Support the Timberjay by making a donation.

Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely school officials are doing their homework

Board prepares to face IRRR, legislators on facilities project

Keith Vandervort
Posted 2/27/20

ELY – School Board members here received an update Monday night on the progress being made by district administrators on a plan for securing funding for the school building renovation plan, now …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Ely school officials are doing their homework

Board prepares to face IRRR, legislators on facilities project

Posted

ELY – School Board members here received an update Monday night on the progress being made by district administrators on a plan for securing funding for the school building renovation plan, now dubbed the 21st Century Learning Facility Improvement Project.
Earlier this month the board adopted a resolution authorizing ISD 696 Superintendent Erik Erie and his support team to pursue a plan of about $20 million for the initiative.
While half of the funds would need to be approved by voters this summer, more than $7 million is being requested from the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation’s School Collaboration Bricks and Mortar program.
Erie and district principals Anne Oelke and Megan Anderson are, in essence, cramming for exams as they are days and weeks away from major presentations to the IRRR board and state legislators in an effort to convince them that the school at the end of the road is in need of financial help.
In trying to access funds from the IRRR grant program, specific criteria must be followed, Erie said. “We are looking at a collaboration of two or more school districts and new collaborative activities and improved curriculum opportunities,” he said.
With many meetings involving IRRR staff and ISD 696’s lobbyist already held, the grant application process continues. In fact a pre-application conference was held last week, according to Erie, and the formal grant application and narrative was due at the end of this week.
“Eligible projects meet the needs of collaborative activities and curriculum opportunities for students by building new facilities, renovating existing facilities, bonding, demolition and infrastructure,” Erie said.
“In other criteria, they are looking at job creation,” he added. “This (project) would certainly create a lot of construction jobs and has the potential of creating other jobs because we hope this district will grow and enhance our community. This project would certainly benefit an underserved community. Being at the end of the road, we know that sometimes we get underserved.”
The obvious choice for collaborative efforts, because they are the only nearby district, is St. Louis County ISD 2142. Ongoing collaboration is in place with Northeast Range School in Babbitt. Other ISD 696 collaboration efforts, according to Erie, involve Vermilion Community College, the Northeast Higher Education District, the Applied Learning Institute, Education Innovative Partners, Ely Community Resources, and local businesses and organizations.
The school calendars of each district should be common enough to allow for continuing and new collaboration. Both school districts have recently adopted their 2020-2021 school calendars. “Ours match well enough where we can do collaboration, so that is not an issue,” Erie said. “We do not have the same calendar, but (IRRR) is looking for evidence that they are common enough to allow for collaboration.”
At the pre-application conference last week, IRRR officials pressed Ely school administrators to strengthen their case for collaboration efforts. “We are revising that this week and it will be included in the formal application,” Erie said. “We still have a lot of work to do on that.”
In a surprise development, Erie said that he learned late Sunday night that an IRRR staffer had scheduled a meeting with a state legislator who is on the IRRR board for Thursday afternoon. Erie said he is sending both Anderson and Oelke to meet with the delegation at the IRRR office on Eveleth. “This is a great opportunity to get in front of them before we make our full presentation,” he said.
Anderson explained her work on options to revise the school daily schedule to allow for more learning options for students. She highlighted how a change to the Wednesday schedule could offer additional time blocks for students to take a variety of elective classes throughout the school year. She noted that any schedule change is still in the developmental stage and could be similar to what is happening in ISD 2142. “I would love to move forward with something like this regardless of the (current) situation,” she said. “This is exciting and a direction we need to explore.”
In terms of the facilities project budget, Erie said, an updated cost projection from the district’s architect is not changed much, but it is restructured. “I can tell you that it is somewhat lower, so we already have a cost reduction based on where we think the IRRR will be,” he said.
Erie and the school board briefly discussed the scheduled March 18 meeting in St. Paul with legislators and IRRR board members. The meeting will likely begin at 8:30 a.m., he said, so the Ely delegation, consisting of school administrators, board members, teachers, parents and maybe some students, will plan to stay overnight near the capital on March 17.
Erie suggested that local stakeholders and community members who could attend the St. Paul meeting, such as Ely City Council members, would be helpful.
Mayor Chuck Novak was mentioned because of his connections with many state legislators, but school board chair Ray Marsnik cautioned that the mayor “is under fire” for recent comments he made about boycotting businesses that oppose proposed sulfide mining projects in northern Minnesota.
“Give him a chance to shine,” said board member Heidi Mann.
“(Novak) is well known with the Range delegation,” Erie added.