The Crookston Public School District held a public Community meeting on Wednesday night in the Crookston High School Auditorium to hold the second of four meetings about the multiuse Complex stadium that is planned to begin construction during the 2022-23 School Year.
Superintendent Jeremy Olson began the meeting by introducing construction worker Brian Berg, Senior Municipal Advisor Shelby McQuay, and future Activities Director Nate Lubarski saying that they were there to help him present the referendum and answer any questions. Olson then did a quick overview of the facility to any newcomers that were not at the first meeting in May and what uses it could have to the departments at the school. He also gave a recap of the story of how the District was unable to purchase the track and football field at UMC for them to use and why they chose to build an entirely new facility. He then turned the presentation over to Nate Lubarski, who explained why the District wanted the facility. He explained that none of the current facilities are owned by the District, which prevents the school from doing any much-needed maintenance and upgrades to UMC fields. He also explained that the new artificial turf would be useful for the many different activities in the school, such as Varsity and JV Football, baseball practice and softball games, marching band, boy’s and girl’s soccer, and PE classes. He also explained that the complex would allow multiple practices and games to happen in the same day and have fellow athletes come out and support each other. He gave a comparison to Moorhead Public School’s Turf field, which uses their turf for about 67 games and 90 practices a year with their PE Class on it nearly 7 hours a day, showing just how much they use their turf field for athletics. He also mentioned that the field could be used to hold track meets and MSHSL playoffs for different sections outside of the school that they cannot do at their current facility.
Superintendent Olson then began to summarize the budget, explaining that their fixed project total is $3,909,300 and mentioned that the Concessions/bathrooms building would be built in cooperation with the school’s construction trades (CT) classes to help them with their work while also saving over $600,000 in construction fees. He then went into the Funding Sources, with 36% of the funding coming from Minnesota’s Government Support bond, Ag2School Credit State Aid, which cuts the amount the Ag Land and Farmers have to cover down to only 15%. With the remaining 49% being split so that commercial and industrial businesses cover about 18% of the project’s cost, and resident taxes and other sources cover the final 31%. He then showed that people can go to the School District’s website to find a new page about the referendum, see a video of the project, and can use a tax calculator to learn how much residents, commercial businesses, and Ag Land/farmers would pay per year by entering the values of their house. The link can be found below.
He then opened the presentation to the public for any questions they had about the referendum. Semi-retired farmer Allan Dragseth first asked if the District had ever thought of getting a sponsorship for the field to help pay for the field’s construction. “I would like to see us really pursue a sponsorship from a large company to help offset some of the prices,” Allan Dragseth said, “You see that all over with big stadiums and the smaller ones have a name for someone. I’ve never seen it done for a High School, but maybe it has been.” Nate Lubarski came forward and explained that they had tried and have one offer so far but are looking to reach out to more to see if any others wish to sponsor the facility. “We have reached out and have some thoughts about possibly doing something with the scoreboard to have some sponsorship and so forth. We want to be very respectful of our local businesses because businesses were hit hard during COVID,” Superintendent Jeremy Olson explained. “We are looking at potential sponsorships and vendors that could come in and help sponsor the project, so we are keeping track of that, but I think it’s going to be a really good thing for the District in the long term. But we’re going to need to make sure that we approach several people and do our job there, but we don’t have all the ideas put together, so we’re still putting together a plan for how we’re going to approach people,” he added.
Another audience member asked what the school would do with their locked money acquisition with rising inflation prices. Olson explained that the amount that the school asked from taxpayers was locked in, so they wouldn’t have to pay more money to help with the construction but mentioned that the school had a few options they could execute to help cover the rising prices. Once again, he explained that sponsorships were a strong option to cover the prices but also mentioned that there could be a District Contribution that could be used as well but mentioned that that would also take K-12 dollars. He mentioned that the District is currently locked into a 12-year bond if the referendum is approved, and that gives them the option to go to a 13-year bond or more if they choose in the case of interest rates. “Those are the same concerns that I share, too, in how are we going to navigate this? That’s where I would say if we’re concerned about that, do we reasonably see prices going down in five years? If that’s not a reasonable assumption to make, then we need to ask ourselves, “Is this the time to do this?” because if prices are not going to go down in five years, then this is probably the time that we should jump in, because what we’ve seen with costs is that they keep generally escalating,” Superintendent Olson explained. “So, those are some things that people have to think about as a District. I think this is the right thing to do,” he added. One person then asked what would happen to the school programs if the referendum failed. Future Activities Director Nate Lubarski explained that unfortunately they would have to continue to pay East Grand Forks High School to let them hold home events like track meets. With the same happening at UMC for football, again paying to rent a field that they do not own and would have to ask taxpayers to pay for any maintenance on it.
This is the second of four public meetings the school district is holding about the facility for the public to learn about the school’s plans and ask any questions about its construction and impact on the community. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, July 20, at 5:30 p.m. in the Crookston High School Auditorium, and the final one will be on August 3, at 5:30 p.m. If you have any questions about the facility’s construction and planning, you can contact Superintendent Jeremy Olson at 218-770-8717. If you would like to see the proposed plan for the referendum and use the Tax Impact Calculator to learn exactly how much you’ll be paying for the project. You can go to www.crookston.k12.mn.us/district-proposedreferendum.
