GFW School Board hears options to address building needs with $43 million Capital Improvement Plan or new facility

By Dr. Jeff Horton, Superintendent

On Monday, December 5, the GFW School Board held a work session dedicated to hearing reports and information on facility conditions as well as options to address them. Options include a $43 million Capital Improvement Plan that would not require voter approval and a ballot question for voter consideration. Superintendent Horton presented a comprehensive history of the district’s efforts to improve facilities over the past five years with referendum proposals, maintenance, and other projects. 

In 2017, a bond referendum proposed to improve all three school buildings and was defeated with 81% of voters voting no. A facilities process was initiated with a task force ultimately recommending the solution of a PreK-12 single site resulting in a 2019 ballot question that was supported by 45% of voters. 

“The increase in yes votes from 2017 to 2019 along with survey results from the spring of 2022 suggest that our community more strongly supports building a new PreK-12 school that is centrally located rather than fixing up our current schools which were originally built in 1935,” shared Dr. Horton. 

In 2020, the community passed an operating levy referendum with 63% voting yes. The operating levy resulted in an increase of programming for students and a strong fund balance. Throughout numerous community listening sessions over the past two years with students, staff, and community members, the issue of facilities has continually come up as the next priority for the district to address. Facilities planning is also part of the community-created strategic plan established in 2021.

GFW receives approximately $270,000 annually for Long Term Facilities Maintenance funds from the state to address maintenance needs. The state of Minnesota also provides the Ag2School Tax Credit for bond issues that covers 70% of the tax impact on agricultural property to offset the costs for farmers with recent bi-partisan support to increase the credit to 85 percent.

Representatives from construction firm Kraus Anderson presented the findings from a recent facilities assessment. The process is extremely thorough and found that facility conditions are currently poor and approaching critical. Kraus Andersson stressed that a status of critical could mean significant potential safety concerns. Needs include deferred maintenance, roof replacement, interior and systems needs, and more, many of which have the potential to impact operations if not addressed.  

“The assessment shows that our students and staff are currently safe,” said Dr. Horton. “However, we need to address our facilities now in order to keep them safe.” 

A total of $38.6 million in today’s dollars in facility maintenance funding was recommended by Kraus Anderson with the total increasing to $50,189,000 when adjusting for inflation over a four-year facility maintenance project. This would only bring the facilities up to current standards and additional funding would still be needed for future large-scale projects or a new building. The assessment also reviewed educational inadequacies in the ability to meet the needs of today’s educational standards. The assessment found an additional $22 million in needs, bringing the total cost to $72,189,000 to address all deferred maintenance and educational adequacy needs at current facilities. 

“There’s a quote by President Theodore Roosevelt where he said ‘In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing,’” said Dr. Horton. “As a district, we have been limited to doing very little facilities maintenance because we only receive $270,000 to fix a $72 million problem. It’s not fair to our communities, but that is the funding we are allocated.”

The board heard options to address facilities, all which follow the guiding principles of keeping students safe, exceeding area schools with excellent programming that students deserve, and maintaining facilities while preparing for an eventual transition to a PreK-12 facility. School districts have multiple financing options, and the GFW School Board has the authority to approve up to $43 million in funding without voter approval. While this total would not address all district needs, a timeline of phased projects could maintain current facilities while the district and community work together to approve a long- range plan.

Three options were presented:

●       Option #1: Approve the $43 million Capital Improvement Plan which does not require voter approval and sets a schedule and funding for improving current facilities. Funding would be repaid over 15 years.

●       Option #2: Approve a ballot question for voter consideration to include an option for a new 7-12 facility ($55 million) or a PreK-12 facility ($69.9 million) with the option to reduce the operating levy to offset the tax impact on the community for the PreK-12 option with funding to be repaid over 25-29 years. The Capital Improvement Plan would go into effect in November of 2023 if neither option is approved.

●       Option #3: Delay decision on approving a ballot question until the new board begins in January 2023 while setting the capital improvement plan to begin in November 2023 if a ballot question is not approved. 

Tax impacts were shared and compared for all options by a representative from Baird Financial. The Capital Improvement Plan would result in a $167.08 annual increase on a $200,000 home in the district as well as an annual increase of $1.01 per acre on homestead acres and $2.02 on non-homestead acres. The Ag2School Credit would not apply to all sections of the Capital Improvement Plan. 

For the option of building a PreK-12 building and reducing the operating levy by $380.75 per pupil, a $200,000 home in the district would see an annual increase of $75.59. Ag land would see an annual increase of $1.08 per homestead acre and $2.16 for non-homestead acres under the 70 percent credit. The Ag2School Credit would apply and is currently set at 70 percent with the increase to 85 percent receiving support during the last legislative session. The same acres would see an annual increase of $.54 for homestead acres and $1.08 for non-homestead with a 85 percent credit.

The board will hold a special meeting on Monday, December 12 at 7:00 p.m. at GFW Elementary to decide which option to move forward with. Dr. Horton and representatives from Kraus Anderson and the district’s financial consultants will be on hand to present the full facilities presentation and tax impacts. 

The meeting will be live streamed on YouTube and open to the public.