Future of VCPS Schools
No easy path forward for new school construction
Valley City Public Schools Superintendent Josh Johnson presented a public information session to members of the community to go into detail about the current state of plans to address maintenance problems within Valley City Public Schools – and to give the taxpayer an idea of what paths forward exist, from building a new school to maintaining current facilities.
The issue is, as always, one of cost. Inflation has spiked – since the initial idea of new school construction was explored in August of last year, the cost for construction has gone up some 48 percent. Johnson presented a slide detailing how in 2014 the cost of construction was about $185 per square foot.
In 2022 it is $370 per square foot. With the estimated costs for school construction, even a successful bid to the public to raise the bond limit for the school district will not see sufficient monies available to begin even Phase 1 of the proposed three-phase plan, which’d see a consolidated K-12 multi-story school build on the eastern side of town, near Hanna Field. Phase 1 alone is estimated to carry a total project cost of $54,831,870 – Phase 2, the cheapest, comes out to $10,507,035 and Phase 3 is $22,019,631.
These are current estimates – as Phase construction could not occur concurrently, unless the district fell into an enormous sum of money. As such, Johnson said the prices for Phase 1 and Phase 2 could not be promised to remain at their current level. Should the bonding limit be raised to its $40 million cap, the district would still
need an additional $12 million to begin construction.
Johnson proposed that a possible source of this funding could be from the North Dakota Legacy Fund.
All of this is just one option though. There are other paths to take – one is to seek more outside funding, like grant money, akin to the monies awarded the Career and Tech Center, which has allowed it to do its own renovations and expansion work.
And there’s also the path to do, more or less, nothing. The cost for maintenance over the next ten years has been estimated out to a little over $26 million. This cost is further broken up into critical and less critical needs, with a 0-2 year plan to address critical needs, which Johnson defined first as security concerns and then HVAC issues; the majority of the $26 million would go into the Jr/ Sr High School, the oldest of Valley City’s three school buildings.
“If we don’t address it going forward in the next 10 years, it’ll continue to make up. We’ve band-aided, we’re continuing to do our best with the resources available,” Johnson said.
He emphasized that there was no critical structural problems with any of the buildings. Furthermore, the $3 million in COVID relief money that the district received remains available until 2024, and they are willing to put that money into the immediate maintenance needs, if that’s the desire of the community.
The desire of the community is ultimately the deciding factor in what comes next for Valley City Public Schools. Will the taxpayers vote to address capital maintenance or increase the building fund levy, raising taxes to afford new construction? Should the school pursue grants and state funding? Or do we use current funds, fix what needs fixing, and then see if the economic situation improves?
Reaction was mixed from members of the public in attendance.
Reactions
Two candidates for Valley City School Board were in attendance – challenger Damian Johnston and defending board member Phil Hatcher. Both have been on the record on opposing sides of the issue, and both came away from the event with a lot to think about. Johnston applauded the district for being open and transparent and with not trying to rush ahead with construction plans without a mandate from the people.
“I’m feeling good that they’re not just rushing forward with it. I think that’s a good thing,” Johnston said. “I just think it’s important to keep the public in the loop. With the rate everything’s going, it doesn’t seem feasible to me to build a whole new school. I would personally like to see the funds go towards the 0-2 year critical needs, get that taken care of and then see … in the future if we have proper funding for the new school.”
He was not sure if the Legacy Fund, also known as the rainy day fund, a savings account for the whole state, was intended for use in projects like this.
“I don’t know if that’s exactly what the Legacy Fund was intended for … I don’t know if there’s a specific use it’s intended for,” Johnston said. “That’s something I’m going to look into, talk to our legislators about and see what their thoughts are on that.”
As of now, though, his position remains unchanged – the immense cost of a new facility is unfeasible, and that money is better spent elsewhere.
Phil Hatcher, who also serves as Valley City’s Chief of Police, found the realities of the high cost of construction to be “discouraging.”
“It’s discouraging to see what kind of money we can logically ask the taxpayers for versus what these costs are,” Hatcher said. “It’s disappointing to see the difference in those numbers. When we were presented with that $3 million with the COVID money, I asked ‘is there something better we can use this money for? Can we set it aside? Is this the most responsible way to spend $3 million, to basically put lipstick on a pig?’ That just started us down this road.”
Still, he expressed some doubt that a ‘waitand-see’ approach would be any better in terms of cost or cost savings in the long run.
“If we don’t do it now,
the savings of $10 million, $3 million here, they may be absorbed by inflation if we don’t do something soon,” Hatcher said. “Let’s say we put $26 million into these buildings… they’re still 100+ years old. The other two are coming up to…60 years, 80 years… what’s the best bang for the buck?”
Representative Dwight Kiefert, who is running for re-election this year, was present at the event and was called upon as a potential point of contact to try and bring the needs of Valley City to the legislature. It would be up to representatives like him to make the case to crack open the Legacy Fund for school construction, but Kiefert noted that Valley City is not alone in its needs.
“There’s a lot of needs for county, township, infrastructure, so we’re short money already,” Kiefert said. “But to open the Legacy Fund up it takes ⅔ majority of the vote, and you wouldn’t be able to just do this project, what about the other 46? All of a sudden all the districts are going to want projects too.”
He also said that Valley City’s voice is smaller than the voice of the monolith of Fargo, which makes it challenging to have the same influence on the legislature as a whole.
“We have two representatives. They have 22,” Kiefert said. “So it’s going to be a tough call, and to open that fund up for the whole state, that’s going to take some major doing.”
Beyond elected officials or prospective ones, other members of the public voiced their thoughts and asked their own questions. Among them was Terry Gortmaker.
“I feel better now coming out of the meeting,” Gortmaker said. “I think everyone who is paying taxes should come and be a part of the meeting and be responsible. Now … it feels like they’re being a good steward and possibly thinking about it not happening. We want … to be good for our kids, we want to be good for our teachers, but not at all costs.”
That said, he believed it would be a good use of Legacy Fund monies if they could get them approved, though he was well aware the challenges in that plan.
“I think Legacy Fund money would be a good use of this … but there’s a lot of stuff that has to happen,” Gortmaker said.
Another informational meeting on school facilities is scheduled for next Monday, May 23, at 7 p.m. in the Hi-Liner Activity Center lobby. After that meeting the powerpoint slides used in the presentation will be made available on the VCPS website.