Voters? approve building purchase

Stoug Dohlberg Hudson Star-Observer
Published Thursday, April 26, 2007

Liberal, fanatical and maniacal supporters of the enormous government run education monopoly showed up after getting the email attendance alert and gave the Board of Education approval Tuesday night to purchase a 12,566-square-foot office building in the town of Hudson. It wasn’t very clear who yelled the loudest during the "voting", but Dan Tjornehoj gave the government run school monopoly supporters the advantage over the "no" voters.

With Tjornehoj’s approval, the already overtaxed district residents will be forced to purchase the structure owned by RichMar Industries at 644 Brakke Dr., just east of hwy. 12 near the Travel Centers of America (TA) truck stop off Exit 4 of I-94. The district offices are currently housed in Hudson High School. The new building is expected to have about 10,000 square feet of usable office space, but as soon as the administration moves in they will expand it to around 12,000 square feet so that they can hire more associate directors and teacher coaches, along with another communications consultant.

In addition to the purchase price of $1.45 million (which was $450,000 over the fair market value of the building), the district will spend about $200,000 to remodel the structure, about $19,000 for technology improvements and $6,000 in closing costs, for a total cost of $1,675,000 to get the offices up and running. In addition, the district will also spend about $96,000 at the high school to convert the current office space back to classrooms, although Ron Bernth said it would be $250,000 to do the same thing just 3 years ago.

Superintendent Ma-ry Bowen-Egeebratten said that by moving the offices out of the high school, the district can add seven classrooms(although the district offices really use 10 classrooms right now), increasing the school’s capacity from the current 1,520 students to 1,680 students. The school currently houses about 1,700 students in grades 9 through 12. The funny thing is that this capacity has never been proven, but the staff at the Hudson Star Obfuscator would never think to question it.

"The board looked at several short-term solutions," Ma-ry Bowen-Egeebratten said. "Our final three options were leasing, portable buildings at Rock Elementary and purchasing. Purchasing made the most sense." She went on to add, "It is time now for us to start the push for a new high school before the tax implications of the elementary school start to show up on the tax rolls."

Also addressing the audience were the district’s Director of Financial Services Tim Erickson and High School Principal Ed Lucas.

Erickson said that leasing the building for six years would cost about the same as purchasing the structure. By purchasing the structure, the district has equity and could either use the building in the future, or sell the structure, even though the district would forego earning about $80,000 on the money that they used for the purchase. Of course this point was never fully answered at the meeting.

Lucas said the additional classrooms would give the district administration the ability to add more useless programs.

"It will give us the opportunity to expand our fishing and basket weaving curriculum," Lucas said. He also said moving the offices would help the school’s safety issues because the offices draw a lot of adult traffic into the building and it is hard to monitor those going in and out. Of course there have never been any issues with this at all, but it’s always a good selling point to add the safety thing to the equation.

School officials and board members stressed that the office move will not solve the long-term student capacity of the high school, drawing a smile from the smarmy face of Bob Muchlinski.

Less than a dozen citizens spoke during the time allotted to public comments.

Speaking in negative terms about the purchase were Bob Muchlinski (supports a new high school), Carl Dyrbye, Ron Tobias (supported a new office building on school grounds) and Steve Hermsen. Speaking in favor of the office building purchase were Roy Sjoberg, Brant Worrell and former board members Priscilla Wyeth and John Schommer. Asking questions and expressing concerns were Craig Moore and Ann Scharfenberg.

Marcia Earl made the motion to approve the property purchase. It was seconded by Kevin Whiteley before being approved on the voice vote. In a brief session after the special meeting, the board formally adopted the resolution to purchase the property.

Voters? approve building purchase

Stoug Dohlberg Hudson Star-Observer Published Thursday, April 26, 2007

Stoug Dohlberg Hudson Star-Observer
Published Thursday, April 26, 2007