MONTEVIDEO — Two years after voters in the Montevideo School District rejected bonding to improve school facilities, they are going back to the polls to decide on an entirely new proposal.
School officials kicked off a series of community sessions on Tuesday to provide information on the new bonding request, and explained why they believe voters are ready to take a second look.
One year after the 2020 bond failed in a referendum, the district hosted community input sessions with small groups of residents to ask them what they wanted for their schools.
“Inevitably, what came up at every single meeting, and this was not one of the questions by the way, facilities came up. (Facilities) came up in virtually every small group session we had,” Superintendent Wade McKittrick told a dozen attendees at the community session held Tuesday at the Ramsey Elementary School.
The school board is asking voters in a May 9 referendum to approve a $54,860,000 bond issue to improve academic facilities. The project would remodel the current middle school to hold grades K-4, while the existing Sanford Elementary and Ramsey Elementary schools would be razed. The project would remodel the high school for use as a grades 5-8 middle school, and build an addition to the north to serve as a new 9-12 high school.
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Voters will also decide whether to approve $11,335,000 in bonding for an 800-seat auditorium and fine arts center that would be built on the high school campus.
The fine arts question can only be approved if voters also approve question one for the academic facilities. The academic facilities bond includes the funding for site preparation and other infrastructure essential to the fine arts project, which would cost in the range of $18 million to $19 million as a standalone project, McKittrick explained.
McKittrick hopes to be doing a lot of explaining in the next 30 days.
His goal — along with school board members — is to host 30 to 40 coffee sessions in the next month with small groups of residents in their homes and other locations. The goal is to meet with 10% of the potential voters, said the superintendent.
He emphasized that the intent is to lay out the information and answer residents' questions.
“We have talked a lot about the fact that we are not really interested in selling the referendum,” he said.
The small group sessions of the previous year made it apparent that there is public awareness of the district’s facilities needs. The school board also has the results of a district-wide survey showing that the awareness could translate into support for a bond.
“Right at the tipping point,” is how the results of the district-wide survey were described to board members in November.
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“With the exception of the middle school, most of our facilities are 60 to 70 years old,” Matt Wolfert, architect with Bray Architects, told those attending Tuesday’s presentation. “They’ve served you really well, but teaching and learning have changed a great deal in that time."
Wolfert cited the “outdated educational spaces” of buildings erected before computers became part of the education process; safety and security needs; the lack of a performing arts facility; and the toll that age takes on structures.
“Just reached the point where a very significant investment is needed to get our plumbing systems up to speed, our electrical systems up to speed,” he said.
One of his key talking points was the new plan’s concept for the middle and high schools to be joined buildings on a shared campus, but remain as separate schools for their students. Staff and resources can be shared, but students will not be walking the same hallways, he explained.
Wolfert also pointed out that the new proposal comes at a time when the district can take advantage of the state’s Ag2School tax credit, which reduces the tax burden on agricultural landowners. For the Montevideo district, it means that the state would pay for 46% of the bond. If voters approve both issues for bonds of $66,195,000, the state share of that total would be $30,495,700.
McKittrick, Wolfert and school board chair Andrew Stenson fielded a range of questions from participants at the meeting.
The potential tax impact and the fact that the city of Montevideo and Chippewa County are also discussing potential capital projects are on the minds of residents. The district’s webpage has a section on the referendum . Taxpayers can learn the estimated tax impact on their property by going to the site.
McKittrick said it’s the voters who will decide whether or not the district has come up with the right plan. Until the vote on May 9, he said the focus will be on providing the information needed by voters to make that decision.
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“What we don’t want to have happen is somebody go to the ballot and say ‘I’m voting this way because I don’t know anything about this. I haven’t gotten any information. Nobody has shared anything with me. I don’t know what I’m voting for.’ That cannot happen,’’ said McKittrick, who added, while laughing: “I told my wife I’d see her on May 10.”
Along with holding the informal coffee conversations, the district plans four additional large group presentations. They are scheduled for 6 p.m. March 20 at Talking Waters in downtown Montevideo; 6 p.m. March 27 at the middle school; 6 p.m. April 17 at the high school; and noon April 18 at the senior citizens center.
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