BP OKs $34M bond

Now that the voters of Blooming Prairie have approved a $34 million referendum designed to reduce crowding in a growing district, Superintendent Chris Staloch is hoping for business as usual as the work gets underway.
Both parts of the two-question ballot passed by more than 60% of the vote.
Question 1, which passed on a vote of 606-383, provides $27.6 million for additions and improvements to the elementary and junior/senior school buildings. At the high school, the project will add six new classrooms, flex learning space and a performing arts center; upgrades to the industrial technology program; an expansion of the Commons; more art and music space; and new baseball and softball fields.
The elementary school will see repurposed and expanded classrooms, made possible by moving fifth- and sixth-graders to the high school.
Both buildings will receive updates to their hearing, ventilation and electrical systems, as well as repairs to the parking lots and roofs.
Question 2 asked for $6.4 million for the “acquisition and betterment of school sites,” including a new high school gym. That passed on a vote of 571-391.
Now begins the planning and timeline of the project, with construction scheduled to begin at the end of the current school year.
“We have wanted to be transparent throughout this whole process,” said Staloch, from the facilities assessment in 2017 to the tax impact and tax relief for homeowners.
“We’re working out the best way to communicate (the plans) to all of the stakeholders,” he said, “and I’m frankly still learning that process, because I’ve never been through it before.”
In the coming weeks, a group composed of community members, staff, students and administration will assemble to begin the mid-range planning. That committee will provide “more information about how we’re proceeding,” Staloch said, as the plans develop.
As crews prepare for the construction of six new classrooms to the northwest side of the high school and the performing arts center to the north of the existing high school gym, “it will be business as usual” inside the school, Staloch said. “That’s the goal.”
The renovations and upgrades to the career and technical education programs on the south end of the building will also be completed with the least amount of disruption possible.
The work at the elementary school – including adding bathrooms to each kindergarten room, creating larger spaces for special education, moving the art “classroom” out of the cafeteria and music lessons out of a storage closet – will provide some breathing room in a building that’s been at peak capacity for a few years.
A look at the district’s enrollment numbers in just the past year indicate why space is at a premium: The 2020-21 school year began with 386 elementary school students; this school year began with 470 students, plus about 80 children in pre-kindergarten programs.
A demographic study of the district indicated enrollment will likely only grow – by as much as 10 students per class – in the coming years.
Wold Architects is handling the design and construction will be done by Kraus-Anderson.
All phases of the project are expected to be completed in the summer of 2024.
The results of the election were canvassed by the BP School Board at its work meeting Wednesday morning, making the vote official.