BRICELYN – United South Central school district residents expressed doubts about the school’s proposed $32 million K-12 school Thursday, but school board members assured the crowd that they are confident their plan is best for the district.

Friday, February 01, 2002

BRICELYN – United South Central school district residents expressed doubts about the school’s proposed $32 million K-12 school Thursday, but school board members assured the crowd that they are confident their plan is best for the district.

Braving the snowstorm, more than 80 USC residents met in the Bricelyn school gymnasium to hear District Superintendent Frank Lorentz talk about the proposed bond referendum voters are being asked to decide this April.

Lorentz used computer-generated slides and video clips to make the case for building a new school. His presentation focused on the age, inadequacies and hazards of the district’s school buildings.

During the time set aside for questions, however, it became clear that Lorentz and other backers of the levy have a long road ahead. Many voters, and at least one current school board member, are skeptical about building a new school as the answer to the district’s problems with its current facilities.

One issue with some voters is the time line by which the referendum was approved. The vote to submit a levy to voters was taken in November, after the election, with a board that included three members who were about to be replaced. Before the election, at the October meeting, the board voted to send a smaller levy request to voters, and the focus was on renovating and repairing the existing buildings in the district.

According to Russ Elmer, who was a member of the board last year, the reason for the change was the information that the state would be required to pay up to a third of the levy amount.

&uot;Originally we had voted on a remodeling project, but once we became aware that we would pick up 56 percent of any amount over the $15 million, the decision was made that the best course of action for the school district was to build a new building,&uot; said Elmer.

Mary Thrond, a rural resident in the Bricelyn area and one of the board members who took office this January, is not in favor of building a new school. She defeated the incumbent in her precinct in last November’s school board election and was dismayed when she found out that the board voted to proceed with a levy request anyway, after the election.

&uot;After looking at all the angles and finding so many questions without answers, I just found I could not support it,&uot; said Thrond. She is on record as supporting holding the levy, so that voters can have the final decision.

At the moment, Thrond said she gathering information as she considers her response to the district’s building situation.. She originally did not seek to take on the role of school board member, but people sought her out.

&uot;I was asked to serve on the board by concerned citizens who felt the best interests of our students weren’t being represented on the school board. We need to focus more on the kids,&uot; Thrond said. &uot;People also wanted someone who understood the local economy, who they could talk with and get straight information from,&uot; she added.

Another new board member, Julie Stevermer of Easton, is supportive of the plan to build a new school. Asked to give her opinion by residents attending the meeting in Bricelyn she said that it didn’t make sense to her to put more money into buildings that will still be old when all of the necessary renovations are completed.

&uot;When I speak on this issue it’s from the business perspective, not so much the personal one. I look at this as something we need to do. And it is something we need to do together, as a whole district,&uot; said Stevermer.

Stevermer defeated Elmer in last fall’s election, but the school levy was not part of either of their campaigns, both said.

The public meeting in Bricelyn was one in a series of informational meetings being conducted by Lorentz in each community in the district. A second round of public meetings in those same communities will begin once a referendum support steering committee made up of district residents is ready to more actively make the case for a new school. The vote will be on April 2.

If the levy is approved, property owners in the district will be responsible for at least $22.2 million of the levy. The other $9.8 million would come from the state, assuming that current laws and programs remain in place after this session of the legislature. Property tax increases for residents would range from just over $200 to just under $1,000 annually for homeowners (depending on the assessed value of the home), and around $8 per acre for farmland.

The levy would be used to build and equip a new pre-K-12 school, with some of the money set aside for possible demolition of current school buildings if other uses can’t be found for them. The new school would be built just south of Wells, off of State Highway 22.

The district now operates schools in Kiester, Wells and Freeborn, and a building in Bricelyn which sees partial use for the district’s sports programs.