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With a light summer agenda, the Chisago Lakes School Board spent a majority of its time during the regular meeting on Thursday, July 17 focusing on the Long Term Facilities Maintenance Fund and its approval for 2027 due to a recent legislative change.

Board member Jeff Lindeman said that door-knocking for the school bond vote this past spring, many people asked him why the school doesn’t just save up money to tackle the projects like a typical homeowner would do with their own property.

Director of Business Services Robyn Vosberg-Torgerson explained that the district gets about $1.3 million each year in LTFM funds, but approximately $420,000 of that is for debt service and $240,000 of that goes to yearly health and safety issues such as employee safety training, parts of the HVAC system, inspections and small things that are district wide like testing and ensuring fire extinguishers work.

She said that leaves the district with roughly $640,000 per year to try and keep up  maintenance on six different buildings. She said the 2026 plan, which was approved last year, is focusing on LED lighting, flooring at Taylors Falls Elementary, door frames at the Primary School, some new carpet at the high school, drinking fountains at the middle school and curb striping at Lakeside School.

The district follows an extensive process that involves the principals at each building sitting down with the head custodians, and in conjunction with the district’s Director of Building and Grounds Kyle Boerum, they come up with a plan of what needs to be done at each site.

“Everything is important, but these are just small projects,” superintendent Brian Dietz said. “Most of the stuff we were asking for in the bond are much bigger in scale.”

Lindeman added, “The fund does not provide enough to keep up with the needs of a district with six buildings.”

But a 2025 legislative change granted the board authority to levy for funds, to replace and repair roofs for fiscal year 2027 and later.  

The board approved  $4.8 million for the roofing projects at the primary school, middle school and the high school along with the annual LTFM amount.

The primary project is $430,000, the middle school budget is $1.32 million and the high school roof budget is $3.05 million.

The scope of the roof work, as outlined by consultants The Garland Company, includes:

• Removal and proper disposal of the existing roof system and related components.

• The current insulation level is R-20 across the numerous roof sections. As part of the roof replacement new insulation will meet the current building code requirement of R-30, therefore lowering the energy consumption for the school building.

• Areas of wet insulation will be removed and replaced with dry insulation of matching type and thickness.

• Modification of existing masonry and HVAC equipment to allow for proper roof flashing details and minimum warranty requirements.

• Installation of a long-term multi-ply built-up roof system with a maintenance free gravel wear surfacing.

• Installation of new sheet metal copings and counter flashings as related to the roof replacement project.

• Restoration of associated set up areas to original condition.

Supt. Dietz did add in his report that he is still hopeful for the future of the bonding projects. He’s been visiting with the local cities at their council meetings and said he has had a very positive experience. He said analysts are putting together the info from the May vote and a subsequent June survey on the bond and “making sure we are moving in the right direction.”

“Having these conversations opens the door since we've had an opportunity to hear what people have said and what they're thinking,” Dietz explained. “That leads to solutions and potential alternatives. We’ll keep working on the plan. These bonds aren’t going to go away and we’re going to have to pass them at some point and come up with a plan that our community will support.”

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