Frequently Asked Questions
Questions About Our Schools’ Needs
+ What challenges are our school buildings facing?
Our two school buildings are among the oldest in the state of Minnesota. Classrooms are undersized and outdated, and building infrastructure such as walls, windows, doors, and HVAC systems are in need of significant repair and replacement. The buildings need extensive updates to improve security to entrances and to meet federal accessibility requirements for those with disabilities. Recognizing these significant challenges, the Nashwauk-Keewatin School Board proposed a plan in 2021 to replace the buildings with a new PreK-12 school, which voters approved on Feb. 8, 2022.
+ Why didn’t the school district maintain the buildings?
Our maintenance staff has done an admirable job of keeping our schools in the best condition possible. Still, the reality is that our buildings are not designed with today’s education in mind. The age of our buildings created repair and renovation needs that extend far beyond the district’s maintenance budget.
Questions About the Process
+ What kind of work did N-K do to develop the plan for the new school and wellness center?
School board members and district leaders assessed the cost and feasibility of remodeling one or both existing buildings. Further, they studied the costs and benefits of a new school building versus remodeling one or both existing facilities. For over a year, district staff and consultants met weekly to develop the plan that voters ultimately approved during the referendum on Feb. 8, 2022.
+ Were local community members involved in the planning process?
Yes. Prior to proposing the plan to build a new school and wellness center, the district held more than a dozen meetings with teachers, staff, parents, and members of the community to listen to residents’ ideas and priorities for how the district should address its facilities issues. Input from staff, students and community members was also gathered via ThoughtExchange, an online platform that gave residents several weeks to respond to specific questions about what the future of N-K’s schools should look like. The school board met regularly to review improvement scenarios and determine the best ways to align them with educational needs and community feedback.
Elected officials including Itasca County Commissioner Ben DeNucci, state Rep. Julie Sanstede, state Sen. David Tomassoni as well as IRRRB Commissioner Mark Phillips and agency staff also assisted with the development of the plan and how it would be presented to voters.
+ Did the district consider remodeling the existing buildings?
Yes. School construction experts presented the school board with three options for remodeling the existing buildings. But given the extremely old age of the school buildings and the extent of the needed repairs, it was estimated that renovating the buildings would cost between $41 million and $47 million. By comparison, the projected cost to construct the proposed PreK-12 school is $42 million.
+ Why weren't voters able to choose between new construction and financing repairs?
School districts may not offer competing plans on the same bond referendum ballot. Guided by ongoing community feedback, the N-K School Board studied all the options and unanimously decided that the best plan to present to voters was for the construction of a new PreK-12 school.
+ Why did the district decide to pursue a new school now?
Our district recognized that the infrastructure challenges at our current buildings would only worsen with age and become more expensive to address. Deteriorating conditions were already impacting our ability to provide a healthy, safe and productive learning environment for our students. The board decided to pursue a bold plan to build a new school with the confidence that the plan could be achieved with majority support from the community and financial assistance from state and local government.
Questions About the Plan
+ What’s included in the plan?
NK’s two 101-year-old elementary and high schools will be replaced by a single PreK-12 school and attached wellness center. Voters approved two ballot questions to finance the project: Question 1 provided funding to build the new preK-12 school that meets state standards for education, security and student health. Question 2 provided fundings for the connected wellness center that will feature a public library, fitness center and flexible space for community gatherings or possibly a daycare.
The new school will feature appropriately-sized general purpose classrooms as well as specialty spaces for career and technical education, arts, music, science and physical fitness. Students will have a designated kitchen and cafeteria, as well as a media center and learning spaces for research and collaboration.
+ Where will the new school be located?
The school will be located on a 42-acre site between Nashwauk and Keewatin, north of Highway 169 adjacent to the O’Brien Reservoir. This land was generously donated to the school district by U.S. Steel Corporation on June 16, 2021.
+ Why did the district propose two questions instead of one?
The two-question ballot gave voters a greater range of choices when determining which investments the district should make. By breaking the plan into two questions, voters are given greater control in deciding how their tax dollars will be invested.
+ What will happen to N-K's existing school buildings?
The district has held numerous meetings and online listening sessions to gather input from residents and community leaders of Nashwauk and Keewatin to make sure that a broad range of ideas are considered. While final decisions have not been made about the future of the existing buildings, district and city leaders are likely to consider redeveloping the sites for housing.
+ Doesn’t N-K have declining enrollment?
N-K’s enrollment has been generally steady over the past decade, and is projected to remain steady over the next 10 years. Like most districts, N-K saw a decline in enrollment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but enrollment showed signs of a rebound thanks to the return of in-person learning. N-K Serves approximately 560 students in our school district that covers 275 square miles.
Questions About the Cost
+ What will the plan cost?
With the approval of the bond referendum, Nashwauk-Keewatin Schools is investing a total of approximately $47.7 million to build a new PreK-12 school and adjacent wellness center. The new PreK-12 school will cost approximately $42 million. The attached wellness center will cost approximately $5.7 million.
Questions About School Finance
+ What is a bond referendum?
A bond referendum is an election that allows school district residents to decide whether the district should issue bonds to fund improvements to its school(s). School districts issue bonds to obtain the funds necessary to pay for construction and professional services. Similar to a mortgage, the district pays back the bonds over a fixed period of years with money raised from property taxes and aid received from the state.
In the last 10 years, 228 Minnesota school districts have passed bond referenda to finance school construction projects.
+ Why bond?
Bonding allows a school district to make large-scale improvements to school building infrastructure immediately, so students and teachers can enjoy the benefits of a new school as quickly as possible. Further, bonding allows districts to lock in a single interest rate on the entirety of the project right away, rather than spend more money completing improvements one step at a time over a period of several years.
+ When a school district bonds for a project, is it at a fixed rate or variable rate?
When the district issues bonds, the interest rate is fixed at that time, which allows for predictability for taxpayers. In the future, the interest rate could go down, and the district would have the option to refinance to lower the cost for taxpayers.
Questions About Partnerships with Other School Districts
+ Why is N-K building a new building instead of just consolidating with another district?
N-K is building a new school because our school is an important part of our community. In addition, bussing students, especially elementary students, to a school even further away from their homes is expensive and not the best option for them compared to having a school in our community.
The new building will support future education offered through shared resources with neighboring school districts. N-K will continue to collaborate with other districts to ensure that we can offer student programs and athletics while making sure our limited budget is used efficiently. The new school will support N-K’s efforts to expand mutually beneficial collaborative programs and career training with other schools.
+ Is N-K consolidating with another school district?
N-K is actively exploring ways to expand educational opportunities for students through increased partnership with neighboring school district ISD 318 (Grand Rapids/Bigfork) and possibly others. This effort is a part of the district’s goal to comprehensively improve student learning in multiple ways, beyond just the new school building.
The school boards of Nashwauk-Keewatin and ISD 318 have each passed resolutions to pursue increased collaboration and shared student programming to provide more opportunities for area students. Both districts plan to study whether consolidating school districts would result in mutual benefits in student programming and financial efficiencies. Alternatively, the districts may determine that expanded educational programming and other functions could be cooperatively operated more efficiently using a joint powers agreement.
+ What are the benefits of collaborating with our neighboring schools?
A small group of teachers, administrators and board members from N-K and ISD 318 have begun to identify benefits of closer cooperation between the districts. Since the two districts already share a common school calendar and bell schedule, there may be ways to expand course choices and career programs for students at all three campuses (e.g. N-K, Grand Rapids, Bigfork). In addition, a wider variety of choices of extracurricular activities, volume purchasing and sharing staff and administrators can help the schools do more with their budgets.
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