FAQ

Answers to frequently asked questions about the referendum.

1. What's different this time around?

• 70% of this project is being financed by the State of Minnesota (Ag2School) and taxes paid by Enbridge, Great Lakes Transmission, Ottertail Power, and Soo-Line Railroad.
• More community and staff involvement in planning
• Lower upfront cost than previous project ideas
• Enbridge and Ag2School both contributing more towards project
• Newfolden Elementary remains a school building
• Meets our needs in different ways using savings of shifting students versus building so much additional new space
  
  

2. Is the district thinking of closing Viking? 

• Viking School is needed as it would be too costly to replace at the Newfolden sites. The shifting of students helps and the small addition will create the additional space we need while allowing room to grow. This makes Viking an integral part of our district for the foreseeable future.

3. Why add on to Viking? Wouldn't it make more sense to bring all our students together in one pre-K to 12 building?

• We also studied that option. Although it would have advantages to have all our students in one building, it would add millions of dollars to the project carrying a much heavier burden on our taxpayers. As demonstrated by last year's votes, our community wants to use existing school buildings. Having a dedicated primary school has advantages. The school day length is appropriate for the younger grades. All the furniture and classrooms are built with their age and size in mind. It provides a sense of safety and better well being for our parents and families to know their children are together with other younger children. The location of Viking and support of the Viking community is also important to our district. Viking’s vicinity to Thief River Falls and Warren allows some families access to attend our school from those communities. Adding on to Viking is practical and less costly for our tax payers.

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4. Why is this project plan considering shifting students around?

• Moving 2nd grade to Newfolden Elementary frees up two classrooms we can use to address our preschool and special education needs. Moving second grade to Newfolden would give them a longer instructional day. 2nd grade is an important learning and development year for students as they transition to reading to learn. This move would give them 40 minutes of additional instruction a day. This is equivalent to 16 additional days of school. 
• Moving 5th and 6th grade to their own dedicated area of the high school frees up four classrooms. Two would be used for second grade, one for a music room, and one for a library multipurpose room. This eliminates crossing the need for Newfolden Elementary from having to cross the street for library and music.
• Newfolden becomes a grade 2-4 building. Like Viking, it becomes a small self-contained school with similar age groups together. 
• Grades 5-6 would have their own dedicated area of the building away from the 7-12 grade area. 
• Moving students allows us to minimize additions which saves construction costs as well. 

4. What is Ag2School?

• Ag2School is a law set in state statute that pays for a large percentage of farmer's share in school building bonds. Ag2School is set to pay for 70% of the farmers share of their agricultural land taxes in 2023 and beyond.  Here is a short video explaining Ag2School. 

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5. Will the project look exactly like it is designed?

• The drawings you see are conceptual renderings outlining features that were identified as primary needs in our teacher survey, parent survey, and community meetings. The cost estimates were put together by construction management firm Kraus Anderson, industry leader in building schools. After a successful election architects and engineers will work closely with staff and key user groups through a series of planning meetings to design the final product using the budget the taxpayers approved.

6. How can open enrolled families support the project?

• Even though our open enrolled families cannot vote, we plan to send information with all our students. Parents are connected and our open enrolled families can certainly advocate and support the project by talking with other parents and family members that live in the district who can vote.

7. How do our currently open enrolled families support the district?

• At MCC we net approximately 110 open enrolled students. If this trend continues, our open enrolled students would bring in about 40 million dollars to help our school operate and provide programing during the lifetime of this 25 year bond. This revenue supports programming that benefits all of our students and in recent years has helped us reduce class size, provide more career/technical education opportunities, and include more opportunities for students to receive college in the classroom opportunities helping them get a jump start on college and future careers and save money in tuition costs. 

8. What about the high construction costs right now, isn't this a poor time to build?

• Although, construction costs have been high during the pandemic and this time of inflation, interest rates are still low. We know our needs and the time is now to address them. Waiting risks higher costs. The Ag2School credit provides a significant amount of aid to support our farmers. 70% of this project is being financed by Ag2School, and taxes paid by Enbridge, Great Lakes Transmission, Ottertail Power, and Soo-Line Railroad. The competition bidding process is offsetting some of these high costs. We know many of you are concerned about the high construction costs especially lumber. Lumber is not used much in school construction

9. Will the project help the school provide summer childcare?

• There is multipurpose space in the project may allow the district to help fill this need. 

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10. Why are we keeping the Newfolden Elementary Gym? 

• The Newfolden Elementary gym is too small for junior high practices and games, but it is still a good size gym for grades 2-4 PE. Tearing it down and rebuilding it would add to project cost. 

11. What happens if the referendum doesn't pass?

• If the referendum doesn't pass we'll need to work with the community of alternative solutions. We can try to keep doing what we currently are doing, but know the limitations and concerns. Visit Challenges page to understand why the proposed improvements are necessary.​

12. Does the district currently have any building debt?

• The district currently has zero debt.

13. What current tax levies does the district have running?

• We have one levy in place. Voters approved revoking two levies and combining them into one levy in 2020. That levy has a value of $706.72. This levy started taxes payable 2021 and will run until taxes payable 2031 unless renewed or revoked.

14. How is the interest of this bond payment made?

• The bond principal in this election is 18.9 million dollars. Interest is estimated at 11.8 million dollars. A table in the review in comment document shows the annual payment schedule of the principal in interest.
• In the tax table, your payment estimation includes your share of principal and interest. Both are accounted for in the tax estimations.

15. Why are we building if the population in the county is declining?

• Simply put, our school district has been consistently growing in student numbers and we need the space.
• The south central and south west portions of Marshall County have been increasing in population. The vicinity of the southern edge of our school district to Thief River Falls makes us an attractive option for those seeking seeking a home in the country not far from the city. 
• Flood mitigation and planning from the city will allow more potential for housing in the city of Newfolden.
• The city of Viking has also been adding some homes.
• Our school is an attractive option for area students due to the opportunities provided.

16. Why do we need space when we used to have more students and didn't need this additional space?

• The district has torn down some space since it peaked in population when Grygla students attended here. Most of the old high school building was torn down and replaced in 1994 with an area with much less space. 
• The district offers all day kindergarten and all day preschool which was not offered then.
• We also are required by federal law to provide special education which also takes up considerable space.
• Athletic options for both boys and girls has expanded greatly.
• MDE recommendations for space have increased to provide more flexible learning options.

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