AITKIN — The Aitkin School District will try for another referendum in April, less than six months after voters narrowly rejected two ballot questions.
Voters will answer three ballot questions in the April 14 election: one for a new elementary school, one for a new transportation center and one to add another gym to the new elementary.
The new school and transportation center were part of the same question in November, which failed by 211 votes, or 3%. The district is reducing its total ask for the two builds by $6.5 million.
The $2.3 million auxiliary gym question replaces the district’s $6 million ask for a community recreation and wellness center, which failed by 440 votes, or 7%.
Question Two — the transportation center — will be contingent on Question One passing. Question Three — the extra gym — will be contingent on questions One and Two passing.
In all, the district will ask voters to approve one-third less in building bonds, by extending the length of the debt and reducing the square footage of the projects.
“You have the oldest schools in the region. We know that,” said Jeff Schiltz with ICS, a company that often assists districts with facility referendums, at the Monday, Jan. 12, School Board meeting. “Aitkin needs to replace a building. You can’t keep kicking that can down the road too long, no matter what.”
Most of Rippleside Elementary School is nearing 70 years old, with outdated utilities, health risks and inadequate classrooms.
The deferred maintenance on the building amounts to an $11 million need. The roofs are old and improperly sloped, and the boilers will soon need replacing. Half of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning infrastructure needs to be replaced. Electrical panels are mostly original, and original windows are inoperable and rotten.
Concerns about Rippleside have existed for years, Board member Roland Hill said, but past school boards didn’t take any action.
“Unfortunately, we’re the ones that are — I guess the ones that are making the decision to do it,” he said. “... It should have been done before. I’ve been in this community for a long time. Been in that school. I’ve had kids in that school.
“It’s just bad, and it needs to go, and our community needs to hear that.”
Schiltz gave the Board four options to address the needs, using rough cost estimates: do the $11 million of repairs, spend $34 million remodeling Rippleside, build a new school on the same site as Rippleside for $49.7 million, or build a new school on the district’s property south of town for $53.5 million.
Further cost breakdowns and renovation options are covered in ICS’s meeting presentation.
Board members generally agreed a straightforward repair is not an option, as it doesn’t address educational needs and will cost more in the long run.
Members preferred building a new school on the new property, because it addresses other problems like small classrooms, lack of gym space and the dangerous parent pickup/drop-off situation.
Aitkin’s high school is also aging and will need to be replaced sometime in the not-so-distant future. Building on a new site means all education facilities can be in the same spot. The high school would also be a more affordable addition to the existing elementary, rather than a more expensive new, stand-alone building.
If a referendum fails again, the Board plans to use its tax levy authority to fund as much of a remodel and repairs as it can. Districts are allowed to take on debt without voter approval.
Board members pointed out that whether a referendum passes, taxes will go up.
“My suspicion has borne out in these loose numbers that if that referendum does not pass, and we have to use our tax levy authority to remodel and to bring things up to date, up to code, safety, the all of it?” said Board member Dawn Houser.
“It’s actually going to cost people more money.”
