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North Branch school District residents will make the trek to cast ballots in support of,  or against a bond issue Tuesday, May 24.  

The only place where polling is happening is the district’s Education Center (old primary school) at Grand Avenue, near the middle school.  Hours for voting are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The district wants authorization to roll debt service into $62.1 million in new borrowing. The district refers to this as “tax neutral” with new borrowing made possible as old debt gets retired. The same sum that parcels have been supporting in their tax bill, goes into the new debt instead of dropping off.  This is why the ballot will carry a printed disclaimer that this is a “tax increase” but in actuality it is re-designating similar tax dollars already being collected for the school district.  

North Branch needs to borrow to tackle a host of repairs, replacements, upgrades inside of and on the exteriors of buildings. Part of the plan includes a community and school athlete center, and artificial turf extending the season and number of days of use of the stadium.

Corey McKinnon, North Branch Activities and Community Education Director, was invited to meet with a group of local athletic boosters last week, to focus mainly on sports-related aspects of the plan.

He explained why it  includes eight new outdoor tennis courts (the activities center is taking over the site of existing courts) and two indoor courts are being built into shared space with indoor basketball and volleyball (multi-purpose) as part of the activity center.  

Teams will have square footage in the center for changing rooms and permanent bathrooms for both athletes and the public are part of the plan.  Concessions and events admittance window complete the floor plan.

McKinnon explained that the girls’ gymnastics program has held “home” meets at Chisago Lakes’ middle school for several years;  because North Branch facilities can’t comply with state high school league level gymnastics’ standards.  

By including community basketball-volleyball  space in an activity center the gymnasts can use the high school east gym.  Their practice space, currently in the Education Center, will then be utilized for community ed and pre-school programming.

“We expect the activity center to be well-used,” he added, by athletes but also through community rentals and special events.

McKinnon explained the district expects on-site work for any of the bond issue projects to begin no sooner than 2017 spring-summer.  

The activity center would be a 2018 project, and all work at all buildings is slated for fall 2019 completion.  The work has to be done when school is not in session for the most part, which stretches out the timeline,  McKinnon noted.

McKinnon told about 15 sports boosters assembled May 10,  “This is an exciting time...these (improvements) will create something we can all be proud of and that meet needs.”  Providing an activity center will attract community members, and the long deferred facility issues like windows, heating systems, lighting, etc. will be getting addressed.

Why no pool
One meeting attendee asked why the district chose to not include a swimming pool in this bond financing?

Supt. Deb Henton said the goal was to keep costs within the scope of what’s already being collected for the old debt. The pool also carries with it operating costs of some $250,000 annually, squashing the “tax neutral” aspect the School Board sought. Henton added, however,  that there was noticeable interest in a community pool expressed by residents who participated in the district’s survey by e mail  “ThoughtExchange.”  

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