Makenzie Huber
Special to the Devils Lake Journal
The Devils Lake School District is asking voters to pass a $31.8 million bond to fund construction of a new middle school and expand Prairie View Elementary School.
The vote on Oct. 11 comes after more than a year of discussion surrounding the aging Central Middle School, which was built in 1937. The building requires several upgrades — including a new boiler, roof repairs, air conditioning and sprinkler system installation and renovations to be ADA compliant —that would cost about $17.2 million over the next five to 10 years, said DLSD Superintendent Matt Bakke.
“The needs of children’s learning environment are different from what they were in 1937,” Bakke said. “This plan would provide learning environments that are optimal for students in 2022.”
What are people voting on?
Instead of putting money into an aging facility, which is filled with 531 children currently placed there in grades 5-8, the school district and Community Facility Task Force proposed building a new middle school between the high school and Lake Area Career and Technology Center.
Fifth grade students would move back down to the elementary school level and have an addition at Prairie View which includes three new classrooms, an additional flex classroom, new gym and an expanded kitchen and cafeteria.
In a school district survey sent out to residents in March 2022, just over 72% of 996 respondents supported a new middle school compared to 21% who wanted to renovate, pushing the school district to take the matter to a public vote.
Voters will also consider another question on the ballot on Tuesday, asking to raise the debt limit from 5% to 10%, since the construction would require a debt limit of 5.6%, which is needed to build the new school.
The original estimate to build a new middle school, from a facility study by ICON Architectural Group, was about $38 million, but $6 million in COVID relief money helps bring the taxpayers’ cost to $31.8 million.
Why was a new middle school proposed?
The proposal is not due to anticipated growth within the district, where enrollment has stayed around 1,800 over the decade, Bakke said. The proposal would be to give current students more space and update it for current students’ needs.
For example, he said, the current CMS gym is just over 5,000 square feet, which isn’t adequate space for gym classes and events. Fifth and sixth graders have gym class in the cafeteria because of the lack of space, Bakke said.
The new middle school would be about 86,310 square feet to accommodate around 400 children, and the addition to Prairie View would add just under 13,000 square feet to the elementary school for around 140 fifth graders. CMS is about 87,000 square feet, serving all four grades.
While the new middle school and current CMS building are about the same size, the new middle school would allow for larger classrooms and space still, since the middle school would share some resources and classrooms with the high school next door.
The move would also decrease operation funds, Bakke said, though he didn’t have an estimate.
The building would be energy efficient, saving heating and cooling costs; staff would not have to drive between two buildings; and middle schoolers participating in activities and sports that require use of the high school space and gym would not have to be bussed up to the campus anymore. The school district currently spends about $2 million a year on the current CMS building.
What would happen to Central Middle School?
If the bond does get passed by voters, the Central Middle School would be sold to a private buyer and used for anything from apartments, office space, a convention center or recreation center, Bakke said.
“It’ll take two and a half years, or the fall of 2025, for this new building to be ready to move into,” Bakke said. “In those two and a half years, we’ll help find a new home for the current building. We’d be dedicated to finding that.”
But Gary Stenson, a member of the Friends of Central School group opposed to building a new middle school, doesn’t think the school district will be able to find a buyer. Stenson is a graduate of Devils Lake, class of 1962, and has spent decades substantially rehabilitating buildings and developing real estate across eight states.
His company, MetroPlains, renovated and owns several buildings in Devils Lake, turning them into apartments within the area. The company’s portfolio includes the Great Northern Apartments, formerly the Great Northern Hotel built in 1909; Academy Park, or formerly St. Mary’s High School built in the 1930s; and Opera House apartments, which was a performance theatre built in the 1930s.
“Central School does not really work for housing because there’s not a need for housing,” said Stenson, who lives in St. Paul but pays property taxes on MetroPlains properties in Devils Lake. “The vacancy rate on 400 (area MetroPlains) affordable housing units is running between 10 and 15%.”
The population of Devils Lake is relatively stagnant, he added, which doesn’t add a need for office space or market rate apartments. Renovating CMS into market rate apartments would also erase financing investors would get for low income housing.
“I don’t think it would have the hope of selling,” Stenson said, adding that most of the historic properties he has renovated were bought for very little and were often vacant for years.
What if it doesn’t pass?
Mike Connor, a retired resident in Devils Lake and treasurer of Friends of Central School, attended his entire education at Central School, graduating in 1961. He believes that students can still get a quality education inside the 85-year-old building.
“We just feel there are too many unknowns and questions,” Connor said. “We say they’re getting the cart before the horse. We need to take a hard look at what needs to be done first and then work together to do it.”
Connor said that although the Community Facility Task Force has reviewed information about Central School and recommendations from ICON Architectural Group, he doesn’t believe the school has been studied enough and wants to see more architectural firms review the situation.
Stenson said he is OK with the Prairie View expansion and that moving Fifth graders to the elementary level “makes sense,” but he thinks there are more opportunities at Central Middle School that have yet to be explored.
Stenson added that if there isn’t enough room for children at Central Middle School that it would be “easy to add” an addition to the building.
“Our group is completely in favor of quality education in quality facilities in Devils Lake,” Connor said. “We are ready to stand with the school board when this fails and to take an honest look at what can be done. We feel there is potential with Central School to use it for what it was designed for, which is education.”
