GFW School Board proposes closure of Fairfax building, discusses another bond referendum

By Denise Bonsack, Publisher

At their regular meeting on Monday, January 13, the GFW School Board voted 3-2 to close the Fairfax building beginning with the 2020-21 school year

As the subject came up as part of the regular agenda, Superintendent Seifert informed the board that a proposed decision could be made, but that a public meeting is required by statute before finalizing the action to close a building. The public meeting must be advertised for two weeks, and ideally it would be held prior to their next regular meeting, where final action would be taken. 

Members of the board outlined their thoughts on the subject to begin the discussion. Lee indicated that she felt that closing a building on either end of the district would be a mistake because families would send their kids out of the district. Losing gym space, which would result in late practices for athletes, and potential decline in athletic participation as a result was another topic that was raised.

The board received a hand-out that outline the work and expense that would be involved if the Gibbon site was closed and the technology hub would need to be relocated.

Eventually, Chair Phil Klenk moved to propose closing the Intermediate Building in Fairfax. Kuehn seconded the  motion. Klenk, Kuehn and Haas voted for the motion, while Vos and Lee voted against. Odegard was undecided.

That proposal will be the topic of the upcoming public meeting, and final action will be taken in February.

The next topic on the agenda was another potential bond referendum. Odegard pointed out that if they run an operating levy, the tax impact will be the same or higher than a bond referendum. Vos asked about exploring the option of building a new building in Gibbon for the upper grades, while continuing to use the existing Gibbon site for the youngest students. She suggested that maybe that would reduce the cost of the bond referendum enough to satisfy the voters.

Seifert indicated he had talked to the architects about how we could make reductions and where we could trim to see if we can come up with an amount the voters would support.

Haas noted that something has to be done and it needs to be done soon. Kuehn opined that another bond referendum should be pushed out another two years until the district is in better financial shape. 

Odegard suggested trying another bond referendum in May. If that fails, they would still have time to run an operating levy election in November. Kuehn didn’t feel this was enough time to educate the public and that it would be a waste of money to run a special election at this point.

The board has a special meeting scheduled for January 28 at 6:30 pm in Gibbon to address the SOD plan. The required public meeting for the potential school closing is scheduled for Monday, February 3 at 6:30 pm in the gymnasium in Gibbon. For more information on that public meeting, see the legal notice on page 12 of this edition. The next regular meeting of the GFW School Board is scheduled for February 10 at 6:30 pm in Winthrop.