SPRING LAKE PARK, Minn. – (April 15, 2016) – Voters in the Spring Lake Park School District will head to the polls on Tuesday, April 26 to vote on a bond referendum. The district, which has more than 5,500 students from Spring Lake Park, Blaine and Fridley, is asking voters to consider a bond referendum that would address its current and future growth. “We want to avoid current and projected overcrowding. We would build a preK-4 elementary school that would be in Blaine. Then we would also add some early learning space, we need space for the early learning program we know that’s important for kids. The part that I am really excited about is being able to enhance our K-12 STEM(science, technology, engineering and math) programming. This would allow us to provide spaces unique to STEM at each one of our schools” said Superintendent Dr. Jeff Ronneberg.
The location of the proposed new school has not been selected but the district is in negotiations with three different property owners. “One is at 109th and Lexington, that is probably the most challenging site for a number of reasons, it is a wet site also it’s on the very edge of our school district it would be more difficult for transportation.
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“We have two other sites that we are also negotiating with and looking at that are more central. One is currently part of the National Sports Center. There is some moving parts with that, it would require some legislative action for the National Sports Center to be able to sell that land to us. There would be some great opportunities for partnerships with the National Sports Center. Allowing us some joint use agreements for fields. There’s another site at 85th Avenue and Airport Road, just south of Highway 10.”
The district opened additions at two schools in 2013 and last built a new building in 2008, however the district has the same amount of school buildings as it did 20 years ago. “Northpoint was constructed but replaced Kenneth Hall Elementary School, so we have the same number of buildings right now as we did in the 90s when we had 3,800 students. We have almost 2,000 more students in the same number of school buildings.”
If the voters approve this bond the district believes that facility wise they will be set for the next decade or more. “We really do anticipate that this would get us through the next 10 plus years for sure” said Ronneberg.
Aside from the facility needs the district reports that they are well positioned from a budget stand point. “We are one of the only school districts in the metro area that have not had to make any staff or program reductions in the last three to five years. We have a structurally balanced budget.”
The district recently completed a series of community presentations about the bond referendum and will continue to inform voters up until Election Day. Ronneberg invites voters to contact him with any questions they have about the referendum.
