates for each of those buildings based on these priority items. So on the right hand side of my screen is just a snippet of the secondary school. So, we started to take a look at some of those items that were discussed um and started to create some highlevel cost estimates on if
013we were to repair these existing facilities, what would that start to look like from a cost perspective. Task force meeting number four, this is where we started to really talk about the process and our focus of the group. Now that we had a really good foundational understanding of the facilities and what this group was looking to achieve, let's start thinking about the lens in which we're going to look at this so we're all moving in the same direction. We looked at first educational trends across greater outstate Minnesota. So a lot of what we heard from groups around the buildings is we don't really know what's out there. We've either spent our whole career or the majority of our time teaching here in West Central. We don't really know what a lot of school districts have
014to offer. So we came in and we presented some educational trends on what people are doing with career and technical education, play-based learning, different spaces that we're creating inside of schools that were not created 30 plus years ago. Then we looked at the district's strategic road map. So this was a document that was created in February of 2023 by the school district. It lists the core mission, the vision statement, core values, and then also strategic directions. And so we really focused on these strategic directions and we started to think about facilities. This is why the task force was pulled together to evaluate the facilities and how can the facilities start to support the strategic directions of the school district. So question in mentter what improvements could be made to the district's facility to better support
015the mission statement. Think big. All ideas are welcome. Daycare in buildings, play-based learning spaces, outdoor turf instead of grass that kind of unrolls away and creates muddy messes inside the building. More STEM programs in our elementary. More spaces, up-to-date learning spaces, state-of-the-art art learning spaces, increased technology, middle school, high school concept. Um, just some ideas that we captured. There was a lot of comments and a lot of ideas that were gathered again through that mention meter unanimous survey. Then we took our strategic directions and we thought, you know what, let's roll up our sleeves and really get to work with this task force. So, we set set out um to break out into five different groups of the task force. They were um stationed out here in the commons area at different tables and we
016gave each um group a strategic direction to focus on and then they started thinking about how could the facility start to support that strategic direction. Um, some examples I have here on the screen, staff. Um, this was a big item is how are we retaining staff? How are we attracting new staff? How are we promoting the staff that we already have? And so these are some of the brainstorming sessions that were created during that. Um, first impressions. We asked a lot about, you know, what is the first impression of a visitor, a new parent, a potential new family into the district? What are some of their first impressions and how could the spaces be modified to enhance that first impression? Then we stopped about what's the workforce of our communities and how can the West
017Central Area School District prepare our students for the workforce here locally without having to send them elsewhere for viable careers. How can we keep them here? So through this we then discussed guiding pinnacles. I think Paul you brought the bold school district example and how they had these guiding principles that really drove all the decision making for their facilities through these principles. And we thought, you know what, pinnacles make sense here. We've got castles. Pinnacles are the very peak of the castle. And so guiding pinnacles. What do we want the lens or the focus of a facility project to look through? And so here are some just ideas that were generated through that guiding pinnacle conversation. A lot of these again were captured through group presentation discussions and the momentum leader survey as well. Safety
018and security, collaboration, cost, student equity, creative education, new updated facilities, career focus, community pride, efficiency, unity, student success, and one vision or some of those brainstorming ideas. And so we started to word collage those together. And by task force meeting number six, we refined those ideas even longer, continued to discuss and then ultimately developed the guiding principles and voted upon those. Um so the guiding pinnacles that the task force developed is a future focused education, operational sustainability and one WCA community at the task force meeting number six. This was back in February of the year. We also started to look at demographics. So Paul, we brought in Hazel Reinhardt. Um, and she did a a really great job of understanding the dem demographics of the school district and the counties here that support the school
019district. Overall, the trend not only in the school district, but what we're seeing statewide is a gradual declining enrollment. Um, several things contributing to this. attrition, people moving out of the area, people aging out, um lower birth rates, other alternate school opportunities for people. Not a lot in the area, but there's certainly a handful of other opportunities. Open enrollment out, but certainly we have open enrollment in as well. >> In addition to demographics, we also had Ellers here for a presentation that night. Um, and we looked at the district financials hypothetical examples. We chose here a $25 million referendum and a $40 million referendum. These were just kind of picked kind of out of the ballpark. Um, and so we can start to see what tax impacts would be not only on residential and commercial
020property, but we also took a a look at agricultural land as well. And so we could just start to see what are some of these ideas that we're going to start to generate. what impact does that have to the tax base? The group thought that was really important. So that was that was a significant request and so we're really glad that LRs were able to present this information. This is initial but we've really refined that as that process went through. Then the task force was wondering you know where are we going from here? What's the big picture vision? So we developed this road mapap for a referendum project and I think this is really good even for tonight's conversation. So, we created the facility assessments back in the summer of 2024. That's the great big
021book of all the deficiencies in all of the buildings, long-term deferred maintenance. Then we moved into the task force committee. Um, this was fall and winter into 2025. We're at the recommendation to the schoolboard phase. We're kind of at the end of that phase. Now, we have the rest of this road map in front of us. So in in an ideal progression of steps, next we look at the pre-referent planning phase. So even if a recommendation to the school board is accepted and we choose to go forward with referendum planning, there's still a lot of leg work and a lot of input that needs to happen. So the task force members were community volunteers. They included educators. Some administration was also in the room. But we really didn't get the chance to sit down with
022any of these ideas and plans and really vet them through these schools through the staff, through support, through administration, through student involvement. So that's a really critical part in any referendum process is to understand the staff's reaction to these changes, um programming of gym spaces, how are we using breakout spaces, do we have enough special ed and right size special ed spaces? Those are educated class uh questions that the task force was not prepared to make. But that's why we come into this next step, this pre-referendum place. This is where we review, verify, re-review and verify back and back again until we have it right. So this process could take a take quite a bit of time. So the refining of business uh building plans, this is a process between, you know, we can facilitate
023this the district. We've also um in very small letters up there have a CM construction managers often get brought in at this phase of the process as well. So we have provided some highle cost estimating based on our past project experience things with within a year or two that have been bid but construction managers they have their finger on the pulse of the bidding world. So they can much better estimate a lot of these ideas for us. So at that point when we're refining, we're kind of coming from up here and we're getting narrower and narrower and narrow into what the project will ultimately be. The construction manager will help us with that. We can also talk about the feasibility of construction schedule and that will how that will impact your school year and your
024school summers. We can talk about construction materials. We know air handling units and electrical panels are incredibly long lead time items right now. So are there multiple big bid packages that should be considered? All of those things are really good to have in those early on conversations in planning and development. We also look at financial um and operating costs at this phase. And then ultimately we're reviewing uh we're preparing a review and comment which is a requirement with the state of Minnesota, their educational department. So you're familiar with packets that have been submitted in the past. They go to the state at a certain time frame and then there's this review and comment period where the state comes back and says you're on the right track or we need to think about this a little
025bit differently. Ultimately they need to get their approval before referendum vote can happen. So you can see that as the next step there is the possible referendum vote in the time frame. Once a vote is held and is successful then we start with our design and bidding phases. So this is a lengthy process too. We do a lot of the heavy lifting in this phase. We've collected a lot of input. Now we have to get it on paper so contractors can bid and build the project. Once it's bid successfully, we roll into construction and then you have your occupancy. So this whole road map takes a a couple of years and we can look at a a different schedule I brought from a different school district that's going through that today. Um, you know, we're
026we're still kind of in these initial phases and there's a lot more development and input we need before we have a a welldesigned plan that we feel very confident with in going out to the public to ask for support on. So from here we started the development of more refined plans and concepts. Tonight we're going to review option 3B which is the task force is recommended plan. This is the one site plan. So, we're here at the secondary building. The areas in gray on our map are to stay relatively unchanged. The areas in blue or that dark gray color, those are areas of remodel or improvement. And the areas identified in red would be building additions. So, adding square footage to this building, we're increasing the square footage um by just over 47,000 square feet.
027However, districtwide, we've reduced total square footage by almost 64,000 square ft. So, increase here for more students, but overall decreasing at the schools north and south. Um, a lot of work went into Paul meeting with your administrative team at all three of the buildings to understand the programming of a building like this and um incorporating those different age ranges into one building. And so we looked projected out on when this building might be able to be occupied through that whole design process, that road map we just uh showed to you at that time. What is our enrollment going to be? And we think we're right on the cusp of a two to three section. So we're kind of calling this like a two and a half section building. So we've got two sections with some
028flex space built in. On the map here, you can see the side of the building that's actually here to the right of us tonight is allocated as the middle school wing. So, these are the third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms with their support spaces and flex spaces built in there. On the other side of the high school, so kind of behind us here is more of the high school wing and then extending up into that CTE wing. And then you can see the elementary wing addition was a dedicated entrance. So, there would be clear paths of entrance there. Let's flip over to that safe plan so you can see. So, blue arrows indicating entrance into the secondary building and an entrance into that elementary school. Knowing that we're going to have an increased occupant load
029here at the secondary site, um the increase in parking is definitely needed. So, to the west of the addition, we've increased parking. This would be ideal for um staff and facility parking. Keeping the parking out front to the east here just for visitors, parents, those types of things. Students of course some dedicated bus loops um knowing that the elementary students will be um entering the school from a different point than the high school students. Creating this bus loop so they have a safe secure entrance. they're not having to cross paths with moms and dads doing drop off in the morning for pickup. Also, increasing the parking to the south here um allows parking closer certainly to the athletic fields, but then the fitness edition over in the corner here by the gym and then also
030of the incorporation of field restrooms. So, these restrooms would be attached to the building. They're incredibly expensive, we found through our process, to build out from the building. So, keeping those attached to the building are um much more cost effective. And then it is a little bit of a walk, but definitely a cost-saving measure there um from the fields. Increased aesthetics to the building, kind of getting away from the green and bringing more of that um night pride to the building, the west central area pride to the building. Um and then as you can see, the elementary edition is overlaid on one of the softball fields along with the parking on the other. So, we did incorporate costs purchasing of new land and the recreation of softball fields somewhere. We don't know where that is,
031but we just took an average land acquisition cost and put that into the budgets outdoor play space. And then we've also um you know the task force had a lot of really creative ideas here at the end of the process. So we wanted to capture them. They weren't all fully vetted at the time, but additional gym space was definitely a conversation. And then the potential for CTE addition from one of those past referendum efforts. We did want to identify that on here. Those things I think just need more vetting. When I talked about this road map, sitting down with those user groups, again, the task force is volunteers. They're not people that necessarily program the building. So, we need to really understand, you know, what are these gym spaces used for? What is the CT
032addition needed for? And then we can start to program those spaces and define that a little bit better. Um, I use the example of is it a multi-purpose gym with a rubber sports floor and mobile nets so it can be used for a multitude of different things or is it a dual station competition gym with a wood sleeper system and retractable equipment into the ceiling? You know, that's a very different space. So, we need to understand that from the athletic director and the sports um programming team there. We also did some visuals just to help conceptualize what this could potentially look like. So, you can see here on the lower left um a concept for just enhancing that high school entrance and creating some visual um enjoyment and some aesthetics. And then also the elementary
033wing, creating a dedicated safe entrance for people to um bring their smaller children into that area of the building. Great ideas. This is what it's going to cost from a cost breakdown. So, we took a look at the cost um projectwise uh project encompassing. So, we also wanted to incorporate a cost for the north and south elementary school for demolition and restoration to that site. Those buildings do not necessarily have to come down, but we want to plan for worst case scenario when we're tacking budgets. It's really important to to not leave behind an unused asset in a community. There might be an opportunity to use the buildings and the task force definitely had some really creative, productive ideas for both of the buildings. However, we want to have a place marker in those budgets
034to do the demolition and restoration of that site. So, we're not leaving an an unoccupied building behind in any building. That's just good standard practice. So those line items can certainly be flexible based on what's decided with those um buildings. Secondary school, you can see how our estimates have broken down. We have also added alternates here to the cost estimate just to give you an understanding of what some of those alternates could look like from a cost perspective just to be very full fully transparent. So we can add that into the costs. So the one site project with all the alternates because again this kind of came in at the last maybe 11th hour. So we wanted to just stay with what had been developed to this point. Approximate cost per square foot for the
035project $169 a square foot. Current student enrollment we wanted to identify what we're at right now today 785. Building size $177,000. So based on Department of Education's guidelines for a one-site concept, we should be between 200 and 320 square ft per student. Right now, we're about 225 square ft per student. So we're right comfortably in that range. Okay. So what does this do to our tax impact? we circled back to Ellers and we said we want to better understand what this tax impact would do to our users. So, um just there's a kind of a footnote down here due to the fiscal year and the timing of a potential election. We're looking at worst case scenario where the first interest payment would be due in a fiscal year. So, it kind of increases those levy
036costs. So, we're actually looking at the second column for that just under 30 million. Ultimately, it would be a 3 uh $31.4 4 million referendum. And then we also wanted to take a look at those alternates that you saw on the screen. So just to be very clear and transparent, that's what that um that project would look like with those alternates built in there with the projected increases due. We also took a look at um more expensive projects and then a less expensive project just to give an idea on the range. Additionally or lastly, we heard a lot of questions about operational costs. Now, we did have utility data. So, this is one of those operational costs we were able to study. So, you can see the current district totals throughout the years and the
037average cost. Um there's a huge flexibility based on the weather actually um quite drastic when we look at those numbers. So, pray for good warm winters ahead. Um North Elementary, South Elementary operational costs in option 3B would be down to zero. secondary school would increase slightly with the increased occupant load here on the building, but you can see districtwide ultimately a really good utility cost savings. Um, one of the task force members said, "Oh, that's only $100,000." And we said, "Yeah, but over the course of 10 years, that's a million dollars." So, it really is impacting from a utility perspective, not to mention lawn care, snow removal, garbage delivery service. You know, there's all these other cost we could start to consider as well. So the culmination of the task force group the last meeting
038um we posed two questions. Um question one through mentometer again this is the unanimous voting polling software. As a member of the task force group do you approve option 1 C which is to modernize and update all facilities as presented. Six voted yes 14 voted no. I should mention I think I forgot to mention we did ask the group um what they felt a good consensus number would be within the task force. Do we want a 100% unanimous consensus? Do we want 51% consensus? How did we feel that consensus number would be? We voted and the group felt like a 74% consensus would be a thumbs up for them that they felt like that would be a good group um you know recommendation moving forward. So saying that option 3B question as a member of
039task force group do you approve of option 3B one campus as presented 16 16 voted yes four voted no I believe this is 81% consensus so we exceeded what we had established for ourselves as consensus then we went on to the recommendation to the school board this was read for you Um at the last school board meeting, after extensive review and discussion, the West Central Area Schools Task Force recommends the school board to move forward with option 3B one site as presented at the task force meeting number eight. This direction reflects a commitment to addressing current fiscal needs while honoring the values and priorities expressed throughout the task force process. As implementation planning moves forward, the task force recommends the school board continue to engage the community to ensure transparency, gather feedback on specific design
040and programming elements, and foster support for the project. The task force further recommends that the board remain guided by the following core pinnacles throughout the process. future focused education, operational sustainability and one WA uh community. So that's the summary of the task force groups. We could probably talk for 18 hours on all of the information and all of the survey data that was collected. Um but I think we we tried to do a good job of summarizing that process. Um it was a huge commitment to everyone that participated um and just great in in engagement overall. It was it was really a pleasure to work with that group. So back to our road map for referendum projects. We're here kind of at the culmination of the task force committee. Um the task force has made
041that recommendation to the school board. Um, and so, you know, now I think would be a great opportunity to kind of discuss these um, task force findings. If we want to go back and page through any of this information, we certainly could do, but I think it' just be great to hear from you all on your thoughts after learning a little bit more about that task force process, what we uncovered from a data perspective, demographics, um, kind of everything we've we've presented tonight. Everybody speak at once. >> Claire, what are you thinking? >> Well, I I think you gave a really factual nice summary of things that helps helps to kind of reframe that after not thinking about this over the summer, right? I asked you, you attended a lot of the meetings. Is there
042I mean, is there anything you would add to that? Is there any? >> No, I I really think we can't lose sight of the three pinnacles. I think, you know, we can't it's easy to direct and so my hope is that forms a foundation for our decision making as a group. We looked at Bold's uh referendum efforts. I think they were successful last year in their referendum vote. And their um vote yes information that they displayed to their community, I believe was two uh 8 and 1 half by 11 sheets, maybe three front and back of one baby. Um, but they had their their guiding principles colorcoded in three different colors. And anything that was addressed on the floor plan was colorcoded in one of those categories. So everything that they did to their buildings
043was based on those three core principles. I thought it was so clear, concise, and transparent. Um, they had a really nice direct narrative, but it was it boiled down to that. these three pieces of paper or two pieces of paper, one front and back that that they delivered to their community to help support the >> pass. >> I don't recall. Was it 14 million? >> I think it was more than that project. What did they What all did they do? >> I think did they work on two of their facilities? I think making improvements, enhancements, and things like that. I'd have to double check my >> safety and security was their top priority. So, safe and secure entrances, um updating their educational adequacy. They were falling behind. Um so, they really needed to boost their
044educational spaces. And I forget their third um principle. >> I have it. I can pull it up. Yeah, it's it very well done. It's 39, if I'm reading this correctly, 39. Almost 49. >> Could be. Yeah. >> They kept three buildings then. >> I think they went to two. >> Mhm. Did they close one? >> I don't remember the specifics. >> I can't remember. >> They were a presenter I think at MSBA last year. >> Yep. >> If I remember correctly, I think one just became like an activity center. It wasn't >> Yes. >> Wasn't any educational just gyms and >> Yeah, I remember that now. Other thoughts, comments? >> Nathan, >> Josh, >> in addition to the like the utility savings, um, was there ever a number associated with like, you know, snow and
045lawn care, that type of like was that part of the utility savings or was it just power, water, you know? >> It was just power, water, gas, the main. So, we were able to get five or six years worth of >> and five years of utility bills. >> And that's what we based it on. So the so the savings would probably would be more if you're not, you know, actually running those two buildings. Correct. >> Yeah. Oh yeah. All those other periphery services. >> It depends on the square footage. If you do square footage for square footage, which we're reducing by 60 something,000 currently in this plan, right? Then that makes sense. if you're, you know, it's almost a 2:1 ratio, >> right? >> When you're when you're adding air conditioning to any building, it's
046almost a 2 to1 ratio. So, heat two feet for that you can heat and cool one. >> Yeah, that's a really good point. So, we took that into consideration with option 3B. Currently, your elementary schools are not air conditioned. So bringing the elementary school here, we're adding that square footage and we're increasing the utility load um because we would provide cooling to that facility. >> Yeah, that was part of that process to >> I'd be awful surprised if you say I haven't seen it yet. It's kind of what I do. I've never se I've never seen it. But then if we were to have commissioning to our elementary schools >> yeah the cost is going up no matter what. >> If you were going to stay in the same footprint, you wouldn't. But if you're
047gonna >> even even trying to make it smaller is because there's there'll be double the amount of lights in every room that there currently is. Even though they're LED, you're still going to have, you know, just based on codes and things. It happens that way every pretty much every >> made the courthouse significantly more efficient, but they utility bills go way up because they have more lights in the rooms and >> just because they have to. not as convenient. >> It is what it is. It's just that's what we see. My biggest concern is the if if this is the plan that goes on the deal is do we have adequate space because we've been, you know, we've been told by experts over and over and over again that we need a certain amount of
048space and I get that enrollment's going down, but it's not going down that fast. It's It's at the same numbers as we were told when when we started this process in 2013 with Pat West. If you go back and look at those slid sheets, it's almost identical what was supposed to happen that didn't. and all of a sudden the next three years later we're playing 2A basketball, you know, and so to try and for sure think you can estimate kids that aren't born yet is out of our control, right? >> Yeah, it's challenging. So regard so there I mean there nothing you can do about it. >> I mean I so I totally understand where you're at but like for gym space we've we've talked about this that we're at a deficit currently. So currently
049we have basically um I would from a basketball coaching perspective I'd say we have six full courts currently in our district. With this plan, we're we're losing at least one full court and we had a deficit prior to so how do we address that first off? >> Are you including kids with it as a full court? >> Yeah. >> Does it get used for >> I used it almost as used. They're all full including Hoffman. That's why we have booster test that pay off $3,000 a year because we do almost daily. >> Mhm. >> All of them are >> no d and and we know we're at a deficit. So it's all about that. My question is just like and then we get into the classrooms and currently we have are we going to have
050some first grade? Currently, right now, if we were going to move to this new building, we we must have we have at least three sections in most when you're counting >> right. >> And would it be fair to say that probably in some of them grades it's pretty full. Like it would be three sections if all if all those kids were in one building. >> Currently where we're at, we'd be full, but I mean >> Yep. as we look >> because >> our numbers are still >> I don't know that there's enough space in this plan >> currently for even the educational side unless we lose a substantial amount of students >> and room size is you know is as well you know we were we were in almost every other plan prior to this
051we were at 950 ft for a normal classroom and now we're down to and that alone with the numbers before there would have been less square footage per student in that classroom because we were going to go up a few students before, right? We were going to go from four sections down to three. So, we were going to add some some kids to a classroom, which is fine. We'd still been within the number probably, you know, just based on what we want to do. But even at that 950 per child, we would have lost square footage in that room. Now, the rooms would have been built probably so that they're more adequate for education and it probably maybe it wouldn't have mattered, right? I don't know. But now we're down to at least what 925
052each classroom. So, I'm a little concerned that maybe, you know, can we bump up the size of these classrooms like kindergarten? You know, I got a lot of DIY. I didn't see eye to eye on everything, but I had a lot of respect for him. have made good arguments for these sizes of these rooms, you know, that he drew up plus the prior people before >> and our kindergarten rooms at that time were 1,200. Now they're down to,00 um that that's stuff that worries me in this plan and all that I think could be tweaked and the problem with tweaking it is there's cost, right? >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah. every and but I'm not willing to I don't know if I'll vote for this plan no matter what but if it passes I want to
053be right that's and that's what I've said every year I've been on the board you know even if the plan that I don't particularly like from a location standpoint and amount of building standpoint those kind of things if it does pass I want it to be adequate and I can see right from what we have right here there's no way, at least on the athletic side, that it's adequate because I know we've been in a deficit for too long and we're still going to be there unless you plan on keeping some other buildings open for them kids to use. Darren, I think you're you're asking important questions and we've kind of had some informal conversations, but now it maybe really is paramount that we need Jake to, you know, really put a pencil to space
054that's in this plan and our principles. um because there are lots of you know and that's a real house but there's lots of scheduling things that can happen on space um particularly when you have a staff all in one location um so I would I would really like to see some detailed work from them on you know how would they operationalize this and then for us to hear that and for you to hear you know what does that look like in a kindergarten room what does that look like with gym space and um you know I I don't have any expertise um you know, sports and I understand that, but Jake certainly could talk to that and I think it'd be really important for us to hear that information as part of this process. >>
055Yeah, that's really that that next level. >> Well, I think so, too. But we're going beyond just just the 8 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. stuff, right? We're going to the 8:00 at night. And the data is there. The data is there that the gyms are full and the coaches can't get any time. And they used to give me hell all the time because they said, "You got all the space. you got all the time because I did it in September, then they stopped letting me do it in September and so I mean I know that we're at a deficit. I mean the data is already there for that and unless we and we we're not going to have a half a team. I mean so even though we lose students, we're still going to have
056a third grade boys basketball team, third grade girls, fourth grade boys, fourth grade girls, volleyball, all these different things. And like I said, so the data is already there. So I mean that's kind of what we're here for, right? Just not to accept this accept or deny this plan, but to maybe >> I think the initial concept of the plan is what we're what we need to say. Are is the board ready to move forward with a plan? Obviously, there's things that need to be tweaked. There's there's I mean the task force I I mean you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but in the last meeting they they wanted to just put the second gym space in and we just said let's just wait and that'll be part of the refining process. Right.
057So I mean I think the task force definitely there was plenty of sports dads and moms on the task force that knew that gym space was hard to get to and had those conversations about that. Um, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think some of that the educational space there's some more community educational spaces built into a into the newer plan. Correct. >> So, it's not all just stuck in the classroom like we are currently. There's no hallway in these buil, you know, in in the old building. So, there's spaces that are built for breakout things that don't aren't in a normal classroom that we have currently. And so some of that takes away, you know, some of those classroom sizes don't have to be as large because there's other spaces already
058dedicated for some of the things that they're trying to do in addition to what they do in their classroom currently. But as we move forward now, as a board, we have to decide if this concept is what we're looking for. And then obviously, yes, there's plenty of refinement that has to go into it. And maybe we come to it at the and that has to be a you know 2 and 1/2 or a third gym space or maybe it's got to be longer or wider. Whatever that looks like. Those are all pieces that has to go along in this process. But first and foremost, we have to say, "Yep, this is where we want to start from so that we can move forward in that plan." >> How do you know that if you're going
059to change dollar amount as you tweak it? Wouldn't you want to get to where you want to be and then know what the dollar amount is before you make that decision? Yeah. >> One thing instead of the opposite way around. >> Yeah. That's why we provided that. >> Right. But what I'm saying is if if some of my ideas what I think we need are changing this plan, that dollar amount changes, right? >> If if we go to 950 ft per room and 1,200 for our kindergarten rooms and we add another gym so that at least we're adequate, we're we're even with what we had, that all changes that number, does it not? >> Absolutely. Yeah. and maybe a little I don't think the space outside it changes by the looks of your overlay. I
060think if we made the building whatever it's 30 ft longer, 40 ft wider and added that gym, you still fit in the footprint that you have, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> It looks like we still got to redo the the softball fields. We still got to buy land for that and all that business no matter what if one if this project happens. >> Yeah. You added let's say 25 square feet to every classroom. It's not a huge increase. You're >> adding 500 square feet. >> You mean you're adding the size of this tabletop to each classroom, >> you know? So, that's what we're talking about. >> Correct. >> But you're raising the footprint. It doesn't >> maybe I don't know. >> If I believe what other people have other experts have told us, even if
061we meet in the middle, we still got to have at least two flex rooms for this. in my opinion and that was with before without cutting out some of the science and whatever rooms here that they're taking over. You're taking over some rooms for the elementary from this room, right? Or from this building. >> Yep. >> That we were told was full. But so >> we had 100 kids more when we when that happened though. That's part of the piece that that has to come into play. We had 800 kids the last time we tried to do this. Now we have 700. >> We didn't have 100 more in this. >> We had 100 more kids. And that's where that's where they're talking about putting them, >> right? >> But we Right. But we want
062to expand into these other avenues, too. I All I wanted is if if this is what happens, I'm not going to argue with you guys all night. I'll vote how I want to vote. But >> absolutely. my in my heart, if this thing was to go on the ballot and pass, it better be adequate for what we need. >> We also got >> because I don't want to I don't want to come two years down the road and say, "Oh, we're out of space. We need more gym space. You tore down three gyms and now our kids now we can't start practices till they're in fifth grade." So Darren, we I brought up an idea that perhaps the people that have the most expertise in those areas really put a pencil to this and say
063this is bumpy in this area or we think this will work and so that we have that information that I don't think anybody disagrees with you that we want to make sure we hit the mark on whatever we do. Um, so I think there's consensus with that that we need more information to make sure. But I think what I'm hearing you say is is this concept what we want to support as a board to move forward and that concept is a one-sided plan and and that's the nut tonight to talk about at least start that conversation. >> So that's a really good point. We heard a lot about the cost and the task force felt really conflicted on we'd love to develop a concept but we we also are realistic people and so we need
064to know what this costs and so you know we're focused really heavily on the cost conversation and even just bidding if we bid it in the fall versus the spring that could significantly impact the cost of things. I mean look at what co did to us for pricing I mean it threw every pricing book we have in the history of the world out the window. So everything will impact this. Absolutely. And we don't have that magic eightball, unfortunately. But we do have historical data that we're building this off of. And so, you know, to say that the the cost is what we're looking at. It's not. It's the concept. You you said that so well. Um, one thing we have not touched base on tonight is the community survey. And that's another thing that could
065significantly impact this. So we can create this ideal world that we are all agreeing on, but until it goes out to the public for vote and they say yes or no, that's the ultimate decision. And so if we're designing something that's not going to be approved by the city or, you know, by your district, um, that's a fail in my mind. And so, you know, something we've mowled around as a group is do we need to go ask the community what they would support from a tax impact? And so, you know, these cost estimates help us understand what those ranges could be. But what if they came back and said, "Guess, this looks good, or why aren't you considering these additional things?" Or, "Absolutely not. You need to pair it back to this level." So,
066that plan could change just based purely on the feedback we get from the community survey. >> Nathan had something. >> Well, yeah, I'd like to take a minute at least. We asked part of the public. >> Yeah, we asked part of the public to come in here and give us an idea of what to do. They've given us an idea and I think we need to move forward with it. Now the dollar amount is one thing, square footage is one thing that's not to be decided tonight. Um I think there are ideas to streamline this and cut some corners. Every corner of that new addition is money. Um, but the ad adequacy of the square foot, I'd like to hear as well. You know, um, I haven't had any experts tell me anything about the
067square foot of the building not being enough. Um, and I'm thinking about the education of our kids going into the future, getting them ready for their job. Yes, sports is a big thing. Is it, you know, is learning to weld, learning how to construct a building? What what how are we going to weigh this out? Um, that's what we need to be thinking about when we build this new building. Um this the cost savings the u $169 a square foot is a little misleading to me because when I calculated is actually $635 a square foot for the additional square footage and to me that's really high. Um that's where I think that some of this stuff can be streamlined. Cut out the corners. Um, like I said, every corner is is costing us a lot
068of money. Um, what are the next steps? That's what we're here to discuss. Um, in my book, we've been given the opinion of our next steps or the idea of our next steps and we can take and run with it. as a board we asked that a year ago and uh we have our answer and uh that's my opinion of it. Um I'd like to you know this is more about from you folks what what is our next steps is it a we need to send out a survey then that's what we need to do we need to get those questions in order. Um the tax impact is, you know, it doesn't look like that much money when you look at it up there on the TV, but that's going to be a big uh
069a bigger hurdle than Jim's face right now because our farm economy is in the tank. That's going to be and our economy affects the elderly in the community. middleaged. Most of our We're not going to have a bunch of industry move in here. We don't have the natural gas. So, our population isn't going to grow unless something, you know, John Deere builds a manufacturing facility here or, you know, it isn't it isn't going to happen. So, how do we that's our biggest hurdle. That's what it's been all the time is the tax impact. I have a little concern about completely deleting our ball fields and buying land as well, but we have to I'll go back to that. you know, we've been given the the proper approach is to have one site by more people
070than are than are sitting here tonight. So, that's my feeling. >> Thank you, >> Kayla. I think you had something earlier to say. >> I forgot. No. Um, I've always like the one concept or the one set concept. I mean, ever since this has started well before my time. Um, so and I honestly like they've been said going forth with what the task force I mean this is what we selected them to do and it's not like we turned anybody away. We got multiple different opinions and based on the voting numbers I mean you convince some of those no voters I mean that are very strong in their communities. Um, Ken and Elbow I've always thought hurt us more financially than anything else. Being able to consolidate it into one facility would help with staffing.
071Um, we wouldn't have to hire an extra choir teacher. And I mean, there's so many things that we can share and all the kids can have the same experience because right now we have elementary kids that are experiencing two very different things. So I remember when I can't remember if my oldest was in kindergarten when they got the blue ribbon in Kensington like some the elbow community was upset. It's just like well it's just a different elementary school. So I don't I'm all for it and I mean the space the gym space that can all be decided further down the road but this is the concept I feel we need to move forward with. Right. >> Well, I I would agree with that. Um, nobody was turned away from the task force. Anybody that was
072a resident that wanted to be on it was more than welcome to be here. Um, there were a lot of people that didn't show up after the first couple of meetings, but that wasn't anything to do with how the task force was run. >> I'll just pause you just because we did we did deny one person. and they did not live in the district. And so that just to be clear, there was one member that was denied, but they did not live in the district. So they did not um we decided it had to be a district resident. So just to be clear, that's you go. >> And I and I think there's a lot of operational savings in the one site plan. Um choir teacher, as you said, being a students, you wouldn't need
073the elementary students. even the running back and forth between schools. I mean, because you look at Kevin, I mean, having to go to three separate schools or there's just definitely a lot more pros. >> Then you talk to Mr. Swatsky who tries to run some egg education in the elementaryaries >> and pretty much by the time his students get to the elementarymentaries, they're able to take care of their plants and then they have to turn around and go back. There's no time for them to interact with the kids. Um, I think there's a lot more flexibility having everything in one site as far as dealing with declining or possibly positive enrollment. Um, if you end up with a section and a half in one school and a section and three/4er in another school, it's pretty
074tough to deal with that. Here you would you would be able to to make that adjustment much more easily. So, um, we also have to keep in mind that large group of people that dedicated eight months to coming up with this plan. If, uh, you know, if they had in their mind right away what they wanted and and, uh, you know, if if they didn't consider everything else, if they were just going to go for the one site right off the bat, why did it take eight months? So, I I think they did their due diligence looking at all possibilities. I would I would echo and maybe you guys could you I wasn't at every meeting but I think there was a lot of aha moments for many of our task force members like they
075were like oh you know like I didn't realize that or I never knew that or you know there was a lot of those moments that happened in that process and and it was you know I think one of the task force members said as you all walked in I could tell which one of you was a vote, you know, one site, which one of you was a three site. You know, I knew that right away. And I think that dynamic ch changed while they were there. But that was a comment that was made in the one meeting that I sat in on was that, you know, I thought I knew where I could tell where every one of you would vote when we started and that's not how it ended. So, I think that's very
076and and please, you know, input if you saw thought otherwise. obviously maybe didn't have the historical knowledge, but I think there was there was many members that had a aha moments as they were going through these process. So, um I think having that pot that was a big thing that they kind of talked about. I think being able to share those kids, like you said, Ryan, having those kids come down, I think the idea of that we have non-licensed or unlicensed teachers in certain areas that we could fill if we were just into one site. So, I know that was one of the other comments was you're telling me if we were into one site or had one elementary, even if it was two sites, that we wouldn't have this. Yep. That's the the pieces
077that we would have. And I know somebody actually this morning just said the other piece too to please consider, they said, is you got a lot of square footage that we're taking away. But if you think about the north building, there's a lot of hallways in that building that you have to walk around to get there. We've got an unused concession stand that we don't use for educational space. started identifying to say, "Please keep in mind educational space, not just space." That that hallway space doesn't do anything more than add steps to your pedometers as you're going through there. So, to keep that in mind that we don't have that here now in this in this floor plan and things like that, but I think and then just I think about the insurance. We had
078to spend a lot of money on insurance because we have three sites and I know Larry's still looking to see he believes that it's all combined. But, you know, if we have one incident in in Elbow Lake and we have one at secondary school, is that a 50,000 deduct deductible on both or is it just um you know, one, but I think it's also that piece there. We know our roughs are aging and so it would also help on that expense where we saw that $50,000 increase a year ago in our insurance with that deductible going up as well. Those are some of the expenses that we didn't include there. But I think yeah, for me it's that operational sustainability that we can put more money into those classrooms, teachers, students, and things like that.
079>> I think my biggest takeaway, you know, our presentation and the task force was driven on data and facts and department of education guidelines. Um, but my biggest takeaway is just getting to know this district and understanding who's here. And you know, we first heard it really early on. like I toured my kids through the buildings and I would have never enrolled my, you know, preschooler in one of these buildings until I met the staff and they just drew me in automatically. And a lot of people talked about the dynamic of the staff and how um impactful they are as a unit. But then we learned a little bit more about that and how the staff is so separated and they only get a chance to see each other a few times a year and
080to collaborate. and they talked about how important it would be for them to be able to be together, share resources, collaborate. You know, being so separated is challenging for them and being together. That was one thing I heard that's not really data. You know, it's not really a tangible thing, but I just that really resonated with me is how impactful the teams are if they're separated. How amazing could they be together if they came to one building? Any other comments or I think the survey is really important. I'm just a little confused on the sequence of like do we are we first need to make a consensus that we're okay with this or not or then you know I'm just not sure. So I think in initially the what would happen and and again I
081think you've got that other timeline that we could probably pull up too that you know so essentially what happens now is is we need to just say yep we this is our you know this one side option is our plan going forward and we're or you know and so then the board as a whole we would vote at the next meeting to say we're going to accept this option we're going to move forward with a one with a one-site plan and then we start following it, you know, we start looking at our timeline. So the the next thing would be timeline. So I think is this this would be for is this next year's numbers or is this so so that the the option there's only a few times a year where the board can
082actually hold a vote. Um I'll just jump right to the I don't think we're ready before November. That's my opinion and that's just from doing this a few times. um as you start to look at all the things in that timeline that that snake that you know that we looked at there's a lot of things to do yet before June you know I think it's June right so let's just pick November just just as a so we by June we have to have plans ready everything finalized to be sent in for review and comment um and so that now that that brings us down to you know we're talking 10 months away That's That's not very much time in the grand scheme of things to get all these pieces done. And do you Yeah, you've
083got the Anyway, so there's a lot of things to do between here and there. So now you talk if you back up, I think there's an August option, there's an April and May option, but those those just keep pushing that review and comment back, right? So for instance, if you wanted to go out in February, your review and comments got to be done here in a month or so, right? So, I mean, there's just things that we can't get regardless of what we want to do. So, um, the other side of that is a special elections cost the district. So, we're going to pay for that separately, no different than we're going to pay for the special election in November. It's going to cost us $10 to $15,000 to hold a special election. Is it
084worth that to to move our timeline up a month or two? Personally, I don't think so. and and I don't think the public thinks so either. So, um again, this is my opinion. I think if we say, "Yep, this is the plan we want to move forward with." Next, we pick when are we going to be ready in November. The one nice thing about November is we've got the next 10 months to figure out if we're ready or not. If we're not ready for November, you know, that can be pushed, but I think we're at the earliest. I think November's that'll be our target. That's again my opinion. I'm not trying to tell you what to say, but so that'll be our next step is this decide, okay, we're going to shoot for, you know,
085we're going to take a one-side option. We're going to shoot for November election. And then you start to look at what does that look like on a calendar as far as what are our milestones and when when are things due and we build back from that. So if we do a November election, we got a June review and comment. We've got a final draft. You know, they they've got all this kind of in a in a PowerPoint here, some some timelines that we can work backward from. And you can just kind of see the ultimate grand scheme of things of what our window is. And it's it's very compact. >> It is. Yeah. And I I think you you said that really well. So, you know, five times a year that a school district is
086eligible to vote in a special election. um you know we work ourselves back from this review and comment deadline. That's really when our job is needs to be done. Um obviously the vote is several months out from that but that's really when the state is reviewing us and approving us. So that's when things are so like to keep those those dates at the front of our mind. So that's about 10 months um you know from a goal on the referendum effort till the time we vote. This is a different school district that I'm working with. This is a completely different schedule, but it's 10 months. So, you can see um so yeah, the the school board approved us in July to move forward with the referendum support and then we're voting in April, so it's
087a 10-month duration for that whole effort. We've got some stars here at some key milestones. So, our review and comment for the school district is due in November. The votes not till April. We do have some additional opportunities for the school board to vote. Um the board does need to make a decision on the specific ballot questions that will be brought forward. So that road map, there's several opportunities to bring this back to the school board and say, are we going in the right direction? Are we pointed, you know, for success, yes or no? Um so those are built into this schedule as well. Um but yeah, so review space needs at the school district. Top priority talking about gym space and CTE space. First step, review and develop the space needs. Are we on
088the right track? The task force was great, but now we really need to meet with the staff and educators. Facility assessment. This hadn't been done previously. Your district has already done that. Post user groups and community engagement sessions. What do people think? What do they want? What do they envision for their school district? Working with a construction manager to further develop those cost estimates is a really important piece of this puzzle. Continue to refine the design and cost. So again, we're coming back to that drawing work. We're continuing to refine. Things will change. They're not finalized until we submit. Go on that review and comment prepare and review that submit and comment. From there, you know, our job is kind of complete. Now we talk about marketing and communication strategy. So there's a lot that
089goes into developing that strategy, conducting to meet uh community input sessions. The school board makes a decision on the ballot question. Launch a formal public information effort. So these are the out there meetings. We're going door knocking, right? He's going door to night door talking to every neighbor he knows. Tell him about this this information that we've got. Where are we going? What community center? What sporting game? What football event? We're we're there. We're showing people the information again and again. and asking your input. Um present at community meeting, school events, civic groups, and then there's a bond um bond election. So, we take our bond vote and we back ourselves like six to eight weeks out of there. That's really when we're out hitting the street. This is when Republic get people really excited
090about this opportunity to vote on the future of their school district. So, it takes a long time. It's 10 months of solid effort. So although you know projecting out these dates seems so far in advance even if we're looking at the furthest opportunity on this 26 chart there's a 27 chart um but that's 10 months out that's that's a lot of work before now and then for sure well I guess you know if it comes to a vote for the board I would really want the community to hear that you know it's a concept that there's lots more work to do with the teachers and you know the athletic sites and and really make sure that there we're not unintentionally saying we've got a bow on this ready to go you know >> so you
091know that could be said before a vote >> absolutely like again preliminarily we're going to say we're going to move forward with a one-site option and now we really dig you know we really get into the fine the finer details of it, right? Um yeah, this is the you know and I guess that's kind of the know the question that everybody asked every time is it one is it three is you know I think they this task force came to us with a one-sided option we asked them to bring us proposal uh they spent a lot of time and effort on it and now really it's the board saying yes we like that option no we don't like that option and then we move forward from there again there's going to be multiple times times
092along the way. If we go out for a community survey and we comes back that 75% of people say this is a bad option, guess what? We're going to have to pause and and re-evaluate where things are at. That's just the way it is. Um it's no different than anything else, though. We could, you know, pick you pick whatever option you want. If we get out there with a community survey and 75% of the people say we don't like this, you're going to going to re-evaluate where you're at, right? So, um I think that's just part of, you know, this is part of the starting of the process or and we're we're 10 months into that, you know, right? We're saying this is starting the process, but there's a lot of things that have happened
093prior to this. So, for the board though, this would be kind of picking this up. So So, how much information is put out there before a community survey? So, for example, we're not set on square feet or anything right now, but if people pick up that, hey, it's not enough square feet. I mean, we have to be really careful about how we get all the information out there that that Claire said that, hey, this is very preliminary. >> We're we're just looking at the concept right now. >> Well, and I think you're not going to correct me again if you you're probably going to it's going to be refined consider you know, we're going to have a 95 98% solution before we go to a survey or or you know so that way we know
094that the number that's or if there's a number on the survey or depending on what your question is right you say are you willing to I don't know park in the back of the school and everybody says no change what we're doing but >> so I I think surveys from my experience are a little bit more genericized than that they're typically done over the phone people pick up the phone, schedule a time, and they talk with them. It's about 20 minutes of time, and you're asked a variety of different questions. Um, everything from your demographics, um, do you have students in the district, you know, what's your age range, those types of things, you know, so kind of get that out of the way. And then we start talking about, you know, do you support
095a one-site concept? Do you not? Why? You know, open-ended questions. What would you support from a tax impact? So, it's very generic sized. We're not showing them a floor plan at this point. >> Um because we're not there yet. This floor plan needs to be vetted out to a staff consultant. >> You're really trying to vet out at this point the direction. >> Yes. If you get 95% of people saying absolutely, you're not closing their buildings. We got to come back to this table. We got to come back to the round table and say, okay, this is what we've heard. How are we going to, you know, get back into this community with with our goals? How are we going to better educate them? Or how do we revise what we're doing if if we're
096hearing that? It's it's really important to not only survey your community, but listen to the results that we receive. So we don't want to get too far down the road because we could very well have a curveball at us based on you know the information but the survey is genericized intentionally so we can get a very wide perspective of where people are thinking. >> So that would come sooner than later >> I would think so. >> Some school districts even do it before this process. I think we did one we did a mail out one previous and then in our discussion last you know we decided that the task force was the way to go this time to get this recommendation. So this recommendation has come from the community but you're absolutely right to get
097the more input from more people on what this is. That's where the question comes in. Do we need to do that or or not. >> Who decides what the questions are on the survey? Because I like the idea of the survey. I like the idea if the questions are very point blank. I don't know how you're generic, but we we went out for a survey years ago, four years ago, I voted against the survey because every question on it could be interpreted to either side. If you were a one-sided person, you could interpret the question to go your way and you're free, you could interpret the question, the answers to go the other. So I wanted my personal opinion was that it should be very yes or no. You want one side, you want how
098much you want to pay, you know, then the tax impact portion. I don't think at least at that time the tax impact was the primary driver. I feel like the one cycle or the three cycle is the primary driver in the whole concept of what would pass and what would not. I don't know that that change, but I guess we'll find out. >> Well, I guess what you're saying makes me think, okay, if you know the task force had the benefit of all this prior knowledge that you built over the months, right, >> for decision- making. So, do you need to give the people that are going to take the survey some of that prior knowledge so that they have a context of what to answer? And I don't know how you would do that
099exactly, but >> that was my concern, too. If we were just go ask everybody today >> without showing them >> what they could have >> well and some rationale about how did the task force get there and what what felt what made them think this was the right move. I mean I feel like >> otherwise if the survey doesn't have any context I I worry about that. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not a survey. >> Yeah. And I think bringing in a survey consultant or two, you know, to ask them, you know, how would you approach the situation? You know, we could interview survey consultants and say, "Here's where we're at today. Here's the state of the district. How would you proceed with the survey?" And we can ask the different survey consultants how they would
100approach this. And then you get to pick, you know, which strategy and which company um that you think fits the district. Well, >> I mean, if it's just a one-site question or no, there's no context for that. You know, it's like asking a 10-year-old. you know, a question where they just don't have enough information. And I don't mean that on camping. I just think we all want a lot of information before we make a big decision. And this is big money for families, >> especially like >> this school district has a history of, you know, some communities feel very strongly about one site and some feel very strongly about three sites. So, you know, like without context and detail, those communities are they don't have the information. So, their opinion hasn't changed. >> So, they
101need some background information. >> They got all the information that they can have. One of them information is you better you better know exactly how big the school's going to be and not change it after you send the survey out. So, you better know how big those classrooms are going to be. You better know how much gym space you're going to have. You better know if you're putting the track in or for putting the softball fields down here by land and putting it up here. >> You got need they need to know all that cuz that's going to that might weigh their decision, right? >> Would that be like better suited for like community input sessions where we we go out to community and say here's the presentation, here's all the background information. You know,
102would that type of conversation be better suited for that environment versus a pick up the phone and tell me what you would support for a tax impact to support your school district? >> Home thing is hard now because you you're relying on simply landlines for that type of survey cuz you know you're you got a huge demographic that won't doesn't even have one anymore. And so that that phone thing I think becomes harder regardless of whether this was a school survey or any other political survey or any type of survey. It has nothing to do with this. It just right now the phone surveys I >> I get surveys on my phone from the most random things >> and how many of them do you go through and how many you say I don't have
103time. >> Yeah. >> I think we'd have to educate ourselves. I I certainly know nothing about how to run an effective survey. So that would be is it phone? Is it mail? I >> I don't have an opinion. I think maybe there's a consensus at the table. A survey is important. The timing of the survey seems to be a little fuzzy right now, but it feels like most people agree a survey, however it's delivered. It's >> Are there I mean, we we worked with a consultant for that previously. Is there somebody you guys have worked with in the past on doing surveys or is that not in your wheelhouse or >> Yeah, there's other consultants that you've been connected with their referendums. I worked recently with one up school district. They surveyed their community this
104spring. >> Brainard just surveyed theirs in Little Falls just surveyed their district. And I just heard a very small school district not far from here contracting with another partner >> to do survey work. One of my one of my questions for for you as board members in your community is what do you think are the are the I if if you believe that taking a next step formal uh to kind of cement this concept is is maybe a next step that is important for you then after that I hear talk with the uh the learned knowledgeable people about what you think you need in the design a little bit more. That's got to be one of the next major steps and then take the pulse of the community. Is there a preferred order? Does it
105happen simultaneously sometimes in in our work with other districts or is is the very next thing to get some of the people who know the schools, know the kids, and know the spaces that you need for the programs that you're running around the table to If we endorse a one-sided plan, we're ready to go forward with a task force recommendation and take a brave bold step to say we want to move forward and looking at this more deeply. Uh then do we get people who are expert users of the building to do that next piece of dialogue and say what do we really think about what we've sketched out so far? I mean to me that's what that's that's I would have a personal bias in that direction before I really want to take too
106much pulse of the community because I want to be a little bit more firmly established on what I think we will be talking about um for for the limits and the parameters of of a a set of new spaces and remodeled spaces and certainly all all that comes in motion everything else with a consolidation you know so I don't know if there's any perfect answer to that, but where my head goes as as a as a as a former superintendent and person who worked at a lot of board conversations is is okay. So, if we endorse the concept, then do we flesh that concept out a little bit more before we go out to our public? >> I think you've got some represent seems to me like you've got some representation already on the task
107force saying you've already sought our opinion. you do believe in the one side explorer, go look at it a little bit further and then and then bring us back. We can talk about more people. >> I kind of hesitate with the surveys cuz I don't feel our past surveys have ever been that effective. like the feedback is minimal if we do something in the mail because a lot of people just sits on the counter and then a few weeks later like my piles you don't get to it and it doesn't get turned in or I I feel our community I mean we have a very large district this but we have the ones that are very strong one-siders very strong threeiders and some that are open to anything because they just want what's best for
108a community. So, and the one thing that the board has never done is come up with a plan and stuck with that plan because I mean there's other school districts that develop like this is our vision. This is what we want. This is what's best for our community and put it on the ballot again and again and again. And I think we're at that point because we've done the one site, we've done the three site, we've done moving Kindon to Hoffman. We've we've done a lot of things. So I think we come up with concept and the plan and push it out and hope that I mean we can hope that it passes the first time but it might take us a few times. It doesn't mean that we just take more time to educate
109the community of this is why we need this. >> So in your opinion we probably you know if if you're if we're voting you say we don't need a survey. We're going to come up with a plan and we're going to move forward and we're going to educate everybody in the process and and we're going to go after it. >> I like I like the surveys if they're done in a way that you can get clear concise stuff. The last time we went out for a survey like I said there was not a single we got we got a very good response well above average what they thought we should get >> 26% from a paper standpoint. We got we got a very good return on our investment as far as getting people to to
110fill it out. The problem was if Maya and I were on two different sides of the equation and I wanted three and he wanted one just about every answer on there, we could we could interpret the answer to get to where we personally wanted to go. Like there was never a question one or three never on there, you know. There there was never a question this much money exactly for this project. One one site will you pay this much? Three sites will you pay this much? It's just every every answer you could interpret one way or another. And so I I didn't like it. The only reason I voted against it is because two other board members weren't at the table when we voted. So but the biggest reason was because I I didn't think
111we were going to get a good answer because both sides of the story could interpret the way they wanted and it just it made it difficult for you folks or any of us to get a a clear answer. So, it was almost like we wasted a lot of time from the standpoint of getting getting people to fill them out. The people in our community and our district are very engaged in this. They've been engaged for a long time. And whether that will get last or you know I want something to pass more than anybody just as much as anybody else at this table. I just want the right to pass, you know. I think we all do in our own mind right don't I don't I don't know if if if we went out for
112a survey is is anybody at this table going to change their mind on how they're going to vote if I mean my concern with going out for the survey this early on in the game is getting that background information and context out to people first and how would we do that and by the time we get all that out there are we far enough down the road that it doesn't make sense to do the survey anymore just put it out for a vote and see what happens I almost wish it would have been the opposite to be honest with you with the way other things went that if we were going to go out for survey we should have done it before we the task force was created so the task force knew what parameters
113they had to work with >> that the community you know if 70% of the community said they wanted three sites then if that's what they want now that now this significantly smaller percentage of the population that's what you get to work on there again but it's open to the public >> well sure it was open to the public but just being open to the public doesn't mean there still wasn't anybody over the age of 65 on it >> there was >> he wasn't on at the first two meetings I was at but there but there was you know that's 33% of your vote >> so I think I would just throw We don't have to put on a >> right >> I don't want to ramble on but >> no and and I guess I
114would just throw in there that you know if we're talking about you know you take that survey and 26% of your population returns a survey well now you got 70% of 26% right I mean like if 70% of the survey answered this way and it was only the 27 year olds that answered the survey you still didn't hear from the 60-year-olds right because they didn't answer the survey either. So, I guess we could bring back to that same concept of, you know, those that didn't have kids involved, didn't volunteer for the task force, right? The same thing could be true when you ask the survey and you're still not getting that demographic in there if you if it doesn't work that way, right? get a good demographic on our last survey. If we didn't decide
115to do >> if if that was one argument was that only 26% of people answered this survey and you got 57% of them that said this. Well, that's not a very big part of your population when you start to think about the numbers actually. So, I guess I don't know. I'm hearing a few people say they're not necessarily interested. Some some are saying they like the survey. Is that a Where does the board think? Is that a next step for us or are we going to say we're going to take this and try to refine and get down the road a little ways before we would do that or I think we have to have detail like you know Kayla was saying that the the survey is not it's not necessarily effective but if if
116we don't have details to let the public know like hey this is what we would like to move forward with Then it's just a concept and there's all these questions about well you know if we had three sites you know this is whatever and if we had one site we still have that argument because nothing is solidified down to this is the direction we would like to go. So, you know, we've we've gotten to here 38 was recommended by the task force. So, unless we get details on how much gym space we need and how much, you know, educational space we need, it it's just a concept. So we don't really have anything to tell the public, hey this is the this is what we want other than the community task force said we would
117like to do one site but we don't have details for them to know and say yes I would support you know adding a a second gym or whatever because we don't even know if we need another gym or if we need another classroom or you know if we need square classrooms you know you know what I'm saying we we need to have detail so that when people are like hey what is this new school you know what are the benefits of of having this new school >> $30 million >> right if if they come up to you on the street and say you know why why would I vote for this and you don't have an answer well they're not going to vote for it and If the goal of of this is to, you
118know, improve the education of our kids, then we have to be able to explain how spending $30 million is going to benefit our kids at the end of the day >> and our taxpayers. >> Yeah. I mean, well, I think one of, you know, the part of the recommendation at the one site was fiscal responsibility. So that answer for me as a person from the street is we're this is one of our jobs financial responsibility to the district and maintaining three buildings according to what our recommendation is was not you know not the way to go. >> Yeah. >> But now education in one building you know in a position that we're in in this district not everywhere is it this way. Our education can only improve for the students that come here. >> But
119what do they get for $30 million? That's what they're going to ask. They they're going to want to know what what is that 30 million >> right now? We have a picture of it. We have a pretty good plan. We have a pretty good plan right now, right? >> Started, >> but as Darren points out, do we have enough space? >> And that's not what we're here tonight to talk about. So, we're talking about what are we going to move on to? >> Right. That's what I'm saying. Like I think that >> are we going to accept and discuss this one site plan or are we going to talk about three sites? >> Right. >> And what I'm saying if that person on the street asks me what are we getting for 30 million, we're
120getting a one building site that down the road is going to save us a ton of money. >> So, >> if you keep enough if you keep all the kids >> Well, that's why we don't want to overbuild, right? hypothetic. We don't want to overfill if you lose. >> What you're saying, I think, is what am I going to get for 30 million? You go right back to those pinnacles. You're going to get this >> fiscal responsibility. you're going to higher quality instru you know you just go right back to those and and that could format some of our you know framework when we discuss this >> you know and you know I think taxpayers need to understand that you know the data says this is the most fiscally responsible it's expensive but our current
121plan based on the data is not sustainable financially and it lacks instructional best practices. >> But we also have to understand that they feed us and we don't feed them, >> right? >> The taxpayer, the businesses, the communities, they all feed the district, >> right? They can the community, they can theoretically exist without the district. The district can't exist without them. >> Correct. >> So, we really have to see what they >> You got to be careful with that, right? >> Well, I mean, if the kids aren't here, the families aren't here, the people aren't here. I mean, I get it. That's how it works. So we are the biggest but we have to everybody has to >> the people at home might be all they're all have their own way of looking at it
122right you know a business owner that maybe doesn't have any kids in the district is maybe looking at this decision in a different direction than somebody that has young kids. They're all are they're all everybody's different in how they're looking at it and and we all we just have to give them the facts of the plan whatever it is whatever plan this board decides to move forward with. But I agree I mean like I don't see I'm for a survey. I'm just not for but I don't I'm not for one if we don't have the specifics of the plan. So if you vote for okay the plan we're going to go out for then how much space are we going to use? >> So the focus of a survey is about money then this is
123the plan. >> It's about space too. It's about space. I mean if I mean we've been told for a long long time that we need way more space than this or and not that long ago. Um, I guess then if if that's what it comes down to is money and space, if we've gone to the experts about that, do we really does does grandma on the street, does she know what it should cost to build a school and and how much space the kids need? >> I think it's significantly more way more than just space and and money to me. No money is not even on my >> I'm willing to pay more to to get what I want and I think a lot of other people are too. So to me that's not the
124only two pillars in this whole thing. I I think it's to me personally and and to the people I feel like elected me, it's it's a big picture. It's not just this district. It's not just the communities. It's not just sports. It's not just education. It's all of this all together into one pie and you have to make a decision on what's best for everything the students >> everything. >> Well, and one of those is we are one. >> So, >> it's you got to make a decision that's right for everybody and >> and so we need to educate everybody. >> That's what we're here to talk about. Are we going to get them educated? they're getting educated and then >> I'm talking about the public, the people we're going to survey, >> right? >>
125So, my opinion as well is we can send out a survey, get all these opinions, right? Or against or or in between, where are we going to be? We still got to go out with our idea and promote it and say, "Hey, this is what we've looked at. This is the most responsible one we have. space or no space. Not talking about that right now. I'm talking about one site. This is the most responsible thing we can do right now. This is what we need to move forward with. Otherwise, we're going to be talking about how much building this and that all night long. So, let me pause then for a second. That brings up a good point. So I would just ask, is there anybody that needs more information than they have currently to
126be able to say yes, I would support what the recommendation came to us or no, I need more information or let yes, I'm ready to vote on it. Whether you support it or not, that's your choice personally. But do you need more information to be able to make that decision? Right? Is that where we're at right now? Does everybody have the information that they need to be able to make a decision whether I support or don't support what the recommendation came to us? >> I don't have enough information. >> You need more information. What What do you need? >> Well, the land purchase, the moving ball fields and all that. I'm not real familiar with. >> So, >> you know, but >> what what about that question? I guess what about that question would change
127your decision on whether you move forward with one? You just said one site's the most fiscally responsible decision we can make. So my question to you is >> is if it's uh $100,000 or $500,000, is it going to change your mind on whether this is the best cuz there's some money put in to make that out like that's built in already. >> I don't want I want to see that that plan. >> Sure. >> You know, how is that going to lay out? I don't know that you know right now I don't even know if that's possible. Where's that land going to be? >> It was just up here. Well, we had a plan. >> Depending on how many fields you put in, >> I remember when Carrie was on the board and he looked
128at there is room down below the football field, we believe, for a >> softball or maybe two softball fields or something like that. I don't know. One for sure, >> but the choice that we made as a board before was to purchase we had a purchase agreement with the Olsson land that was just what straight west of here, right? It's right up on top >> and there's room up there for four two baseball fields, two softball fields or four softball fields. I mean, basically four fields and then I don't remember exactly what went on the ballot if >> if we were just going to do there was a couple options like just doing two space for four. >> So, there was an option on the ballot to go and move the softball fields and and
129the varsity baseball field up on top of the hill. Um, and then this was a different option there. Um, and that went along with a couple other >> like the track >> that was with the track involved. So, there was more than just that involved. I think the fitness room was in there. There was a few other things that were in that >> a lot of options in that athlete question, right? But >> and so at this point there hasn't been a purchase agreement because of course we're not at that point yet. But that was factored into this plan to say we're we need money to build these new fields. And I believe right now it's just two for two, right? >> In this current plan is just two for two. Um, if you look
130the field directly to the west there of the baseball field was basically up the hill was where they had looked to purchase 20 acres on that hill and build a ball complex up there >> and there would be parking up there too. >> Right. >> And basically you would go up the hill and come around the curve and drive into it up there. Yep. >> Right up in through there. Yeah. >> And so whether that's still an option or not, you know, of course we we're going to have to go down that road. That's part of the vetting and all those things that we would have to do. Um the same people still live in that land right now. >> But the cost to do it is in your plan. Yes. Right. >> Yes. >>
131So again, I come back to Nathan. Is that going to change whether you would say yes to this plan or you would say no to this plan or is that something that can be vetted out in the process? >> No, I I would say yes to this plan. Anybody else need more information than what they have currently to be able to say yes or no to the plan that was presented to us by the task force? Cuz we're going to have a lot of discussion going forward. And I guess if we're going to be at a, you know, decision point, let's let's just get there and move and move move forward with it. So >> I have Y Okay. So then at this point we would be ready to go forward and the and the
132board would take a vote. Um and obviously we're not voting tonight. This is a work session. So we're there's no decisions being made. But next steps now if we start to look at a timeline. So if if our board meeting is on the 3rd >> 3rd. So our board meeting is on the 3rd of September. What is our timeline breakout? Let's just say we we made a decision there. I'm I'm going to say we we went we said yes. Okay. Just as a Here we go. 3rd of September. Now, as we plug that into your timeline now, we're we're kind of in the mix whether we do a survey right, we're going to start moving forward with starting to talk to educators. Are we >> What do you Where do you think we're going? >>
133You know what? I I'm really intrigued by the survey conversation because I don't I'm not a survey expert. Sure. So, I'd like to learn more. I'd like to just explore that. You know, here's the current state of where we are at. >> What are our options? You know, just to learn more now, I think would be good. Not to make a decision, but just to educate ourselves on what that process looks like, when's the appropriate time, you know, because then we can lay out the schedule. you know, we can we can build one of these for this district very easily. And one thing Paul, you and I touched base on is >> is that the whole are we seeing your whole picture or is it cut off on our screen? I'm just cut off a
134little bit, I think, over to the >> uh Well, April's the vote. So, that's just referendum, but yeah, >> this is just for this is for a different district, right? >> This is a different district. >> Yeah. >> But yeah, you zoom out and it goes years through design, development, construction documents, bidding, construction administration. So, big schedule. So, you're just seeing that first >> if you were going to decide that to do it during the general election, there plenty of time to there plenty of time to get the job done. >> We can bid at the most opportune times. >> Yes. >> And everything, right? >> Absolutely. >> Cuz I mean, even in the past, my anybody that's on the board, I'm very heavily for voting on these things during general elections when people are
135engaged and you get most people out past it already you feel like you got what you looking for >> the beauty behind that so look back to June 16th is our review and deadline review and comment deadline so we have the entire school year to capture so many people under these roofs that we can and we can capture people at sporting events community events we got a lot of time so there's a really good opportunity um if you target that general election in November and work yourselves back out of that. Um, one thing that we talked about um that didn't make my little schedule here is the task force was really passionate about we've got this this far. We really want to stay involved. And so I think when we start to build that schedule,
136I think we need to identify specifically opportunities for that task force to come back in um because they're going to be your biggest supporters and they've got all this information. They know this better than probably we do at this point. So, you know, I think that's a huge piece to this too is how we're going to integrate that group and make sure that they feel involved if they're willing and able to communication plan. You know, we talked a little bit about other districts starting to hire or consult out communication. We would definitely have that in helps as well, but what's the communication plan? Are we making videos? Are we doing brochures? Are we doing websites? How are we getting this information to your, you know, your voters so that they have a lot of time
137to think about it, ask questions. How are we getting out to them? We have to build that all into this. Um, and we can do that before November, you know, that doesn't have to be by June. So, there's a lot of time there that we've got to to to build this. We're not in a rush. And that was one of the very first things we talked about is we don't want to rush this process. We want to make sure we're doing our due diligence. And by selecting like a general election next November, you really have the time to to do this well in that rush process. >> And you have some examples of previous districts that what they're just some ideas of what they did for communication plans. >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. We've got
138I mean even just from us, we have a wealth of information on successful referendum communication plans and efforts. Uh you mentioned um to start working with a construction management. Is that uh um I know in a previous or previous bond we had like four came in um not only you know engineering design but construction management teams came in. Some had it all inhouse, some of them was just the design, some of it was separate construction management. Is there a group or is there somebody you guys work with or um do we have to solicit like proposals from, you know, do we >> Yeah, it's pretty typical the process to solicit proposals, bring them here, meet with them. Yeah, there's a handful that we've worked with throughout the past on various school projects. So, We could
139obviously offer that. >> You shoot out to them >> open too if you wanted. >> We look at No, I know like I said we we interviewed I think four different groups that came in and and they basically tried to sell us their services, right? I mean that's what what what was going on. So um what does the board feel like there? Is that something we want to do we want the buildings and grounds committee to go through those that process? Do we want to, you know, take a recommendation? Hey, this is a good one. Um, obviously we have to go out. I mean, I would have guessed that >> we put an RFP together. I would think probably want me to go out and do that. >> Yeah. Board request proposal just to make
140sure. My recommendation would be that the entire board I think being the scope of this, the entire board should probably be >> part of that process with you guys facilitating, right? and saying these are the key components in case you say there's a red flag here because this >> right >> company has >> I mean is that something where buildings and grounds once it gets together and maybe vet those out down to a the whole board's going to interview four of them or maybe there is only four I don't I don't know I know there's more than four but you know what I'm saying is that something that we would want to how does the board want to proceed with that part of it or do we want >> you do that last time I
141I feel like there >> I was seven eight of them like >> I was on the buildings and grounds I can't remember if it was just whittleled down by Dale or if we the buildings and grounds met and we kind of put it down to four and then we interview them all as a board. We interview them all together. So >> I I have no expertise in this, but it just knowing the the struggles we've had as a district, I think it would be good for the buildings and grounds committee to vet that and that there's not just one person and you know, >> or do you think it should be the entire board going through all those? >> Well, but the they could bring it narrow it down to >> three that they think
142are a number that we can interview. >> Yep, I would agree. >> Correct me if I'm wrong. But um I feel like it's a little different this time. I feel like the at least the last time I know it's been many of them, but >> I feel like the last time we were interviewing like you said like >> engineers and you get both and then but this time we would >> be just doing the construction. There were some companies that did both or somebody picked this one or that one >> and that's where we started this process and and I'll be be 100% transparent. I think we talked about this before. We didn't have any title with Seth and nobody on the admin had a title with Seth before we started this process. That was
143one thing that came up before was, you know, Barry Schmidt used the company that he had used before and Dale used the company that he had used. you know, like it was all, oh, they got a, you know, he's getting a cut, you know, that kind of thing. Um, with one we interviewed, I think, last time. >> I can't remember who was here, but it was on our list, but it was the one that wasn't selected last time, and nobody had a tie, and I said, let's let's just start here. And so that's how this process started. So now, without the construction management piece, that would be where we would need to add to. So, >> so I would um I would um add a comment on the construction management conversation. Um although buildings and
144grounds is really essential in understanding the constructibility of a project. Um this is going to be a little bit different. So we're going to look specifically for firms that have strong referendum support experience. So that takes a lot of people out of the equation. So, I would suggest this group really wants to focus on people that are familiar with construction and strong referendum support. And we have a list of recommendations just people that we work with in various school districts all over that we could bring in to have these conversations, but it's it's kind of looking at through the the lens of a referendum. Um, a little less construction focused. >> Still still important, but definitely we want someone with the referendum expertise. >> I think that's great. It's just whatever we can do to
145guard against some of those things that we know were problematic for us >> in the past. So where's the guard? >> And I would think you guys would be an integral in that piece, right? To say here's our group, you know, here's our options, you know, and weigh out and hopefully give the buildings and grounds, hey, this group works really well with us. This guy that sent a proposal in, he didn't finish last job. You know, those are the things that they don't we're not going to know that it's not going to be on resume. >> This is your this is your referendum team. It's not necessarily your construction team, if that makes sense. There's >> there's a difference there. >> Mhm. >> With maybe some suggestions of groups that you've used in the past.
146I say these are probably ones that >> we maybe not want to >> start. Either way, it kind of to me and it depends on the amount of proposals we get. If we get four, why why bring the buildings and ground to not narrow it down, >> you know, you know, so maybe we go for proposals and if there's a dozen of them, then maybe buildings and grounds tries to weed through them quickly and >> as long as more than one person weeds it down. If if there's a need to to kind of narrow >> and that's why I recommend it, not not for anything else that come in. It's not, you know, somebody >> waving the line. >> I would be more comfortable, right? >> I would agree. >> Yeah, I'd be more comfortable
147with >> when when selecting someone like that if there's a limited not eight or 10, but you know, a fewer amount of people. I'd be more comfortable with the whole board interviewing. >> So, could we >> Absolutely. The whole board will interview at the end. >> Six or less. But there's six or less is going to go to the >> six and we're going to >> weed them out through our committee. >> Yep. >> And get us down to four or whatever. >> As long as it's the >> a reasonable >> transparency by the community is >> this is not one person select, >> right? Absolutely. Here's the parameters that we've set that they're here's the criteria. You're going to evaluate those to bring us these >> four six whatever it is. I would just
148reinforce the importance of without a referendum, there is no construction. And so someone that is very very capable in referendum support is what we're looking for. Maybe construction manager is the wrong term here to use today, but um we're not looking for what's the best person that's going to put the building together. It's who's the best team to get this referendum to pass is top importance because without that there's no construction. Do you have interview questions that would support that kind of teasing out because I would have no idea. >> Yeah. And we would have examples of past requests for qualifications. Um we have people that we would recommend that we've worked very successfully with in school districts before. Um but this is we're not looking at it from a can you construct the building.
149It's can you join the team and get this referendum to pass with flying colors is what we're really looking for >> which is part of your road map I think. put you in there. >> Yong, >> still along with kind of the dollars and cents and what they provide for what cost and those kind of things. But >> if I was going to say it today, you know, I want one that's, you know, fiscally responsible to a point, but that doesn't mean it's the cheapest one. Because if I had two and the one was minutely more, but has worked with you guys, that's probably the one I'd choose because there's efficiencies that you're going to find in that versus learning each other in big projects. I mean, there's nothing there's nothing against that. I mean,
150people have experience working with each other. There's typically efficiencies in how you look at it. So, That's where your guys' recommendations are. I guess I would take they carry a lot of weight. I don't know that that's kind of the other question is how we need them all without them there without the wits of folks there. wicked effort. >> They may need to be there to help >> you know not make the decision but maybe give us >> guidance >> or or you narrow it down they can see all of them as well. You can narrow it down and say hey these are the four that we think would fit us. Does that seem to they seem reasonable to bring to the board at that point? And I'm assuming when the interview's happening here here
151for that meeting as well to help facilitate that process. Yeah, we can sit in on them. Obviously, we wouldn't bolt or anything on them, but we can offer our feedback on responses from them and what we heard. That's pretty difficult. >> I think that would be helpful. I mean, I had no idea that this piece about the referendum was woven into that degree. I would never know that. So, I think it'd be terrific if one or both of you could >> be listening for things or helping us questions that get at that. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> We want to build the strongest team possible, >> right? >> Or Darren, you do it from the perspective I think MSVA does this, right, for superintendent candidates. I think they reviewed all your candidates, right? And they say,
152"Here's >> we vetted these six out. We believe this is your best." These are not good fits for your district of your, you know, >> so it's not common for you folks to saying this is who you should work for or who you should hire. >> Yeah. >> Or what is the norm? >> Yeah, we certainly can absolutely make recommendations. We can offer our feedback on hey we you know based on their proposal they're showing strong experience in reference within so many years or whatever's >> I don't think I would come in and say you need to select this one >> you have experience with a lot of them say you know these guys have met >> these guys have had have a >> extraordinary number of >> of change orders compared to the others
153or you know these ones have come into budget on under budget on 90 of 90% of their >> their things you know >> change change order things are huge and there's a lot of companies out there exploit that >> um so having none of us would have that knowledge and it's not going to be on the piece of paper >> but you're talking about not necessarily the guys that are going to give us the you're talking about this is going to be a little bit higher level than that, right? So, the group that we're going to select in the construction management is really not the guys that are going to give us the ch, you know, we're not to that point yet. And >> so, it is this company once we choose them, not all
154the general, >> but they're going to no, >> they could be, right? I mean, they could be the >> No, not necessarily. But I mean there's an opportunity that they could be pre-referendum and then you could say >> we're comfortable with this group to move forward to be our general contractor >> potentially. Usually the construction manager >> typically which we have a slide for it would typically be contracted directly with the district and they would facilitate the bidding of essentially the subs the different bid packages but all of those contracts would typically be direct with you. They're just coordinating, scheduling. Now, they can self-perform. Usually, they would bid it just like anybody else. And if they happen to be low, they'll self-performing or they won't. So, in that scenario, when it gets to the bidding
155piece, you're seeing all the numbers, all the sub numbers, and you make a decision or you know, some reason under a GC, they'll give you a number. you're not seeing the sub numbers. >> So, usually it'll be more of a pure construction management. >> Sure. >> Especially if you're getting into a project of this scale where you maybe got to look at phasing >> um scheduling of getting work done within certain periods of time so people interrupt school >> coordination of like long lead time items. So, probably when this building was built, it was probably a more traditional approach. That's the era of a more traditional approach. You have your school district and your architect. They put together their plans, they bid it, the community supported it, and you get your general contractor to build
156it. So, that's kind of a more traditional approach. Now, what we're seeing are these complex um communication referendum needs in the beginning. And so, you bring a construction management team on. So, it's a three-legged stool instead of a two-legged stool. So that three-legged stool, we all hold each other accountable. When I come up with a crazy design, our construction manager would be like, "Whoa, that's going to break our budget. We need to reel it back in." So they're there. They're the third party in the three-legged stool. So they then are part of that development. So it's all in this orange phase. Once a referendum passes, then the project goes out for bid and then you have all the individual contractors that will bid the project. So, it's it's not really a general contractor approach. It's
157a little bit different approach. Um, but bringing that construction manager on to a team early is proven results in better efficiency, cost savings, and just overall improvements to a project because they're at the table early on and we're planning for these surprises ahead of time. If it's a brand new green field site and we're building a fresh building, you could probably get a general contractor because it's very understood what your conditions are. When we get into complex strategies with school phasing, remodels, additions, having them on early is a is a value added to the team. >> So, what are the things we're going to see in the proposal from this? What they're going to bring in a book talks about themselves and what they did, you know, where they come from and places they've worked
158with, but what are the tangibles that we're going to be looking at? Um, What are the five things that are going to be on there like they're that we're going to be kind of analyzing? >> What I would want to request from someone in this position is do you have experience working with districts of our size and with our complexities? That's my number one question. You can pass districts, you know, school districts for Fargo or Morehead or St. Cloud all day long, but do you have experience in our specific category? And what are your rates of successful referendums? That's what I would want to know from a construction management firm on this project. >> Don't tell me about Fargo. Don't tell me about tell me about >> Oh, see. >> Yeah. I'm trying to think
159of one. >> And then what's the next So if it's So that's your number one, which is a great one. >> What What's your number two thing that that we're analyzing? If you're going to let's just go deep as three. What are the three things that we're going to see from them? And you know what your top one is that we should be worried about? >> I want to know how their approach to the communication effort. Start asking questions about surveying all those pieces and get their feedback. Give me examples of how you've done that in other districts recently, you know, within the last three to five years. >> History of failed. >> Yes. >> How did you get them over though? >> And then my last question for them would be let's look at
160this the recommended site plan. All right. How are we going to get these baseball fields or softball fields reconstructed? What would be your approach to designing this building around our softball schedule, making sure that they're ready for the next season? How are we getting in here and updating the track around the football field? disturbing the fall season and the spring season. How are we, you know, building a gym? Are we worried about future enrollment growth? Hey, we designed this beautiful school and all all of a sudden these people start trickling back in. I've designed a school district like that. The day they cut the ribbon, they're like, our numbers went through the roof and we're going to start need to planning for the next project in five years. So, how do you how do you
161get ahead of all of these challenges that are unforeseen and let them kind of talk through those strategies with us? So, none of them have to do with cost. So, what are we going to see from these folks in cost structures? From my memory, we seen a lot of significantly different cost structures from each one. And that was one of the things we really had to weed through. You know, some things were by percentage, some things were set prices, some things were so much to start with and then a percentage. And >> is that something >> we can ask >> that you can help? >> Yeah. >> Us >> because otherwise it's some in the short amount of time we have to make a decision that's really tough if you don't look at it all
162the time. >> Yeah. >> Because they a lot of them do that on purpose, you know. Other I mean otherwise in part of our request of proposals we should have it in a specific way so they're all bidding it at the exact same way. >> I was just going to say back to your community survey statement earlier is you know the results you got were you know mixed. Well you have to make sure you're asking the right questions and then you get the right results. So we can help you with asking the right questions on feebased. >> So what's typical though? Like so this construction management If we don't pass a referendum, where where is their how's their fee structure set in, you know? >> Yeah. You may see, you probably seen in the past
163proposal like a a pre-referendum >> cost. Yeah. And that can vary depending on how they want to approach it. And then a cost structure for the past now moving into construction management throughout the entire construction process. >> Yeah. Correct. >> And somebody can wave that, don't they? They'll tell you if we'll do your pre-re planning process at no cost, but we have to be your construction to the project. >> We'll be XML for pre-re. >> We'll blend that into the cost. That's not >> what you're saying is we have to pick the right one and pass the referendum and that's all taken care of. >> Really easy. >> We should started with that. >> Okay, we got to do >> any other questions, comments? >> What are our deliverables, I guess, for the September 3rd
164meeting? Do we have clear deliverables for the next month or so? So, we know what to have on the agenda and things. >> I guess at this point we probably have some discussion about what we, you know, what we went through. Um, likely, you know, we're going to obviously we're going to pass it. We're going to record all this referendum, you know, work sessions. Um, we would vote for or against the one-site option moving forward. um start to look at that process of how do we con, you know, pull in a construction manager to start this process. Um and that gets us through the first meeting. >> Yep. >> Are we doing all this next session? >> Next week. Set a date for our next work, >> I would say. Yep. We're probably going to
165be >> Are we going to choose a collection time? Is there is everybody ready to do that or not? A a goal of >> a go a goal of our time, you know, are we going to set that now? Is that something you guys want to see right away? Like we're saying we're going to shoot for November or are we do you feel like we're not >> how comfortable we are >> ready? >> Are you guys ready? >> Well, there might be a curveball, but >> I was ready 10 years ago. So >> there's a is a consensus that >> we know from the answers I heard tonight from you folks we have plenty of time to do >> to hit the general election which would be a year from this November. Correct. >> Yeah.
166>> Correct. >> It'll be the midterm. >> D I think it's a great idea because that's that transparency piece right now. The public knows that okay they've waited for a while but they're >> I mean that's always been my feeling. So I'm comfortable with that because I want it on a general election. But then our taxpayers know too that they're moving forward. There's no we only hear about it four months in advance. They've >> I think we can be prepared or should be prepared to vote on that next. >> So we'll put that on there too that we would be looking at um timeline of November of 26. Um and then of course we'll start working that backwards. Um, as far as as we move forward, as we start to refine this plan and we
167start to look at your timeline, how frequently do you see us needing an additional meeting? Um, is there a lot of this stuff you think we can do? You know, we're still going to have morning board meetings once a month. Uh, those get a little tricky to make sure we get everything in and get people to work on time. But we will now start the third is an evening meeting. Yep. >> So, there's a little bit more flexibility there on those evening meetings. Do you feel like our committee meeting would be adequate time to have some of these discussions or do you think that we need to start? I mean, I think everybody here's invested enough to say we're we're okay with a workshop every, you know, if we got to do one a month
168or we got to do one every other month. Um, how frequently would you see that need to be? And obviously, we can do them, you know, you guys can do them remotely. You don't have to come here every single time. I don't think at this point if we're going to move forward with this. >> Yeah, I think the next step is just to build a schedule and review it with you to see, you know, your comfort level with the schedule and we'll build those milestones in there. Um, you know, opportunity to discuss uh with construction management, opportunity to talk with the survey consultants. Is that something that's now or later? You know, let's just build that in. How are we going to get the task force um back in this group? When are we going
169to when's the right time to sit down with user group meetings? Um, we have MSBA coming up. So, it's a great opportunity for you all to go out there and see the newest, latest, greatest stuff in person in Minneapolis. So, you know, do you want to wait a little bit to see what's out there and then come back to the drawing table and say, "Okay, now that we've heard from our user groups, we've maybe heard from the community. We've saw stuff at MSBA. Let's sit down and really sharpen our pencils on this plan." That might be a little too late. That might be a little too soon. I don't know. But, you know, I think those are really good things to keep in mind as we've got a good amount of time. I I think
170it's really important for the principles and the teachers to look at this plan and say and and the extracurricular people what works what are they worried about so we can respond to that >> as quickly as possible. >> I think Chad kind of brought that up at that last meeting too right was the custodial space or storage space I think was what his concern was. Y >> I almost said the, you know, educational trends portion of that presentation for the task force, but we talked a little bit about your staff, too. You know, is that something? Do we want to do an educational trends day? Do we want to do a tour day? Go look at some new facilities and see what other people are doing. Um, those are all things that we've done in
171the past. Anything that feels good to this group. So we can put together a handful of conceptual schedule ideas and present that back to this group and say, "Okay, where are these milestones that we need to be back here with this team?" >> I think it's a good plan. I'm a little nervous about waiting until January to check things out with MSBA. I think that puts us a little behind. So makes >> I Well, I think we continue forward. Obviously, if you see something at the conference and you say, "Hey, that would really fit well here." I mean, we're not >> I think a lot of that stuff come in once something passes, right? Colors, cabinets, all that stuff where they're laid out in the in the room on I mean that's all after something
172passes, right? >> Right. >> We're talking about the bones right now. >> The concept of it though, you know, the idea of, hey, this system here is is a really great addition or, you know, that we didn't think about or, you know, >> science classroom space because we want to update those. I know the playground kind of came from your conversations that really got a lot of traction from a lot of our >> Paul one of the things I'm hearing is is maybe a deliverable is that schedule >> is that one of the next things that you'll be doing is trying to construct a schedule >> uh to stay transparent and open with the community and to continue to do kind of the first two things on uh on the middle phase of the of
173the road map which was looking at your communications which has surveyed um user groups community input and then refining the plan and you're looking to build a schedule to do those very things. >> Maybe that could go in one of your articles. >> That's a great idea and then how the public can plan to get updates too. Here's our milestones on that. So, >> well then if we have, you know, let's let's put a map on the wall somewhere. You know what? Here's where we are today. This is where we met this milestone. We're on target. We're a little behind. Hey, we need to throw an extra meeting in here. We need to make sure that we get these things taken care of before the next meeting. all those things can happen and we can
174continue to say we're on target, you know, we're doing we're need to be at this point. Um, >> yeah, >> that would be really good. >> So, is that all we got? >> Motion to >> Yep. >> I don't know if we have to take We're not taking any action. So you just move >> to order, but we're journ. >> Um, yeah, >> good meeting. >> Yeah, >> Thank you guys. >> Thanks for having us. >> Thank you. >> Zero understanding of the construction people being involved in the ground. Yeah.