Post-Referendum: What Comes Next?

In this episode, we explore the planning, development, and community impact of new school projects post-referendum with Chace Anderson. Discover how strategic property purchases and community support are shaping the future of education infrastructure.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Upcoming Projects
00:56 Property Purchase and Vision for Future Schools
02:53 Community Support and District Planning
03:59 Design and Construction Timeline
10:58 Traffic and Infrastructure Considerations
19:40 Expected Opening and Community Impact
28:45 Reflections on Building New Schools
31:59 Naming and Future Plans for Schools

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Well, hi everyone. Welcome to the next episode of the Inside What is Edda podcast. Um, we keep trying to find more creative spaces to do these with Chase. Um I think the last time we had you on, we were driving around in your car at three or four in the morning. That's correct. And now if you're watching, you're probably wondering where where we are now. Um where are we, Chase? Set the scene for everyone if they're listening.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

We are in Medina, Minnesota, on the property that uh our school district plans to build a new elementary school and a new middle school. Thanks to the generosity of our community's voters to come out and support us on this venture. Uh we look forward to uh getting the larger process started. And now that we have the funds secured, we can go to work on the design and developing timelines and starting to move the projects forward.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Yeah, so if you if you were to look kind of past us and you keep going for a while, kind of up over the hill, you'd eventually run into highway 55, kind of uh looking out where we're facing that's Hamill Road, and yeah, we're we're kind of in the middle of you know what is some version of farmland and prairie, and so this is where obviously the the new elementary school and the new middle school is going to be built. When did the district buy this property? And what was the vision back when the property was bought?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Uh the finalization of the purchase of the property was in 2018, and I believe there was about a two or three year process leading up to the actual purchase of that property, of this property. And we explored a number of options, mostly in Medina, because that's where the greatest amount of our growth is going to be into the future. So we had some district staff that were busy uh talking work and working with realtors and literally talking to farmers and trying to learn more about uh their properties and whether or not they would ever have any interest in possibly uh selling some of their land for future school district expansion. We've known in the back of our minds for a long time that we probably at some point would need another elementary and middle school and determined the approximate size of property that we would need, and what we ended up purchasing here seemed to suit our needs really well. So it's about 85 acres, of which 65 acres are considered buildable, which is uh plenty uh uh nicely sized for both an elementary and a middle school, and uh that's what we uh secured this property for. Our school boards in the past have always kept their eye on uh having property in their ownership in the event that we needed to expand. And and uh the great thing about this particular parcel of land and building another elementary and middle school is that I believe it gets us across that capacity finish line for the district uh at a minimum for many years into the future, maybe another elementary 10 or 15 years down the road. But um, these two buildings might actually accommodate what we could anticipate as being our upper limit of growth.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

So, from your perspective, you mentioned the school board is has been supportive of kind of forward thinking with with property like this. What is that common for school districts to, you know, because in 2018 is seven, eight years ago, how is it common for school districts to purchase property well in advance of building? Because obviously, like now we see the benefit of when we're going out for the referendum, we have these two schools, and you need a spot to build them, right? Right. So, how common is that for schools to be that forward-thinking when it comes to property?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Yeah, it's a good question. I don't know that I can really comment specifically on a lot of other school districts and how they approach um something like this, but uh for our school district, I know when I came to the district in 2008, we owned some property uh north of what then was called County Road 47. Now it's uh known as Chankata Trail, I think. And uh we ended up swapping the property that we owned with a builder who owned um property that was more conducive that we felt would better fit an elementary school, and they liked the property we owned to build residential homes on. So we determined the values and we traded, and uh and uh you know somebody paid the difference. I don't know what it was, we owed them or they owed us, but we ended up securing the property in the end where we ended up building Metal Ridge Elementary School. And then a similar process followed that after we built Metal Ridge and we recognized we're gonna need another elementary, and we went to work and purchased some additional property, and once again we swapped the property that we purchased, which was uh directly west of where Metal Ridge was built at the intersection of County Road 47 and Highway 101, and then purchased the property that uh currently has uh Northwoods Elementary School on it. And that opened in uh the fall of 2019, and recognizing how quickly Metal Ridge filled up and how quickly we anticipated Northwoods would fill up in the following year, uh the school board had been engaged in uh getting ready for that next frontier, which was further west. And then 2018 uh finalized the purchase of this property.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

So, what is it like for you to kind of take a step back and you know, from obviously building Northwoods, building Meadow Ridge, to buying this property seven, eight years ago to going out for the referendum and now thinking like, wow, this is actually going to this is actually gonna happen. Like, what does that feel like for you?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Uh it's a great feeling of satisfaction, primarily just in the form of how supportive our community is. And um to build two elementary schools and have them fill within a five to six year period um or sooner. Um it it's really gratifying to know that the uh academic program and the opportunities that we provide to our students for a wonderful school experience is attractive to families and they want to raise their kids here in our community. And um it's just really gratifying to know that that vision of opening those two new schools uh was in preparation for homes that hadn't been built yet and families who hadn't moved into them yet. And then the homes got built, the families moved in, and the schools filled up, uh, just kind of as we had predicted they would. And we anticipate now with the purchase of this property and the building of the schools, there will be high demand and interest from our home builders in communicating with the uh landowners uh out adjacent to our properties with the hope of being able to purchase that and begin to break ground on some new uh residential areas which are gonna be a big part of populating these two new schools?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah, because as we sit here, there's I think one house we can see from here, but as we look across Hamler Road, there's a lot of farmland and even some adjacent areas around the property for the district. If you could, you know, look into the future, like do you anticipate 20, 30 years from now there just being a bunch of houses around here?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

I would say it'd be a pretty safe bet. I think it probably would. Even the geese agree with me that are flying over.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Hopefully they don't uh hello.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Now that could hardly have been timed any better. They're uh out scouting new properties, perhaps on behalf of the home builders, trying to see what might be available. But you know, I think uh I don't know when I go back to when I came here in 2008, there was a lot of wide open area up in the uh spaces now in Corcoran and and uh eastern Medina area adjacent to Highway 101. Those are all filled now with uh relatively newer housing developments and and uh even south of County Road 47 or Chankata Trail. Um, there's been a lot of new homes built along that, adjacent to where Metal Ridge and Northwoods are located. And I'm pretty sure the same thing will happen here. We've been working closely with the city of Medina, and they already have at a minimum about 600 single-family homes that are on their radar that they're planning for on a relatively scaled back or slowed uh annual increase from what we've experienced in Plymouth and in Corcoran. But I anticipate that that's going to accelerate and I think they'll come on faster. And I think any other adjacent properties uh that may not have been on the radar of the City of Medina planning officials will probably come onto the market as well. And that's why I offer a little bit of a qualification on whether or not we're across the finish line. There's a lot of variables that are going to come into play with that. It'll depend somewhat on how many current landowners, uh, maybe with a 10 or 15 acre parcel of property with a home and maybe a horse barn and and a horse track on their property, you know, whether they want to hold on to that or uh wish to sell uh at what might end up being a very conducive uh business opportunity for them uh to sell that property and then to build more homes. And I think uh a second variable will be how many homes per acre they build. So we've had experience with uh within the district of uh uh either three or four uh new homes being built per acre. So that alone can have a pretty significant uh uh variable uh number of homes that can be built because it's you know if you get one more home per acre across the uh areas that might be conducive to building new homes, it would be uh, you know, quite a difference again.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Yeah, just the math on that. If you have a hundred acres, three or four per acre, three or four hundred homes, if it's two per acre, it's two, you know. So that's a exactly there's definitely some some gray area there. So obviously it's a little hard to imagine, like looking around, it's hard to imagine two new schools on this property, right? We just had geese flying over, there's a pond over there. Where where you know the referent ref referendum just passed? Um where are we at in the process now of all right, now we've secured the the the voters voted for to do this project. Where are we at in like the planning phase?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Yeah, it's a great question because periodically I'm already getting questions at parent meetings or district liaison meetings about when we might expect ground to be broken. Sometimes those who inquire with that question are a little surprised that it could easily be over a year before significant groundbreaking might occur. Because there isn't quite a lot of design that needs to happen. We also need to sell the first round of bonds uh that we've been authorized to move forward with, and and uh that's a several months long process. But uh some of the planning has already occurred. We've uh developed a committee that uh has already met two or three times, and uh they'll continue to meet throughout the duration of the construction, which will be probably a three and a half year to you know, maybe up to a four-year time period by the time everything is totally complete that was part of the package.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Who's on who's on that committee?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Well, it includes uh some of our finance uh department and buildings and grounds uh individuals. Um I'm a member of it, our incoming superintendent Rob Virgin will be a part of it when he joins our team. We have some other uh district staff that are part of that, and then we work with our strategic partners, Kraus Anderson and Wold Architects and Engineers, uh, who of course will be closely involved in the design of our new schools and then the other uh construction projects that we're gonna be doing. So, and then there will likely be over the course of time some visitors coming in uh from different departments or different programs to offer their insights. There will probably be some subgroups developed to take a look at, for example, the high school and what types of CTE programs might we want to develop classrooms for, or what types of athletic facilities, or how do we want for the new swimming pool to be designed and positioned in the uh adjacent to the locker rooms and the other athletic facilities. So that'll kind of evolve organically with time and and sort of on an as-needed basis. There'll be subgroups looking at furniture purchase and different uh groups that'll be visiting other elementary schools and middle schools and probably high school facilities where they have CTE programs like we are envisioning to add on to our high school. So at this point we haven't ruled anything in or out, but we will uh be very agile through the process and responsive to uh new inputs and new information that we need to harvest from our staff or community or from our strategic partners.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

So Wold Architects and Engineers, they are designing these buildings and additions, correct? Correct. And then Kraus Anderson is gonna be putting them putting them up.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Uh that's correct. There are construction managers, so they do uh work closely with their architects and engineers on putting all the uh specifications together for requests for proposals or bid proposals that go out. And then interested parties will submit bids and they do a bid opening generally, they'll uh award the bids to the uh lowest cost responsible bidder and do their best to stretch every dollar as far as it can go so that we can ensure that we deliver on the projects that uh were in the proposal and that we presented to the community uh which they voted uh to support and to move forward with.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

One thing I've heard you talk about in your many presentations during the referendum campaign was the benefit of building two schools on the same property. Can you speak to that at all?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah, there's probably some uh transportation logistical things that that can be helpful with that. Um, I think there could also be some advantages during the bidding time in that you have two relatively large facilities that are going to be constructed that are co-located on the same uh parcel of property. So if there are ways of coordinating the construction work uh to be completed, sometimes there's an economy of scale when uh contractors can move all of their equipment here. For example, it might be pouring the foundations for a school. And if the same company gets both bids and they can coordinate their timeline so that they can set up all the heavy equipment they need here in order to prepare the foundations, etc. I'm probably oversimplifying this, I'm not a construction engineer, but uh I think in general um our listeners will understand that that sometimes scope can make a big difference because the the setup and takedown time, commitment, and costs can be pretty extensive. And if you only need to do that once and you can position your equipment between the two sites and then do one and then do the next one, there could be some efficiencies there that could help save us some dollars.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

We're even thinking of earth moving, right? That obviously they'll probably need to level some stuff out uh behind us to build the schools, but just to be able to do that, you know, just to simplify it. You have a bulldozer here, and you don't need to drive five miles down the road to bulldoze more land, right? It's all right here. Yeah, yeah. Um, I've also heard you talk about a possibility of you know, Metal Ridge and Northwoods were built pretty recently. Is there any thought about could we incorporate some of those designs into the elementary and middle schools here?

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah, we've actually had quite a long history with replicating buildings and kind of creating the mirror image. So going way back, Greenwood and and Sunset Hill are kind of sister schools in that they're designed pretty similarly. They've evolved differently over the years, but have a lot of very similar features to them. And then Plymouth Creek and Kimberly Lane are mirror images of each other, and then Metal Ridge and Northwoods are mirror images of each other. So you do save a lot of design costs when you can take an existing floor plan and then even flip it uh to make the mirror image of it to uh create the facility. So I can't remember the exact number, but it seems like maybe when we designed and developed Northwoods, we probably saved around $300,000 in design costs by uh being able to replicate the floor plan. So it would make sense to me unless the property dictates elsewhere. Sometimes you can take a look at a existing footprint and say, you know, it just really doesn't work on that property. But I can envision taking the Metal Ridge or Northwoods floor plan and using that as a starting point and then tweaking it accordingly to fit on the property and to be responsive to whatever uh new inputs may have come our way after we've used those buildings for a few years now.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Well, and I'm sure school design best practices change over time as well, right? So thinking back to some of our older elementary schools, to what was designed at Northwoods or Meadow Ridge, and even in the last you know, decade, I'm sure things have changed subtly with what would be considered best practice as more schools are built and people learn and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, I would say too, given that we're also going to be building a middle school, that'll be a relatively new experience for us since junior high schools evolved into becoming middle schools. There's a little different design and the layout, and we've tried to replicate some of those preferred features in our existing three middle schools. But um, when you have a chance to design one from scratch and and uh implement some of the uh latest technologies and latest uh uh design elements with a for a middle school, we'll have some unique opportunities. And there are funds that were included in uh this uh levy question for some modifications to our existing middle schools uh in order to replicate some of those uh new best practice uh forms of facilities for middle school. So we really only designed one middle school in our district's history, and that's been East Middle School. Uh West Middle School used to be Why Zeta High School, and then Central Middle School became Why's That A High School, and then uh when the high school moved to Central, West became a middle school. When the high school moved to the new high school, which is now 30 years old, um central became a middle school. So those buildings were both kind of retrofitted from high schools to middle schools, and uh so really the only building that we designed uh to be a middle school was East Middle School, which was certainly in a different era where uh thoughts about uh what middle schools versus junior high schools were, um, you know, just as the name suggests, junior high schools used to be just smaller versions of high schools, and we know that developmentally middle school kids learn differently and different facilities can be helpful.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

We're not gonna hold you to this, and I guess even if we were to, you know, we'd have to come find you. Um but what is there like a ballpark timeline on when we could expect these schools online here at in Medina?

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah, right now we're looking at the fall of 2029. So originally we were thinking maybe the elementary could be ready in the fall of 2028. But uh as we've given it additional thought and as our strategic partners have looked at the timelines and what might be most conducive to the best uh bidding timelines, uh, we're looking at the fall of 29 for both buildings here to open up. And then with the high school edition, um I would guess that maybe by the start of the 2029 school year, some of those uh areas at the high school might be ready as well. Um but because all of the students are already located there, they'll be simply expanding out into the new area of the building. Some of the the uh new classrooms in uh the new construction could be brought online during the course of the school year. So we wouldn't necessarily have to have the whole uh wing uh complete before anybody can move in. There may be different parcels of that that can become available. Maybe in October or in January or February. And then by the fall of 2030, I would guess almost all of the major work is going to be wrapped up. And then we have some smaller projects that are more standalone. Some examples of that would be East Middle School with a new cafeteria and a new kitchen. Those could be probably designed in a shorter time frame. And construction timelines could maybe start up earlier. And you know, maybe those could be ready by the fall of 2028. Or I'm not quite sure yet. That's all what Cross Anderson and World Architects and Engineers are working on now. We're going to be building a new gym at Sunset Hill Elementary. And again, that's an example of a standalone type of project that uh there would already be really good designs completed for a gymnasium. There's only so many ways to build a rectangle gymnasium. So uh existing blueprints exist for that. And they can uh probably go back and tweak those and make them fit, yeah, you know, and figure out how to tie it into the building.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah, and I suppose for a lot of these, you know, there's the cafeteria at the three elementary schools. You do have to work around the learning that's happening to some degree, right? So like taking advantage of summers, I'm sure, will be in the in the plans for a lot of these.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Right. Yeah, and in the school business, everybody wants to do their construction in the summer months, but on a project of this scale, obviously it's gonna, you know, span the full course of the year and and um by figuring out what the most most appropriate timelines are. Um that must be the uh 140 express making its way through town here.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Well, maybe this is a good time to talk about so there's there's a train track that kind of runs. It sounds like it is parallel to Highway 55. How how will the traffic flow go here? I know there's it's a highway 55 is such an important highway for access to the metro. So has there been conversations about traffic flow at this property?

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah, we've actually had a lot of conversations about that. That is probably one of the challenges of being on the south side of Highway 55 and the railroad when we know that uh there is a pretty good sized expanse of Medina north of Highway 55. So figuring out ways uh in the event that students from north of 55 in Medina are gonna end up at the school, which I would say is likely, yeah. We are gonna have to figure out you know the best traffic flow for that. So we've explored a number of options up to and including a bridge over uh Highway 55 and over the railroad, which really is pretty cost prohibitive. Yeah, and uh probably a more likely scenario will be uh an extended turn lane, a left turning lane for westbound uh school buses making their way onto the property andor uh cars that are uh dropping kids off. And then some additional safety features at the railroad tracks and crossings. And you know, I'm not the resident expert on that, but we have been in communication with the state and the county on uh their longer-term plans for Highway 55. We've done a traffic study of Highway 55 on the adjacent areas. We've also been in regular communication with the City of Medina, and they have uh partnerships with the state and the county as well. So there will be more discussion. We'll use the results of the traffic study, and we'll work in partnership with uh our strategic partners, Wold Architects and Engineers and Kraus Anderson, uh, in tandem with uh the state and the county and and the railroad, just to try to really ensure that we're all on the same page for how we can maximize the ease of traffic flow, maximize safety, and make sure we can get students into and out of campus uh in the best possible manner.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

So I think I think it's easy to get excited about these new schools that are being built. But I think we may be blue sight a little bit of some of the relief that's gonna provide some of our other buildings because as we've talked about a lot, the district's growing and there's there is kind of a space uh crunch at a lot of these buildings. Aside from just yes, we'll have two beautiful new schools. What is gonna be kind of the broader impact of having some of that relief across the system?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, it's gonna have a nice impact actually because we have some schools right now, there's just no agility left for principals to be able to figure out how to create a space maybe for being responsive to the unique needs of some of our learners to find a space that can be modified or uh set up in a way that's uh most helpful for a student who may have some special needs or unique needs. We just really don't have a lot of capacity or capability with that right now. So if we could find a way, and we're hoping that these facilities will allow us to do it at least, you know, for a good number of years into the future, is to be able to develop that flexibility within each building so that principals can uh have a little bit of opportunity for creativity in the summer months as they're planning for the opening of school and to not have each classroom filled to the max without any spillover spaces that can be utilized for uh unique learning needs. And I think that's really going to help us uh get to that point. And ideally in an elementary school, I mean, if you can plan so that you have about 90% of the building filled within the standard classroom so that you do have that flexibility, it doesn't mean any of that space ever goes unused because it doesn't, but there are times when we really need to create another section of third grade or fifth grade, and we just don't have a classroom. And we're experiencing that currently at Sunset Hill. Over the years, Plymouth Creek and Kimberly Lane have had that issue, Birchview's had that issue. We've literally had uh Plymouth Creek and Birchview kindergarten students attending at Central Middle School during times when uh they were overcrowded and and didn't have enough capacity. So that really drove the need for Meadow Ridge and Northwoods. And uh now that uh we're pushed further west and Corcoran is filling quickly, and Medina now is uh going to continue their growth into those uh areas further west from here. Um we're really gonna need some additional space to relieve some of our current buildings, and we have to have new space in order for some of the kids to be uh relocated to the buildings out on this end of town.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

So as we close, I want to fast forward to the fall of 2029. You'll be you know sipping coffee on your porch without a care in the world. Um having open new schools as superintendent. Can you kind of walk through what that energy is like on that first day in a new building and what these families can look forward to with these spaces?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah, it's really been a lot of fun to uh be here while we've opened two new elementaries, and then we opened our early learning school, and uh also a new edition at the high school. So there is a really fun buzz that goes with that. And uh through the construction of the high school edition, the two elementaries, and and the early learning school as well. I made a lot of trips through there and took a lot of photos and saw the process uh from breaking ground to uh moving students in. And it really is an exciting time to open up a new school. Um uh it brings a unique type of energy. Generally, it's brought a little bit of relief to all of our buildings because we've uh created that agility that I spoke of earlier and being able to uh utilize space in a little bit better way. Um, and the the beginning of a school year is always fun, but I think when you know that your school district is growing and it's being driven by what we hear frequently from parents and realtors and other community residents, in large part due to the quality of the school district and uh the satisfaction that our parents have, and even those who are not parents in the district. I think they have a really deep understanding of, first of all, the appreciation they have for how the school districts serve their kids and uh maybe even their grandkids in many ways. So they come out to support us uh to help keep this great enterprise moving forward. And uh it's just really gratifying and rewarding to know that we have a community that steps up, supports us, values what we're doing, um, that has an appreciation for education and they have deep trust in the work that we do and and know that uh as we move forward and continue to open more buildings that we'll continue to hold on to those uh guiding principles we have of uh trying to maintain that feel of responsiveness to the unique needs of the learners, continuous improvement, um, and really personalization of the learning experience for uh each and every one of our students, which is really what our mission drives us to do. So I think all of those things packaged together make it really fun uh to be able to do this type of work and to be able to expand. And a lot of it is just driven by uh the recognition that we have a very appreciative community. Um, they respect and and like what we do and and people continue moving here. And I would anticipate uh now that there's word on the street that new schools are on their way, uh, there will be a lot of home builder companies that are going to be very interested in the adjacent properties, and there will be a lot of uh future uh residents seeking to move into the school district to to be a part of this great public school district and and YZ and the surrounding communities.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

So, what should we name the schools?

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Well, that's a good question. We have a policy on that actually. Okay, I would imagine we'll utilize uh a similar process that has been used. Goose elementary? Yeah, maybe. Fly over goose flyover uh uh school or whatever. But yeah, we do have a policy. We've done it a couple times with Meadow Ridge and Northwoods. We invite participation from the community and we get lots of interesting names, and then there's a committee that kind of takes all the inputs and narrows it down, and at least for the elementary school, that's the process we've used. Now our middle schools are currently uh very creatively named uh West, Central, and East. My best guess for uh this new middle school might be north, or maybe northwest. Yeah, but if you have a northwest, that probably would suggest you already have a north. So I think probably a good name for our new middle school would be YZ and North Middle School.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Okay. Well, more to come on that. Um, yeah, so it'd be if we can yeah, do a time time warp three years from now, maybe we'd be on camera in front of two beautiful new schools, but it's really exciting.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

That's the vision and the plan, and pretty confident it's all gonna unfold just in that fashion.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Well, thanks for joining us out here, Chase. You're welcome. My pleasure, you know.