News

School Board holds Public Forum

By Scott Wagar

07/01/2014

On Monday, June 23, the Bottineau School Board held a public forum to discuss the new plans to place additions and renovate the school building located in the northeast side of town, placing all of Bottineau students in one location and eliminating Central School.

Like the public forums held last summer to construct a new elementary school on the east side of town, which was voted down in November of last year, the interest and acceptance of the present district plans had a similar feel to last summer’s plans.

Once again, the attendance was low at the public forum on Monday with around 40 individuals in attendance, which was primarily made up of staff members of the school district and the remaining local residents.

The meeting, a demographic meeting and school building project community forum, started off with elementary school principal, Brian Palmer, granting the school demographics, which showed a large increase in school enrollment with elementary students, but no real increase in junior and senior high school students.

Overall enrollment numbers showed that in 2013-14 there were 635 students in the school district. The approximate enrollment numbers for 2014-15 school year is at 651 students, while five years down the road enrollment it is expected to be at around 710 students.

With increase enrollment in the school district, Central School not meeting code and requirements to function properly as a learning institute, and the new elementary school that was voted down last year, the school board made the decision to add on to the school which currently holds grades three through 12, while at the same time renovating the building so that all grades could be at one location.

Matt Johnson, member of the Bottineau School Board, conducted the school building project part of the forum and stated that after the referendum was voted down in November, the school board sent out a survey to those who voted on the school bond issue asking why they voted in the manner they did on the ballot. For those who voted against the new elementary school, they stated three reasons in voting against it, which included project cost, tax increase and location.

Johnson added that those who filled out the survey also stated that they felt the best option for the school was placing all students under one roof.

From there, the school board went forward with their present plans for the school district with having PreK through 12 all in one location. The plans call for:

● A south wing addition for PreK through Six Grade students with a multipurpose room and four additional classrooms for future expansion if necessary
● The north side of the building would be renovated for grade seven through 12 along with a commons area
● Administrative offices would be placed in the new south addition and on the north end of the building where the renovations will take place, which will have secure entrances.
● All science labs would be remodeled   
● The current ag shop would be extended out to the east and be flush with the boys and girls lockers and furnace room on that side of the building
● The south side would have a new parking lot along with a drop off and pickup lane for buses to utilize
● The two gymnasiums and music rooms would not be added on to or renovated in the project

The estimated cost of the plan proposal is $16,106,586, while the taxpayers would be responsible for $12,960,000 over a 20 year period. The breakdown of the cost is as follows:

● The school district would pay $1,146,586 through oil and gas gross production tax revenue.
● The taxpayers would be bonded for $12,960,000.
● The school has received a $10 million loan from the DPI with an interest rate at 1.41 percent. The school district would be responsible for $2 million of the loan which would be paid back through oil and gas production, while the remaining $8 million would be bounded to tax payers with an additional bond of $4,960,000 at 2.95 percent interest, which would total the taxpayers share at the $12,960,000.     

When it comes to the taxpayers’ responsibility, residential owners who have property valued at $100,000, their yearly cost would be $126 for the 20-year pay period, or a cost of $10.51 per month.

Agricultural land with a value of $100,000, landowners would payout $140 a year or $11.68 per month.

Johnson added that the school has been granted a $10 million loan from the DPI which will be taken away from the school district if the bond issue is voted down in August and granted to another school district.

With the plan and proposal presented to those in attendance, comments from the public were welcomed.

A couple of individuals stated that they didn’t like the plan strictly because of its location and proximity to the elevators and a local propane company.  

When it came to the elevator company, there was concern with the elevators, fertilizer plant (with plans to add an addition to the plant), anhydrous ammonia, a proposed dryer plant (which is subject to have a 30,000 gallon propane tank to operate the dryer which is one block from the school) and the constant ongoing traffic with larger vehicles like grain trucks and semis. (It was brought out that the fertilizer plant housed only dry fertilizer and cannot explode, although fires still could happen.)

Other issues by all individuals at the forum included that there wasn’t enough playground space for the children, some classrooms were internal and had no windows, parking was limited and the drive-up wouldn’t work due to its location.

Some individuals were so against the plan that they asked Johnson if they could stop the forward motion of this plan and reconsider the first plan of having a new elementary school constructed on the east side of town or find a completely different plan.  
Johnson said that some of the plans we being re-worked; however, to return to the original plan on the east side of town would have to wait until the bond vote was over to see what the voters of the school district wanted in a school.

Johnson stated that if the bond was voted down the school board could reconsider their first option east of town, but that it was very unlikely the bond price would be anymore different than the initial $18.9 million that the taxpayers would have been bonded to pay.

The one thing that all the individuals at the forum agreed on is that Central School in its present condition is in too bad of a condition to continue to educate students in the building, and that something needs to be done concerning that issue.

The next public forum will be July 15 at Central School so individuals can see the conditions of the building. The forum will start at 7 p.m.

The vote will take place Aug. 12 in the hallway outside of the Holwell Auditorium.

The school district also stated that individuals can vote through absentee ballot, which currently can be picked-up at the high school office.