Learn About How We Reached This Point
Created in 1992 through the combined efforts and vision of two communities — Spring Valley and Wykoff — Kingsland is committed to providing a quality educational experience for all students through our our mission of “forging learning, growth, future,” and our vision to “instill lifelong passion for learning and community through opportunities and experiences.”
As part of our district’s strategic plan through the year 2026, we are continuously planning for Kingsland’s future. In addition to how and what we teach are the spaces where our students learn and grow.
Our school board, district, and administration have worked hard to bring forward a plan that best addresses our long-term needs while being responsible with taxpayer dollars. Our physical facility needs were identified nearly a decade ago as we started our long-range facilities planning process to help with future maintenance planning efforts.
Critical needs were brought to voters in a single-question bond referendum in November 2016, which voters rejected at that time. After that, our district evaluated other ways to address some of the immediate physical facility needs in our building. We are thankful our district was able to remodel the first and second floors of the 1957 portion of our building using board-approved funding in 2019, however, additional physical facility needs remain and have only increased in urgency since that time. Our maintenance staff has done a good job taking care of our facility, but annual state-provided funds only go so far.
Within a similar time frame after the November 2016 bond referendum and after much discussion and consideration, the district moved to a single facility in Spring Valley in 2017 after closing our Wykoff facility, which housed grades 4-6. At the time, the school board and administration believed it was not in the best interest of the district or community to make further investments into the 78-year-old facility, which required critical updates and maintenance improvements to continue serving the district well.
Kingsland Public Schools continued its facilities and long-range planning journey:
Our Facilities Committee was involved from the beginning of this process to help further understand, identify, and prioritize our facility needs. This committee includes School Board Director Steve Tammel, High School Principal Dana Simmon, Buildings & Grounds Director Nate Carolan, Superintendent Scott Klavetter, the Kingsland administration team, along with two teachers and two community members.
A comprehensive facility assessment was completed to understand the physical conditions of our school, including our building systems (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc.), building envelope and exterior such as windows, doors, roofing, etc., and more.
A space utilization efficiency study was completed to determine current space needs and future space needs, if applicable. Based on guidelines established by the Minnesota Department of Education, they provide general recommendations on space utilization, which help impact overall decision-making. The results from this study showed that several classrooms are undersized, support spaces and Special Education spaces are 32% below MDE’s guidelines, and educational day-use gymnasium space is 27% below MDE’s guidelines.
A utility analysis was completed to assess our school’s energy efficiency, which showed that a 20% reduction in energy use could save approximately $30,000 per year. In addition, recommissioning our HVAC system approximately every five years would help ensure proper and efficient ongoing building operations.
A demographics study was completed by Applied Insights North to understand historical enrollment and project future enrollment, which is projected to remain stable for the next decade.
A comprehensive financial analysis was completed, with the help of Baird, to help review the district’s financial health and to identify all available funding options and tools to minimize the impact to local taxpayers.
After all facility needs were prioritized and discussed, they were presented to the board for further consideration. On Monday, June 17, 2024, the Kingsland School Board unanimously approved the resolution to present two ballot questions to residents on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Fortunately, our community chose to approve Question One of the two-question ballot, which will enable the district to address some of our most critical physical facility needs over the next few years, including roofing, building envelope, windows, and additional mechanical, electrical, and infrastructure needs.
Unfortunately, Question Two was not supported by the majority of our voters at that time. Despite that portion of the project not proceeding, the school board is confident that the proposed building addition and facility improvements included in Question Two of our November 2024 referendum are extremely important to meet our students’ and educational programming needs.
The school board is proposing this single-question bond referendum to voters for the following reasons:
It’s no secret that costs and inflation continue to rise. Ultimately, our facility and educational needs are not going away, and the costs to address them will likely increase the longer we wait.
If the May referendum is approved by residents, improvements from both building bond referendums could be completed as a single project and take advantage of economies of scale, resulting in cost and schedule efficiencies and reducing the disruption to ongoing programs and services. The school board feels that timing these improvements together is the best long-term strategy for our district.
Bond rates continue to remain competitive. However, that could change at any time. Rising bond rates make it more expensive for school districts to borrow money to fund facility projects like ours.
The Kingsland School Board has carefully considered this request and is in agreement to bring this proposal back to district residents in May 2025. The school board feels confident the proposed plan best positions our district for the future.