At its first meeting since a bombshell recommendation from Superintendent Beth Giese to close the Wanamingo Elementary School was first discussed, Kenyon-Wanamingo’s School Board heard an earful from Wanamingo residents concerned by the proposal.
Wanamingo Mayor Ryan Holmes led off the meeting, warning the board that closure of the Wanamingo School would be regarded by many in Wanamingo as a breach of the District’s long held commitment to serving families in both communities.
Holmes expressed sympathy for the board, noting the unenviable and difficult challenges K-W faces as it works to escape from statutory operating debt status while coping with elevated costs and long-term, structural declines in enrollment due to demographic trends.
Yet, for Holmes and other Wanamingo residents, the loss of the hometown school would have broad impacts, including the exodus of many families on the east side of the district toward Zumbrota-Mazeppa and other neighboring Districts.
Holmes urged the district to strongly consider all alternatives first, in particular encouraging the board to go to voters with a potential levy to fund repairs to the roof and other expenses associated with keeping Wanamingo Elementary School open.
If the district ultimately feels it must move forward with closing the Wanamingo site, he said tremendous work would need to be done to minimize the negative impact and avoid the kind of situation that happened to the old Kenyon High School, which sat abandoned for years.
“Maintaining a school in Wanamingo is crucial for our community’s identity and economic vitality,” Holmes said. “If closure is inevitable, it is crucial that the district collaborate with the city on a well thought out repurposing plan to avoid blight and community decline.”
Former board member and longtime educator Sheree Van De Walker warned board members to expect a broad array of challenges and pitfalls associated with any move to close the school, noting that in other communities similar closures have led to decades of hard feelings.
“I’ve worked in three districts that had lost their schools, and that was devastating, and 30 years later, the people were still very upset about losing the school in their town,” Van De Walker said. “One of them turned into subsidized living; the police were always there. Another one just sat empty. The one in Mantorville turned into a government center, which was lucky for them, but what I am saying is that it is a terrible backlash on the community to lose a school.”
Van De Walker urged the board to be fully transparent and thorough in analyzing both the costs and savings associated with potential closure. Like Holmes, she also urged the Board to hold a listening session in Wanamingo as soon as practicable — and be sure to offer a wide variety of formats for members of the public to make their voices heard.
2018 K-W High School graduate Jack Beulke said that a potential closure of Wanamingo Elementary School would have profound impacts on his decision making process as he considers whether or not to stay in the area as he looks to raise a family and perhaps run a business in Wanamingo.
Beulke urged the board to consider, not the “why and the how” of “why did the roof get this bad and how will we come to a $700,000 solution,” but why families from Wanamingo and the eastern side of the district should stick with K-W if the Wanamingo school closes.
Noting that Z-M’s High School in Zumbrota is much closer for families on the east side of the district than Kenyon Middle/High School, Beulke expressed concern that by closing the Wanamingo site, the district would be abandoning Wanamingo families and “waving the flag on future growth.”
“I want to challenge our school district in figuring out the how and the why we will keep Wanamingo students coming, because if we do not, I believe this district is in much more trouble than just the cost of repairing a roof,” Beulke said.
Insurance decision
After hearing from the public, the board was quickly forced to vote on whether or not to pony up what is likely to be more than $60,000 extra in insurance costs, so as to avoid, at the very least, a significant lapse on the Wanamingo Elementary School’s insurance coverage.
The decision became necessary in advance of the June 30 insurance renewal deadline after the district’s longtime insurance provider EMC decided that it would no longer be willing to insure the Wanamingo Elementary School given the current dilapidated state of the building’s roof.
Rival insurance firm Selective was willing to offer an insurance package for both buildings, but only at a steep price increase of over $40,000. As part of the agreement with Selective, K-W will also need to install hail guards on the Middle/High School on its own dime.
Another downside of Selective’s offer is its extremely high deductibles. For wind/hail/roof damage, insurance would only kick in after $500,000 of expenses at the Middle/High School and $1 million at the Elementary School, compared to EMC’s $75,000 deductible.
District Business Manager Dawn Sandbulte warned the board that increasing insurance costs by so much could push back its timeline for escaping from SOD. Giese said that she believes that, given its current fiscal state, the district simply couldn’t afford that kind of expenditure.
“It hurts me, $63,000, when we don’t have a credit card left — it’s maxed,” Giese said. “Can I find it? Sure. But does it set us back? Yes.”
Board Member A.J. Lindell expressed agreement with Giese’s recommendation, noting that by staying on track to emerge from SOD potentially ahead of schedule, the district could improve its bond rating and lower the cost of a potential future referendum.
EMC’s Todd Greseth told the board that his firm would be willing to look at reinsuring the building, should there be a clear plan on the table to replace at least the roughly two-thirds of the roof currently far past its expiration date.
However, a majority of the board was willing to swallow Selective’s more expensive and limited plan as a price for keeping the elementary school insured. Board Chair Tonya Craig warned that allowing coverage to lapse could make it more difficult to get coverage down the road.
“What is it going to look like when we are ready to try to get the insurance?” Craig asked. “Do we limit our companies even a little more because we’ve now gone a year with potential things that we’ve had to let slide and not repair because we didn’t have the insurance?”
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