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E.Central MN | Here in Minn a lot of rural schools faced the same problem, old buildings with high maintenance costs, lower enrollments, and demand by students/parents for additional electives/more sports opportunities. It wasn't sustainable financially. So a lot of rural school districts merged, with 3 or 4 small towns merging into one school system. Sometimes they built new schools, sometimes they just reorganized using one school for grades 1-8 and a different school which might even be in one of the other towns used as the high school. There was a lot of angst at first, but once parents and students saw that it offered advantages that they didn't have before it seems to be going pretty smoothly. Our town is a little bigger than others in the area, so it hasn't needed to do that. Only problem is that school administrators constantly look at salaries and student amenities offered at the higher income suburban schools, most of which have built mammoth new edifices to education complete with prestigious high end sports facilities. A bond referendum for a new high school was voted down several times, but finally voters gave in and agreed to rebuild the high school (35 - 40 years old). I never went to school here, the high school I graduated from about 50 years ago (which was 50 years old then) is still being used as a high school in Mpls today (800-900 students). I concede that merging small rural school districts like Minn has done is probably the most practical approach. The overall quality of the teachers and the motivation of the students has far more impact on the quality of education than the building. | |
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11.7% Tax increase - School Bond
