K-W district leadership considers closure of Wanamingo Elementary School, consolidation

With long-term enrollment figures in an apparently irreversible decline, Kenyon-Wanamingo Superintendent Beth Giese encouraged her board to consider closing down the district’s Wanamingo Elementary School as a way to substantially reduce structural expenses.

With 34,000 square feet of roof in critically poor condition, the board will likely need to decide if it wishes to go to the voters soon with a proposal to repair that portion of roof, or pursue the even more expensive route of a referendum to replace the entire roof.

While the two oldest sections of roof, installed in 1995 and 2000, are well past their expiration date, the newest section of roof, installed in 2008, is thought to have about six more years of life in it. However, replacing the whole roof would come with a price tag of up to $2 million.

Beyond the roof, a site analysis conducted by SitelogIQ, a Minneapolis-based architecture, design and engineering firm, indicated that the building could need millions more in repairs, upgrades and replacements as many components have aged long beyond their useful life.

By closing the Wanamingo site, Giese said that K-W would potentially be able to count on $700,000 in annual savings. About half of these savings would come from reduced staffing and a quarter from reductions in utility costs.

Thanks to growth at the middle school and high school last year, driven by both families moving into the district and open enrollment, Kenyon-Wanamingo saw overall increased enrollment last year, which will deliver a nice boost in funding under the state’s per pupil formula.

While the additional funding might increase K-W’s ability to get out of statutory operating debt status, Giese said the long-term challenge is clear. This upcoming year, the senior class will be the district’s largest at 71 kids, while just 36 students are expected to enroll in kindergarten.

With birth rates stagnant and much of rural America in population decline, Kenyon-Wanamingo is far from the only district facing an enrollment decline which has caused severe fiscal challenges and forced tough, uncomfortable conversations.

Giese noted that other schools in the region have decided to close school sites in order to better get a handle on finances. That includes neighboring Triton, where the decision was made to shutter sites in West Concord and Claremont to consolidate operations in Dodge Center.

Such decisions are regularly acrimonious, often opening old wounds and controversies from previous rounds of consolidation and leaving residents of smaller communities feeling robbed of a core community asset and centerpiece.

Giese noted that many communities have sought to at least partially alleviate the pain of shuttering district buildings by looking at creative ways to repurpose buildings in smaller communities, such as by utilizing them as a childcare center or community center.

In Brownsville, the town’s former elementary school has been successfully repurposed as an assisted living community. However, Giese noted that the initial blowback to the school closure cost the superintendent her job and deeply divided the town.

For those towns which managed to weather the storm of consolidation, Giese said that there has been a light at the end of the tunnel. By consolidating into one site, districts like Hayfield and Triton have been able to enhance programming in other areas and enjoy growth.

Giese argued that by consolidating at the Kenyon site, K-W would be able to better serve interested families from West Concord, Faribault and rural areas on the western side of the district, which has been a big source of open enrollment.

By contrast, Giese noted that many Wanamingo-area families already choose to open enroll older students at Zumbrota-Mazeppa Public Schools, rather than sending their kids a further distance to the Middle/High School in Kenyon.

Board Member AJ Lindell expressed some hesitance at that point, noting that the families of 71 estimated students on the eastern side of the District who have open enrolled to Z-M could be infuriated by a complete closure of the Wanamingo site and vote against future referendums.

Lindell further argued that Wanamingo’s City Council should be engaged on the issue, noting that the loss of a school building could have potentially significant impacts on the community’s property values and undermine a spate of recent homebuilding in Wanamingo.

Board Members Jamie Sommer and Marillyn Syverson said that not only the City Administrator and Council should be engaged, but the entire Wanamingo public through a town hall meeting to gauge how high of a priority people believe it to be to keep the school open.

That said, Board Members expressed willingness to consider the proposal, giving the substantial savings it could offer. Board Chair Tonya Craig said that she was taken back by the scale of potential savings which consolidation could offer.

While expressing a strong desire to keep the Wanamingo site open, Syverson said that she didn’t know if she could justify it is sustainable or responsible, recalling that a former Superintendent had urged the District to look at consolidation if enrollment fell under 700 students — a benchmark it has been well below for some time.

“With all my passion I want to save this building,” Syverson said. “If at the end of it, I’ve made this fight and this plea to save this building and at the end of it we’re in such a financial disaster, everyone will look at me and say ‘what is wrong with you? Why did you do it this way?’”