The Planning Process

Starting in 2023, our district partnered with ICS, a leading consultant with extensive experience working with school districts across Minnesota to improve their buildings and classrooms. With ICS, we completed several assessments to determine the quality and educational adequacy of our school building. These assessments included:

• A comprehensive facility study to evaluate the physical condition and quality of our existing school building.

• Demographics and enrollment projections to identify enrollment trends and project future enrollment based on census data.

• An educational adequacy assessment to evaluate every space in our school to determine if our building complies with the Minnesota Department of Education’s recommended guidelines.

• Nine listening sessions with community members, staff, and students which helped identify challenges at our building and opportunities to improve learning spaces for our students, staff, and community.

We used these assessment results and feedback from community members to prioritize the most critical needs of our school building and worked extensively with financial experts to create a fiscally responsible investment plan for our schools and community.

In May, district leaders presented the top facility issues identified during these assessments and outlined ways to address them.