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Home My WebLink About5C - School Facilities Report , AGENDA #: PREPARED BY: SUBJECT: DATE: PRESENTATION: FBAGSCWRT STAFF AGENDA REPORT 5-C FRANK BOYLES, CITY MANAGER PRESENTATION OF SCHOOL FACILITIES COMMITTEE BY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, LES SON NAB END MARCH 7, 1994 Over the last year a group of individuals representing a wide variety of interests in Prior Lake addressed the issue of school facility needs. The objective of the Committee was to establish a 2010 capital improvement plan which the School District might be able to use to respond to community growth. The Facilities Committee completed their study earlier this year. The School Board has reviewed the Committee's recommendations and has directed the School District staff to solicit public input at three community input sessions. Superintendent Les Sonnabend will be present at the City Council meeting to highlight the Facilities Study Committee Report for Councilmembers and solicit any recommendations Council may have with respect to study results. A copy of the Facilities Study Committee report is attached for Council's information. I anticipate that this presentation may require approximately one-half hour. -1- 4629 Dakota St. S.E., Prior Lake, Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph. (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNIlY EMPLOYER T r 1 FACILITIES STUDY COMMITTEE _. ._u .._._ _ -. - -. . . . RECOMMENDATIONS The Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board received a series of recommendations from the Facilities Study Committee on January 10, 1994. These recommendations come as a result of ten months of meetings, starting in March of 1993 and included recommendations from four sub-committees (Demographics, Facilities, Educational Environment, Finance). These recommendations are intended to provide direction for the school district to house . our growing student population out to the year 2010. FACILITIES STUDY COMMITTEE - SUBCOMMITIEE MEMBERS DEMOGRAPmCS Mary Greenwood. ~ Denise Besser. ~ Carol Boog Pat Pimie Lisa Frana Bob Smith Carla Stock lerry Spies FACILITIES Scott Carlson. Co-Cbaii Dean Arendt. Co-Cbair Ron Machaca Bill Schmoke1 Craig Olson Rick Ravnholdt loan Waund Paul Lydolph Bob Scbaefer EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT Frank Boyles. Co-Chair Charlene lasan. Co-Chair Dan White Lynn Mayer Pat McGinnis Bob Bailey Mary Bettner Fred Blaisdell Rob Westphal Audre Johnson Les Sonnabend run Hughes Oar Fosse FINANClt Lenny Kiskis. Co-Chair DaveAndersoD. ~ Guy Se1inske lohn Egan Ieee Phillips Community Information & Input Session Dates Set For 1994 . . . February 15..... Knights Of Columbus (Savage) ........................................... 7:30-9:00 PM February 17 ..... Mdewakanto~ Dakota Community Center ........................... 7:30-9:00 PM March 3 .......... District Services Center (next to WestWood Elementary) .... 7:30-9:00 PM All school district residents are invited and encouraged to -attend to ask questions on the enclosed information and to offer input to school officials. ~ .'. .b"...........,. .,~.._...___,._......, ~,-_..,-,~..,... ... -_........_.,.__.._....~,..~,........,...,-~._..,-"...."~'-~."'_. ,.........----- T I " . Vi, :... , '.'~H ~. i 1. Lease space for an early childhood center to house early childhood special education, early childhood family education and kindergarten programs for the fan of 1994. There is general consensus that these programs should be housed in a regular elementary bUilding/or the long-term. However, because of our immediate space needs, this alternative should be put into play in the short-term for this comingfall. ACflON: Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board approved on January %4, 1994 2. Bring in a consultant to produce a cost analysis for needed renovations at WestWood, Five Hawks and the Senior High. The committee feels that these 3 buildings need significant upgrades to bring them into line with the condition of our other facilities. ACTION: Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board approved on January 24,1994 3. Reassign or hire a designated employee to keep updated and accurate census data. We completed a demographic study in the fall of 1992 and a sub-committee has updated that report in the past 2 months. However, new data, submitted by the City of Prior Lake, would indicate that our demographics and census information may not be as accurate as we would wish. Therefore, we believe that there needs to be someone designated whose main duty would be to accurately keep on top of census information so that we can better plan for the growth in our communities. ACTION: Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board approval on January %4, 1994 4. Provide opportunities for citizen input on options to accommodate our growing population. In addition to the option of building schools, there are 5 other areas listed below that have been studied by the Educational Environment Sub-Committee: A. Split Shifts: While split shifts have the shortest timeline to implement, it is also the least favorable alternative as it is very disruptive to families and the educational program. We would recommend that this only be considered as a last resort caused by our inability to pass a building program within the next few years. B. portable Classrooms: This alternative takes longer to implement, anywhere from 8 months to a year. The school district has had experience with this alternative and has found it to be as costly as building permanent space. It is very hard, at this point, to get approval from the state to use portable classrooms and it is further restricted by fire and safety code issues and compliance with the new American Disabilities Act requirements. We do not recommend this alternative. C. Year-Round Education: This alternative requires a minimum of 2 to 3 years to implement. Year-round education needs the full support of the community, the parents and the teachers to succeed It would require a long-range commitment from our community andfrom the parents in our community who send their children to our schools. Buildings would need to be air conditioned, which could only be accomplished by passing a bond issue. Year-round education would be disruptive to any cooperative efforts for special education, alternative schools, vocational centers and so on; as our schedule would be out of sync with all the districts that cooperate with us. In addition, if the legislature would act to lengthen our current school year, there may not be enough calendar days to implement a year-round plan. '* .....";.....",..._-_..~""._-,.~-,~~.,,~.~----,,.._."',_.'"",.,......._.,~._'~.... .,.,~.." ,', "'_~*""'""""'_"~~'",_",,_,,""""_'_"."'W_""'_",~______~,...;.-,,_._",......,~'_.......- T I "IMMEDIATE" RECOMENDATIONS (continued) D. Sharing: We recommend that further study be made on this option, specifically with the Bumsville Schools. This alternative does need a 2 to 3 year start-up and we would lose some control over our own destiny, depending on who would put the money up to build a building that could be shared E. ConsolidationIPairing: Our conclusion on consolidation/pairing is that we are the wrong size to consider these options with other districts. There would be little or no dollar savings, due to economy of scale. Because the districts around us are also growing, this option would not solve our future growth problems. ACflON: Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board approved on January 24, 1994 S. Study, locate and take options to assure future sites will be avaibble for school buildings. ACI10N: Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board approved on January 24, 1994 6. Proceed with plans to build district storage space from funds allocated for that purpose. ACflON: Prior Lake - Savage Area School Board approved on January 24, 1994 Mu:lt 1. Start the planning for a new elementary school and an addition to Hidden Oaks Middle School . While the assumption that we will be building these buildings may be premature, depending on a successful bond issue referendum, the time to start the planning is very soon so that we can get accurate cost data and make additional decisions in a timely manner. The addition to the middle school has been planned and that would need to be updated to reflect current costs. This addition would accommodate our secondary growth and help alleviate the over-crowding that is projected for the Senior High School by relocating 9th grade students at Hidden Oaks. When and where to build an elementary school is a decision that has to be made. Some of the thinking of the committees is included in one of the recommendations from the Educational Environment Committee as follows: Area Elementary Schools: Area elementary schools, because of the geographies of our community, mean that students from many neighborhoods will attend the same school for an extended period of time. The need will still exist for busing the majority of our students to school and will not diminish under any reconfiguration to promote area elementary schools. However, we feel strongly that we need to have fewer moves between school buildings for each child This means that when a student enters kindergarten until the time that student goes to Hidden Oaks Middle School, he/she should not have to go to 4 different elementary schools. Because of the logistics of our community, we would recommend either one of the following alternatives, depending on where a new elementary school may be built: A. If an elementary school is built on the northeast side of the district, in the Savage area, we recommend that this building be a K-6 building and serve that quadrant of the district. We would then recommend that WestWood be a K-4 building, Five Hawks be a K-4 building and Grainwood ....,." ,..... ",....".__._~~.._ ,,,>_.,~....,,.,,_~,,_^.'_'m.~.'__"'''''"-'-'''''''''''''''"' -... ...-, ,..--.__........_._--_.--.-~-- 1 I MID-TERM (1-3 YEARS) RECOMMENDA110NS (continued) remain a 5-6 building. This would reduce the number of buildings a student goes to and provide attendance areas to promote the concept of area elementary schools. B. If an elementary school is built in Prior Lake, we would suggest that elementary buildings be paired so that there would be a K-3 and a 4-6 elementary school pair on each side of the district. They would each have a separate attendance area to promote more 01 a neighborhood school philosophy. 2. Run a bond issue referendum, at a time to be determined, which should include the following items: A. An elementary school B. An addition to Hidden Oaks c. Renovation for WestWood, Five Hawks and Senior High D. Money to upgrade technology existing in our buildings (starting estimate 5400,000) 3. Purchase additional sites for future buildings - at least 1 elementary site and 1 secondary site. . 1. Build an elementary school at the location not chosen in the mid-term recommendations. 2. Develop a plan for orderly transition from our current secondary structure, of 1 middle school and one high school, to a new configuration. The current Lakeville and Chaska experience has been to C011Vert their present high school buildings to middle schools and to build a new high school. This may or may not be the course that we would wish to lollow but certainly there is information close at hand to determine if this would be beneficial in our instance. "One year from now, this information may be outdated because of the tremendous pressure for development in our area. However, the Facilities Study Committee has painstakingly deliberated these recommendations and has given the school board an excellent working document, based on the most accurate data available to us as of January. 1994." ~ ~ T I The Net Tax Capacity of the school district reflects, among other things, the assessed value of all property located in ISD 719. Over the last 5 years. the Net Tax Ca,pacity has grown at a 5.36% annual rate. Most of this growth has come from increased construction activity. It is important to note this growth does not reflect the full potential of developments such as the Wllds, Cardinal Ridge and Carriage Hills. The following chart illustrates the growth in Net Tax Capacity from 1990: Levy Year Net Tax Capacity % Increase 1990 $ 9,269,350 1991 10,207,145 10.12 1992 10,842,083 6.22 1993 11,147,318 2.82 1994 12,033,439 7.95 Our analysis of property tax statements of 11 residential and commercial properties located in the district shows the portion of taxes paid for debt service (past bond referendums) actually decreased by 44% from 1990 to 1993. In other words, if the average property owner was paying $100 for school building debt in 1990, now that same property owner is paying only $56. The following chart illustrates our estimates of the tax impact bond referendum will have on various property values. We have assumed a 2.5% growth rate in the Net Tax Capacity, even though the average for the last 5 years is 5.36%. The average assessed property value in ISO 719 is $101.200. TAX IMPACf OF A 510,000,000* BOND ASSESSED VALUE DOLLARS OF INCREASE OVER 1994 LEVY YEAR House 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 5 60,000 $17 $10 $ 7 $ 7 $ 8 $ 7 $ 7 70,000 20 11 8 8 9 8 8 80,000 25 14 11 10 11 10 10 90,000 30 18 13 13 14 12 13 100,000 36 21 16 15 16 15 IS 125,000 SO 29 22 21 23 21 21 150,000 64 37 28 26 29 26 27 .used for example purposes only The reduction of the debt service payments per household follows historical patterns. The chief reasons for this reduction include the following: 1. Increased Net Tax Capacity .................................... spreading existing debt out over more taxpayers 2. Feathered Debt ....................................................... various maturities and rates on bonds 3. State Aid ................................................................. additional debt gives the district more state aid ,".,~..~. T I' ., .' It is a foregone conclusion that the Prior Lake - Savage district will grow. The only questions are how fast and how much. A study completed for the school district in October, 1992 (LukellIUUUl, Poquette) predicted we would grow approximately 200 students per year to reach 5,000 students by the year 2000. They predicted 278 new homes in 1994 but noted this did not account for the new Highway 18 bridge opening. The Demographics Sub-Committee, from the facilities study, updated the housing starts predicted for 1994 in the school district. 296 (single family homes) was their base line number for 1994. In addition, the Prior Lake Planning Department (November 18, 1993) is predicting a low estimate of250 units and a high estimate of 349 units in Prior Lake alone. The City of Savage is predicting 573 housing starts for 1994. Savage is also served by the Bumsville School District so not all of these new homes will be built in the Prior Lake - Savage Area School District. A current planning estimate is 300-500 new homes in the Prior Lake - Savage Area School District with .S new students per home. This is a very conservative estimate. CITY OF PRIOR LAKE SINGLE FAMll.,Y BUILDING PERMITS 1986 1987 1988 1989 1991 1992 1993 1~1.= I~~ CITY OF SAVAGE SINGLE FAMll.,Y BUILDING PERMITS 600 500 400 300 200 100 "'_._--""",.-<... .. ...---.-.---..............---...-. T " '"T