Members of the Crookston School District long-range planning committee met with Superintendent Jeremy Olson Wednesday morning to discuss needs for facilities within the district. One of the top priorities is a new bus garage. (The picture to the right is of a tour held at the bus garage last year) 
The focus was on laying the groundwork to create a plan for a bus garage near Highland Elementary School. “We did a little planning today, I asked the board how to move procedurally forward,” said Olson. “The board said they want to make sure we have the input of a community committee that is representative of the voters.” The committee strongly felt that it was important to get the community involved in the early stages. One specific demographic discussed was the agricultural community. Both Olson and school board member Frank Fee noted the importance of getting people from the agricultural community in on discussions as they represent a significant amount of land area within the district limits. But secondly, so that they are better able to explain to that demographic the costs associated with the facility.
It was noted that while a garage or a facility may be able to be put up privately for a relatively small amount, the state requirements, such as an air handling system, lead to an additional cost in a facility such as a district bus garage. These requirements, while adding to the initial cost of the facility, do benefit the district and voters in the long run as it eliminates some of the risk of liability against the district should something unfortunate occur in the future.
The limiting of liability is an important reason why the district will need to hire an architect. If the district designs their own building, and the design is flawed, the district assumes additional liability should an injury or death result from those flaws. By hiring an architect, the architect would assume liability in the design. There was also a consensus to interview possible architects to ensure they are a good fit for the district. Olson added he’s unsure the state would approve a project without an architect.
That state approval will be important as the Crookston School District now has a 40% tax credit, meaning the state would be covering that portion of the cost.
Another topic discussed was that if the process proceeds the district should negotiate a fixed-fee contract, so there is no financial incentive for the architect to raise the price. The committee also felt if the planning got that far, there needs to be a model of the facility created so that voters can view it at events and ask questions.
Olson got the guidance on how to proceed, which what he was looking for, and all agree that they need to have community involvement in the process. “Obviously we have some thoughts on what our needs are going to be, but we need the community’s input,” commented Olson. “When I saw that bus garage, I thought we can do better in Crookston.”
The committee’s first procedural step in the process will be identifying community members to serve on a steering committee. If anyone is interested in joining the steering community, Olson asked that they contact him or the school board. The best way to ensure you have a voice in the discussion is to join the discussion.
