Panel: Build schools now

$50 million project could cost another $8 million in five years

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 23, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Building a new high school and elementary school for the Bemidji School District would be expensive -- costing almost $50 million -- but there is no better time than now to proceed with the projects, according to leaders of the district's Facilities Committee.

That was the committee's message to those who attended community informational meetings on the aging Bemidji High School and Lincoln Elementary School, hosted by the school district Monday and last Thursday.

Over a four-month period, the Facilities Committee studied the two schools -- the two oldest still in operation in the region -- and found they have significant mechanical, electrical and ventilation problems, and that they pose as health threats in some instances.

About 70 people, only half of which were not employed by the school district, on the School Board or on the Facilities Committee, attended the meetings about the committee's recommendation to the district to build the new schools.

However, despite the low attendance, the meetings were positive and most people were supportive of replacing the 75-year-old Bemidji High School and the 81-year-old Lincoln Elementary School, Superintendent Rollie Morud said Tuesday in an interview.

First among the public's concerns was the cost, which would amount to about $50 million for both schools, the district's Business Manager Bryan Westerman said at the meetings. However, since it was deemed necessary to replace the two buildings, if the district waited even just four or five years, it could eventually cost another $7 million to $8 million to build later.

According to Westerman, there are two advantages to building now. First, the state's debt equalization aid program, which was established to support Minnesota's poorer school districts, would cover about 46 percent of the cost of the two buildings over the history of the bond. And second, the bond issued to build the Bemidji Middle School will be paid in full in the year 2000, and so the new bond could replace that bond.

"Considering the financial and educational aspects, it makes sense to build now," said Bemidji proprietor Dale Thompson, a Facilities Committee member.

Cheryl Byers, a Nymore resident who said she was in favor of the projects, told the committee Monday she feared that the bond for the new schools would be approved, only for the district to ask taxpayers sometime soon to pay to replace another elementary school such as Central or J.W. Smith.

"I am very willing to pay for two new schools. Even though my kids won't benefit (from a new Lincoln), I am willing to pay the extra tax dollars," Byers said. "But I'm concerned about Central, or some other school, becoming a problem in three years. I don't want the district coming back to me and asking me to pay a little more money. As a taxpayer, I couldn't afford that."

Other concerns at the two meetings included keeping a new elementary school in the Nymore area; how the district could build new buildings while at the same time be making budget cuts; the cost to operate two new buildings versus the old buildings; how technology would be incorporated in the new buildings; and how the old buildings would be used.

According to Morud, even though attendance at the meetings was small, he said the district at least accomplished its goal of disseminating the Facilities Committee's findings.

"I learned the public wants to understand the educational influence a new building can have," he said about the meetings. Besides, "they tell me wait until you get close (to a referendum vote), and then you get the big crowds."