‘Sabre Pride’ abounds as bond vote approaches

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

“Sabre Pride” was bursting at the seams Sunday night when students and parents gathered at Avalon Village neighborhood to rally for passage of the school bond issue.

Participants at Avalon have challenged other neighborhoods to host similar rallies right up until Tuesday, May 24, the date of the school-bond referendum, which voters will decide at the three polling places in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District. (Visit thenewsleaders.com for this information, May 13 edition.)

Blue-and-white “Sabre Pride” signs have popped up in recent weeks on lawns, in windows and elsewhere throughout Sartell, visual reminders by the “Choose Yes for Success” group to vote “Yes” for the school bond. There is also a Choose Yes for Success Facebook page. Opposition to the bond has not been apparent, at least not in an organized way.

The district is asking voters to approve a bond of $105.8 million for a new high school and updates to the other four existing schools in the city.

The bond effort has elicited endorsements from many quarters, including the Sartell Education Association, the Sartell Area Chamber of Commerce, the Sartell Senior Connection, the Sartell-St. Stephen Education Foundation, the KIDSTOP/St. Cloud Area Boys & Girls Clubs, the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce and two newspapers, the St. Cloud Times and the Sartell Newsleader (See today’s editorial).

Who decided?

For many months, a school facilities committee met to gather data, tour the schools, consult with educational experts, examine future projections and note the many changes taking place constantly in teaching-learning methodologies.

The committee was comprised of about 100 people, including school officials and staff, teachers, parents and other residents of the school district.

After exhaustive studies and considering many options, the committee made its recommendations to the Sartell-St. Stephen School Board. The board then examined those recommendations in detail before recommending the bond referendum.

Reasons why

In many public meetings, school officials have spoken to the need for a new high school and improvements to other schools in Sartell.

Currently, the schools are filled to capacity and beyond capacity. Enrollment is expected to increase by 8 percent during the next 10 years, and past estimates of enrollments have usually underestimated the numbers because the population of Sartell has continued to grow even more so than some once predicted.

Simply put, there is a chronic shortage of space in the schools. To cite just one example, all-day kindergarten (rather than half-day), and that requires more classroom spaces. In the near future, the state might decide to fund school-readiness programs for children who are 4 years old, which will also require more space.

By building a new high school, the district can create flexible-use spaces within the other four schools and create extracurricular spaces (athletic, music, art and more) that can be used by all students in the district. Increasing enrollment means a need for increasing space for non-classroom learning activities.

Since 2004, the year the last Sartell school was built (Oak Ridge Elementary), there have been about 1,000 more students who entered the Sartell-St. Stephen School District. Enrollment is now 3,825 students, and that number has been growing faster than expert demographers had anticipated.

School officials also stress the need for increased safety and security features at each of the school buildings.

Costs

“State-of-the-art does not mean more expensive,” said Sartell-St. Stephen School District Superintendent Dr. Jeff Schwiebert at a recent public forum about the bond issue. In the minds of bond planners, state-of-the-art is not “marble walls in the schools’ entryways” but rather the most appropriate, most cost-efficient additions and improvements to the school district, Schwiebert added.

A cost breakdown of what the bond would cover is as follows:

• $89.6 million for a new high school that would be built near Oak Ridge Elementary School. It would house grades 9-12.
• $10.6 million for changes to the existing high school, which would be reconfigured for grades 6-8.
• $2.6 million for reconfigurations at the current middle school, which would accommodate grades 3-5.
• $1.7 million for changes and improvements to Pine Meadow Elementary School for pre-K through grade 2.
• $650,000 for changes and improvements to Oak Ridge Elementary School for grades pre-K through grade 2.
• $800,000 for the borrowing cost of the bond.

Tax impact

If the school bond is approved, voters should know if it passes there will also have to be an operating levy approved down the road before the new high school would open in 2019.

The bond would be paid off throughout a 25-year period.

Although the amount is not known yet, Schwiebert estimated it would be probably in the neighborhood of $900,000 per year but that it could well be less. That money would cover the operating costs in the schools – such things as cooling, heating, ongoing maintenance and upgrades.

If education funding stays the same, the district now estimates an operating levy would probably add from $5 to $7 per month to the tax bill of a homeowner with a home valued at $180,000. That would be in addition to the $22.30 estimated monthly tax increase for the bond itself for someone who owns a home valued at $180,000, the average value for a Sartell home. Thus, that homeowner would see an increase of up to about $350 per year in more taxes, counting the cost of the bond and the operating levy.

The district is still paying on previous bonds, set to end in 2017 and 2021, but those costs have been figured into the current estimated tax-increase amounts as listed on the tax impact for the new bond as listed on the district’s website.

For a detailed breakdown of estimated tax increases that will occur if the bond is passed, go the Sartell-St. Stephen School District’s website. The site also includes a wealth of detailed information about school needs and the bond issue.