 Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota, produced by Lakeland PBS with host Ray Gildow. Production funding for Lakeland Currents is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. For information available at BemidjiAirport.org. Closed captioning for Lakeland Currents is sponsored by Niswa Tax Service, tax preparation for businesses and individuals online at NiswaTax.com. Hello again everyone and welcome to Lakeland Currents. We're glad you could join us this evening. Tonight we're going to be talking a little about bond issues and specifically tonight we're talking about the Staples-Motley bond issue that will be coming up this May. And my guest this evening is Ron Bratley who is the interim superintendent at the Staples-Motley Schools. Welcome aboard and any person who's a superintendent trying to get a bonding bill passed is a man who's crazy. Well I'm an interim so you know my investment is just to get her done and move on. Well tell us a little bit about your background Ron because I know you've been a superintendent in other school districts and what is your background? Well I started my educational career in Flint Michigan as a math teacher. I was in Flint for five years and it was during the riots and I was a small town farm boy from Detroit lakes so that didn't set very well. My wife was lucky enough to meet me there and so we moved back to Minnesota and been a superintendent in Minnesota for 53 years including this year so I'm pretty seasoned about that. I retired in 2007 from Elk River School District as an assistant superintendent and my main job there was building schools. Really? I built about 250 million dollars worth of new schools and renovations so that was the best job I ever had. And how is it that you became the interim superintendent at Staples-Motley? Well this is the uh actually this is the fifth interim I've done since I retired in 2007 and I got a call from a friend of yours Bruce Lund and asked me if I was interested and and I just evolved from there and uh basically I said oh two years is is it my wife I can't afford a divorce so I think I better retire for real. I can remember reading in the Chronicle of Higher Education in the early 90s about how difficult it is going to become to find quality superintendents, quality college presidents quality principals in the high school and the elementary schools and that's really come to fruition hasn't it it's getting to be very very difficult to find people that want to do these jobs they're not easy jobs being a superintendent as you know I've never been a superintendent but it's a very very challenging job and and it's it's it's a shame we're not getting more young talented people and want to do these kinds of jobs so you often fill in because some of these districts do have a challenge finding replacements don't you correct yes and um this will be your last term with Staples in I promise my wife this would be my last year as a superintendent and that I will retire for real the last time you're taking out a job yes well I know in Staples and Motley I think they merge those two school communities together I believe in the early 90s correct and at the time I was the college vice president here working on both campuses in Brainerd and Staples so I remember some of that period but I wasn't actually involved with it very much but I do remember an opportunity that we missed and that was and I don't remember I know you would know what the the legislation was but there was legislation out there that allowed communities that want to pair the opportunity to build new schools and I don't remember the details but Staples and Motley I think maybe more on the Staples side turned down that opportunity to build a brand new school which has led up to some of the challenges that you have now hasn't it yes and you said that's kind of a you're you're going to approach this kind of a from a two prong approach one is called uh you're going to be talking about your athletics academics and what was the third one activities activities yeah so tell us a little bit about that campaign because it is kind of a PR campaign in a sense but a lot of times schools don't do a good enough job telling about the good things that they do that's exactly right and that's uh that's an initiative that we started last year is to tell our story tell about the good things the things that the students are achieving you're telling about you know for example the FFA uh has got state and national officers from Staples Motley that's that's quite an achievement and we have a lot of other success stories that we need to tell and in education we don't brag very much we kind of keep those things hidden some to some degree so that's one uh part of the build 2170 is to kind of tell our story and that's the I call that the 18 the 18 yeah and then do you have people just to make a comparison in 2017 brainered past three referenda which is incredible I think in this day and age yes but they also had probably a different funding mechanism maybe a different um level of money that's going to be committed from local people that that you might be dealing with but to have three referendums pass in one year like brainer did is just an amazing thing and you said before we went on air that there's quite a few districts looking at floating some bonding issues this this coming year well actually uh if you we look around the neighboring districts of staples motley every district around us has either built or is in the process of building pillager verndale uh wadena uh and and brainer they and piqua too I know piqua great so there's been you know buildings are getting old and education is changing and and so we need to kind of get up to date so to speak so currently what are you dealing with for buildings now how are you structured so that you're you're struggling with the cost for sure operating costs we have three buildings we have two buildings and staples and one building in motley we're currently studying the process of going from three buildings to two next year because of the costs involved just making that adjustment we'll save over a hundred thousand dollars just in transportation and then we also we will appreciate up to four hundred thousand of other efficiencies but it's not only efficiencies but it'll be providing better more efficient expand our courses for instance music just by making that adjustment we will pick up between five and six hours of additional music classes and and activities that we don't have now because we our teachers won't have to travel and that uses up time so so you're looking you'll be looking to to actually have a referendum in may of 2019 is that correct so this coming may right and that's do you have groups that are going out and working with people and explaining how this is operating and what you're trying to do well right now we're at this stage we're we're doing some surveying and we're doing we're establishing a steering committee but after the first of the year yes we'll be developing you know there'll be a vote yes committee at some point I would guess there's already been some interest in that and in and kind of coordinating that so we certainly will welcome that opportunity but it'll be it's a process going through until May and so we're doing a lot of our homework now and we'll continue to do that so you said regardless of whether the bond would pass or not in this coming May you still have a plan to go down to two buildings right and what is that plan what are the two buildings you're looking at well it'd be the staples elementary and the staples high school that will be our property and and we will have a k3 and a 412 or a 512 and a k4 program we haven't quite got all those logistic logistics put together yet and then the motley building I am working with the city of motley as far as if they can use the building for other purposes repurposing the building if you will and their city offices are limited and they have some other needs but we're also going to if in case motley takes the city of motley takes that building on we need to rent some space for early childhood for the head start and some of those other programs and so we're going to develop a partnership between us and so that building would still have kids in it during different most likely yep and some interest there's a lot of interest in daycare and you know there's a shortage of daycare right now we're also looking at some other opportunities that will help the the city of staples because they don't have a senior citizen center in motley in motley I'm sorry in motley and so there's some there's some real advantages for the city of motley to take advantage of no some opportunities you will have probably some of the same challenges that brain or did and that and well maybe almost more pillager than brain or did in that pillager's last bond referendum did not pass and there's a pretty good contingency of people live on the lakes who do not have kids or maybe even grandkids so getting those folks to buy in is a you've got shaman on lake alexander south of motley so you've got some of the same issues to to meet those challenges and and with your experience I can't imagine there's probably hasn't anything that you haven't seen when you're trying to deal with this and so you're really trying to encourage people to make an investment in the future of their communities as well whether they have kids or not right and when you're looking at this new plan what is it basically trying to do are you going to add on to the buildings in town in staples or what is it that you're looking to do well the plan right now which is subject to change as we move down the road but right now we're going to utilize the elementary site staples elementary site as a k-12 site and that's pillager has kind of the same situation and and other districts so we'll be using that site and one of the main reasons for that is all the athletic fields and such are on the on the elementary site and so it just makes sense that we utilize those we've looked at that is a huge expense yes if you have to start developing football baseball track fields that's a very big piece of money we did an extensive study of all three sites you know what is what are the pluses and minuses we even looked at a site in between motley and staples a kind of right in right in the middle we call that mile marker 111 but when you start to develop fields like you just alluded to you know then all at once you're looking at 10 20 million dollars more an expense it's a big deal it just didn't wasn't going to work so if you moved out and then you would add on to the north elementary school which is on the north side of staples for people who don't know what would happen then to the old high school and staples and the auditorium well the auditorium we're again we're looking at that we're working with the city of staples they have a community center that has a pool and some meeting rooms it's it's need of repair significant amount of repair and so we're having conversations of you know should we look at putting a pool onto the high school and how would that work pools as you know are expensive to build but they're also expensive to operate so how in order to justify having a pool at the high school it's got to be part of our program so we're working with the city of staples to see you know how do we do this is it a community pool is it is a competition pool you know all of those questions need to be answered so would you tear any of the old high school down or would that be repurposed too I think the majority of the high school would probably be demolished because we it's old part of it it's 1935 yeah there's no insulation in the walls or anything and 1960 and so on so forth the auditorium that's another situation where we need to work with the city the city has some interest in that utilizing that and maybe bringing in productions and such and if it's not part of the school district then they have a little more flexibility as far as you know how they can utilize it what would happen if the bond issue doesn't pass then would you sort of be stuck with the two buildings that you're looking at moving into in 2020 I guess it would be or 2019 well it's going to pass so we don't have to look at that well you know then we have to regroup we have to regroup and see you know what is it was it too much money did we not do a good job of selling it to what are the options and and quite honestly the three principles myself are having discussions about that because that certainly is something that we need to be prepared for now maybe you're not prepared to talk about that today but when you're looking at the average household have you determined what it will cost the average household yet well right now we're using the number of 60 million dollars for the project for the overall project that's you know that's an estimate at this point in time but basically on a hundred thousand dollar home that would be about 32 dollars a month and now there's going to be some changes we had a new hospital as you're well aware of and that's going to boost up the property values the taxable value in the school district and that will have a positive effect on the taxpayers but i i don't have those numbers yet so i'm using numbers from 2016 and that's kind of dangerous but you know those are things we have to look at but in april before the bond you'll be putting out a lot of information i should know that in the next two weeks sure you know really pinpoint it and are you have you got much data on marketing data on what the population growth might be in the staples motley communities do you see that as staying flat or do you see it growing slightly or you know it's pretty stable right now i know that i've been working with the hospital people and they really are in need of housing in staples motley they're trying to attract new doctors and and medical personnel and you know when people are coming into a community they look at the school and they look at housing and we don't really have any housing available so i know there's an effort in staples to to start looking at getting some housing that or at least available land for for people to move in so that's going to affect the future right now it's pretty much stable of course the the community is as a whole is is getting older and so are we have a slight decline in student enrollment so over the next i've done some projections and over the next 10 years we could lose somewhere between 30 and 50 students total but if housing comes in change a whole thing can change it could go the other direction absolutely easily yeah in the hospital for people who don't know staples motley area the hospital is a very large employer a lot of those people though live in baxter or wadena and it's interesting because you come to essential health and brainerd and a lot of those people come from staples so we're changing up and down the highway 10 to 10 corridor and there's a lot of a lot of people transferring around but uh what what are some of the things that you've got planned in the new building are you looking at new gymnasiums and do you have a new do you have a theater con concept at all there or what's basically your basic plan looking like at this stage at this stage we're looking at six gyms in that in that building and we're also trying to have a floor plan that will facilitate people coming in senior citizens and and so on during the day at the same time and other activities are going on so we really want it to be a community-centered building not that it's a community center right but that there are our activities available for and especially if we have the pool you know that's another factor so we're trying to plan that we that we can separate the building but yet utilize the whole building because that you you want to use a 12 15 hours a day not just four or five just for school days yeah so would you be building to the south of the elementary school then is that the direction uh actually we would be looking to the north and to the west to the north and so it'd be almost kind of like a box okay and and a little bit uh well not to the south it'd be to the west and to the north primarily yeah and and if when the referendum passes yes what is your timeline for actually starting to have things happen well um if the bond passes in 19 we will go out for bids uh in january of 20 and so we will then the bids would come in uh you know like april march april and if we're organized enough it's like to start doing some renovations and construction in 20 but realistically the building would probably not open until 22 i i see it that we would be phasing it in different parts of the building as we go but fully operational in 22 so using some of the old buildings in the process of yes that transition we'll use the buildings as a transition now you say six gymnasiums is that six new gymnasium yes and not counting the one that's at the elementary school now right yeah because there's that's not a very big gymnasium that's not no no and that's not going to be a gym they'll be repurposed right you know for the program and who are the architects that you're working with on this project we're working with wsn oh yeah yeah okay and are you giving any consideration to energy conservation and energy alternatives well when i was at elk river i got real involved in green schools and uh and we we built several lead certified buildings there um so we're going to use i don't know that this is going to be a lead building but we're going to bill it according to lead requirements so that it will be as in energy efficient as possible we're going to have in good indoor air quality a lot of natural daylight is what we're planning and and just making it a real sound educational building for good learning now being that we're in january or now uh what is the plan is a plan to have a new superintendent on board then july one of 2019 is that kind of yes the plan so you would step out of the picture then and yes this new person would take over that in that role so you would have all of the rule up your sleeve work done and if it passes this person can come in and well there's been some discussions uh since a big based on my background and construction that i might stay on for just that component on a part-time basis because you have the experience yeah yeah and so um we'll see how that goes but uh you know it'll be pretty nice for a person to come in and see the building and help actually uh you know design the building in the final stages no i i know your board is made up of staples people and i think just probably one motley person right now do you have any sense for how the motley community feels about this do you have any feel for that at all you know uh maybe the negative people aren't talking to me but uh i'm getting a real positive feel from throughout the district i mean there's advantages you know there's a lot of people live in motley that uh have complained that i have got kids in three different buildings in two different towns it sure would be nice if i was one stop athletics into that and they got a bus back and forth yeah i know that's a real headache for parents and and no community wants to lose their school right and that's why we're looking at repurposing it and and making a situation for the city that will be helpful for everyone so the planning you're doing really is involving both the cities heavily is yes and the hospital yes because the hospital also serves motley and the whole area there and there's some and then we have source well that's located right there too that are looking for employment sure always looking for source well as uh the old region concept where they were providing expertise to school districts but they also do um competitive bidding purchasing for nonprofits and i think nationwide over a billion dollars yes in a year is amazing business there so that's an amazing resource and a good place for they pay pay well too don't they yes that's good so they're involved with your planning a little bit too yeah we're trying to involve everybody in the you know the business community and and the uh residents it's their school would would this involve uh much for new streets would you would you have to do a fair amount of work to redesign the streets around that area well one of the things we're you know schools are always looking at safety and security and so we will we're our plan right now is that we'll be closing off some streets so that we'll be reconfiguring you know where buses come in and where parents come in to make it as safe as possible and also with athletic fields or now we have streets that will probably block off we've been in discussion with the city on how we could do you know have make this happen i've talked with lane larson i know you know lane well too and i know they're putting a great deal of time into building safety because unfortunately that's a big part of our school business now is having our kids be safe so that gives if you get this bond referendum through that gives you an opportunity to sort of start from scratch and build this as safely as possible which is a very positive thing too so didn't and law enforcement is one of our partners we're including them in the design too because it's important you bet now did you say there was would be a theater involved i didn't remember if you said you know that's again we're not sure depends on what happens the right place we're measuring we're measuring the sentiment of as far as the keeping the old one or it's not that old and utilizing that or having a performance center in the high school we prefer to have the performance center in the high school because obviously you don't have to transport students and have them running around they can and then have like a 600 or 700 seat theater so yeah there's a lot of a lot of questions to be answered yet and it's exciting i think one of the nice things for you too is you don't have to displace homeowners right your area is all pretty open that's been a little bit of a challenge i know here in brandard there's been a number of homeowners that are having to relocate and it's created some hard feelings in places but you've got all that property pretty much under control already don't you yes in that area and so that's really nice that was one real strong point to having it at the elementary site that we didn't have to disturb any you know property owners at all so do you see a new facility changing how you approach the curriculum oh yes how do you see that change well you know you know we're going to build flexibility into this building so that when we build it in 22 we got to keep in mind that in 25 or 30 it may be a whole different way that we approach education so flexibility is going to be built in uh to the building uh as much as we can just so that we're prepared for down the road uh you know i've already met with the teachers and asked them what do you want to see what do you need what do you see five ten years from now we're also going to have an emphasis on cte career and technical education oh that's great we're partnering with clc the college uh to say you know should we be partnering on some of this you've got a lot of nice equipment up in your facility we don't want to duplicate that so can we have established some type of partnership and it's right down the road it's not very far so i think we're thinking smarter not harder and trying to involve everybody and and get the best a possible learning situation is possible so if people want to find out more without necessarily having to call you or to call someone from the school district do you have a website that they can go to and find out information about this or what what is that well it's our it's our school website and under the school website we have bill 2170 which has got the a team that we talked about and then it's also got the construction or the b team the bricks and mortar so that's where there'll be information as far as tax impact as far as what we're doing what what's it look like you know where are we on this process so there's where people can get their information and what what is that website called it's uh just ISD 2170 dot k12 dot mn dot okay so that's the root of the place to get almost anything answered that you would need and then we're also going on social media too we're going to utilize social media uh to get out the word facebook and facebook and twitter and all of those type of things so well i wish you the best i know i'm being that i live in staples we have some really really old buildings there will be a great addition to the whole area if that could happen so good luck on that okay thanks for jumping on the show with us we really appreciate it thank you thank you very much ron you've been watching lakeland currents where we're talking about what you're talking about i'm ray gildow so long until next time