FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The tax impact depends on the value of your property. However, including both questions for a home valued at $200,000, the estimated monthly tax increase would be approximately $147.29 per year or $12.27 per month. To see how the referendum will affect your taxes specifically, use the tax calculator available on Tax Impact page. The tax calculator provides a detailed, personalized estimate of the financial impact.

If you need assistance calculating your tax impact, please email Michael Hoheisel at mhoheisel@rwbaird.com, Matt Rantapaa at mrantapaa@rwbaird.com, or Sam Hylle at shylle@rwbaird.com with your question(s).

Our school facilities are aging and require updates to meet the needs of today’s students and future generations. Increasing enrollment, the need for modern learning spaces like Career and Technical Education (CTE) classrooms, and required safety and accessibility improvements are driving this request. Investing now allows us to address these needs cost-effectively before they become more expensive in the future.

The projects address critical needs, including safety, accessibility, and modernizing learning spaces to better serve students now and in the future.

When our School Board started this process almost 2 years ago, they began by having a comprehensive facility assessment of our entire building and surrounding grounds completed. This comprehensive assessment revealed that while we do have some infrastructure and space needs, the overall condition of the building is very good. The comprehensive assessment basically answered the question of whether or not our current facility is in good enough condition to sustain our district into the next generation.

Another important component that our School Board considered was the overall tax impact to our community tax-payers.  The results of a community-wide survey on tax tolerance provided the District with a range of what the community told us they would support.  Given the estimated cost of a new K-12 building of comparable size, the tax-impact would be approximately 4x more than what the community told us they are likely to support.

Based on the results of the comprehensive facility assessment, along with the significant increase cost of building a new facility, the Board ultimately decided on the proposed plan that is on the ballot February 11, 2025.

Here is a current list of multi-purpose space/wrestling room uses, along with what it will continue to be used for:

• Dance team practice

• Youth dance camp

• Indoor recess for all elementary grades

• PK & Kindergarten body break time (at least once a week when weather is nice, daily when cold)

• HS and elementary PE classes (used daily)

• Physical classroom (desks and chairs, not a PE class)

• Special Ed/DAPE classes

• Home Team Activities (weekly)

• Intervention room (when a safe, padded space is needed)

• Wrestling practice (2-3 hours a day, from end of November to end of February)

• Youth wrestling (2.5 hours, twice a week, December to March)

• Body break time for young students in the afternoon when it’s too cold to go outside

• Gym space when other gyms are unavailable

• Gymnastics units

• Gym days when it’s too cold outside

• Fitness for Life (HIIT workouts)

• Fitness for Life (Stretching sessions)

• The Ag2School Tax Credit reduces the burden for agricultural property owners on existing and future school bonds.

• Ag2School is a 70% automatic tax credit on agricultural homestead property tax bills payable in 2025 and beyond.

• If the referendum passes, the State of Minnesota will pay approximately $13,100,000 of the total bond amount. That equates to over 52% of the referendum project total cost!

• Learn more by visiting our Ag2School Tax Credit webpage.

The school district will need to evaluate alternative solutions, which may include delaying or scaling back projects, but these needs will not disappear and may become more costly over time.

Beyond voting, you can help by staying informed and spreading accurate information about the referendum. Attend informational meetings, share district updates on social media, or talk to friends and neighbors about the importance of this initiative. If you’d like to get more involved, please reach out to the district office or sign up for volunteer opportunities when they are available.