Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we need to add more space to the secondary school when we have fewer students in the secondary school now than we did 15 years ago?

This is a good question. In 2004, enrollment at Paynesville Area Schools was 1,079 students. Today, our enrollment is 928 students. The proposed facility project is not a project designed to construct traditional classroom space. We have sufficient classroom space. The District needs space that is designed for applied learning (classrooms and laboratories where students can learn by doing). This project is designed to develop and repurpose over 15,000 square feet (SF) of existing school district space to meet 21st Century Learning needs. The proposed project also includes 27,000 SF of space to address facility conflicts for activities and provide more options for student electives and community programming.

What access will the community have to the new space?

The Community Center will serve as a hub for community activity. The Center will be staffed and open for community members on a daily basis. Community Education offices will be in the Community Center to provide sufficient staffing for the Center. Below is a sample schedule for the Community Center.

Potential Community Center Winter Sample Schedule

How will the District fund the operations of the new space? Will the new space create a need for a higher operating levy just to keep the lights on?

The School District has consulted with KFI Engineers to provide estimated operational costs for the new addition. The estimate was provided on a larger building than our current proposed plan, but the standard used to calculate the total operational cost came to $1.04 / square foot. Applying this rate to the existing plan would generate additional estimated operational costs (utilities and heat) of roughly $37,200. In addition to this operational cost, the District will also have an opportunity to generate new revenue from new programming and hosting larger events that are currently unavailable to Paynesville Area Schools. This revenue would offset some of the new operational costs associated with the addition.

Why would the District replace boilers?

The District will replace the two 1955 Kewanee steam boilers at the elementary school and the one 1968 Kewanee steam boiler at the secondary school (the second boiler at the high school is a 2006 Unilux steam boiler and it would stay in operation). All three of these boilers have provided sufficient service to the District and are now beyond their life expectancy. They are costing more to maintain as they age. Over the last three years, the District has spent over $95,000 on boiler repairs. It is now time to invest in new boilers to service each building for the next thirty years.

Additionally, all three of these boilers are significantly oversized for the square feet they are heating. This ‘jumbo-sizing’ creates additional inefficiencies that can be addressed with new steam boilers that are appropriately sized for today’s heating and indoor air quality standards.

What will happen with the current Land Trans building?

The current Land Transportation building will be repurposed to house District maintenance equipment.

What is the plan for the Armory building/space?

Plans for the Armory building will be contingent on the required site water retention plan and the amount of parking lot space needed to accommodate the new Community Center. Most likely, the current Armory building complex will be converted to green space to allow for use by physical education classes and junior high football practice.

How will the District address access and traffic flow at the secondary building?

The District is exploring options for the parking lot traffic flow. It is our desire to have four entry and exit points at our secondary school parking lot. Final design of the traffic flow will be dependent on the parking lot expansion and our ability to add easements on the existing roadways. Ideally, the District would like to have a frontage road that provides three access points to Old Highway 23 on the west side and one access point to Main St. on the north side of the secondary school property.

Will there be a walking track?

Yes. The four court Community Center will have a walking track around the exterior of the court area. This track will be open for community access during school days in the same manner that the secondary school is currently open for community members to walk inside. The walking track will also be available for community use outside of school days through low-cost walking track membership options.

How will the new facility be used?

A few of the planned uses of the facility include:

Community Pickle Ball, Tennis, Open Gym, Group Exercise Classes, Birthday Parties, Early Childhood Recreation, Volleyball, Track & Field, Basketball, Badminton, Tournaments, Expo Events, School Athletics, Youth Athletics, Physical Education Programming, Teen Center.

Where will gymnastics go?

Gymnastics will be brought back to the secondary school. At the present time, plans include having the middle school gymnasium house gymnastics during their season.

How will this impact my taxes?

The average (estimated market value of $168,000) residential homestead property owner in Paynesville Area Schools will see a $6.75 monthly ($81 annually) property tax impact as a result of this project. This estimated property value is taken from Sperling’s Best Places. To find the impact on your specific property, please follow this link to a property tax impact estimator provided by Ehlers.

What is the group exercise room for?

The group exercise room provided in the plan would replace the current group exercise room that is located in the hallway inside of door #3 on the west side of the building (immediately outside the auxiliary cardio room). The room would be used for group exercise classes. These classes would continue to follow the same fee pattern currently in place (free for fitness center members).

Why do we need a new wrestling room?

The wrestling room has been undersized for many years. The new room would be appropriately sized to accommodate two regulation size wrestling mats. The relocation of the wrestling room will also provide space for strength training and conditioning for athletic teams in the current wrestling room. This repurposing of the existing wrestling room will help alleviate overcrowding in the existing fitness center and allows the District to meet the needs of community members and students by repurposing current space versus constructing a new fitness center.

Why would we need more gym space?

We currently do not have enough space to run all of the activities that we offer without renting space off-site. Our gymnastics team practices and competes at a rented facility. That facility provides its own unique challenges with space, availability, parking, transportation, and the amount of time spent tearing down and setting up equipment.

Our current practice schedule consists of an early and late practice in our gymnasiums. Early practice begins immediately after school and late practice runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Our current space requires numerous late practices for all age groups. Utilizing a late practice schedule limits the frequency that our youth teams and adult recreation leagues have opportunities to use the facility. Additionally, there are numerous times during the winter season when practices are cancelled because the existing gymnasium space is needed to run other events (e.g.,. basketball practices being cancelled to allow the gym to be open to host wrestling).

Activities have changed as well. For example, wrestling schedules now include many larger meets (3-4 teams at almost all home meets). The days of schedules filled with wrestling duals during the week and invitational tournaments on the weekend are nearly extinct. Today's wrestling schedule requires more physical space to run a regular-season home event. When we host our longstanding Paynesville Invitational we can only pull out one side of the bleachers in our competition gymnasium due to the safety requirements stipulated by the MSHSL for space surrounding each mat.

Finally, our current gymnasium arrangement at the secondary school also impacts scheduling of physical education courses and student choice. The layout of the secondary gymnasiums allow no more than two physical education courses to meet at the same time. This creates conflicts in student schedules.

Why is the District running the election in August and not November?

The school district has two primary reasons for wanting to ask our community to vote in August versus November. The first reason is cost. If the proposal passes, the best pricing will be secured if the District is ready to advertise for bids in winter 2019. In order to meet this timeline, we must have a decision on the project prior to November. An August vote allows the District to advertise for bids during the desired time and it allows project construction to begin in 2020. A November vote could require the District to wait until fall 2020 to advertise for bids, with construction beginning in 2021. This delay in construction would increase costs due to inflation. Current construction inflation in Minnesota is running between six and seven percent annually.

The second reason is planning. The school district must begin the Calendar Year (CY) 2020 levy certification process in September 2019. It is important for the District to know the outcome of the project before this process begins to plan our CY 2020 levy.

What will happen to the current Community Education Offices when they move to the new Community Center Area?

Having Community Education offices in the Community Center will allow greater access to the facility for all community members. This move can also allow the District Office to relocate to the current Community Education Offices. Moving the District Office out of the Elementary School will open up our current District Office for early learning and preschool programming which is currently looking for more space.