SR-R Community Survey on Two Potential Projects

SAUK RAPIDS (WJON News) -- Residents in the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District are encouraged to fill out a community feedback survey.

Superintendent Brad Bergstrom says the survey was recently mailed out to every single address in the district. The survey includes information on two possible projects and the potential tax impact they could have on property owners.

Bergstrom says one of the projects is a possible new 60,000-square-foot ECFE building to replace Hillside which is nearly 100 years old.

If we looked at abut the same size space to build new versus redoing what's already there it's about $25 million to redo it, it's $27 million to build new, so it doesn't really make a lot of sense.  Now, we're looking at a little bit more space than that.

Bergstrom says the new ECFE building would cost about $37.9 million. He says they are bursting at the seams with students enrolled in the program going from 160 to now at about 240.

He says 22 community meetings held in 2018 identified six priorities that the community wanted addressed with four of them completed including a new Pleasantview, better pickup and dropoff areas at all buildings, safe and secure entrances, and utilizing the space they already have.

The other potential project is a $19.8 million outdoor activities complex next to the high school.

The complex would include two specific things one would be a stadium with a turf field for soccer, lacrosse, football, etc.  And then next to that would be a nine lane track again with turf in the middle.

Bergstrom says the complex would replace the current facility at the middle school which was built in 1991. He says Sauk Rapids-Rice is one of only two schools in the Central Lakes Conference that does not have artificial turf.

The timing for this project as well as a potential new ECFE building is because in December of 2025, the bond on the high school will be paid off.

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The final two priorities were a new ECFE building and a new sports complex at the high school. Bergstrom says the board wants to make sure they still have community support for the final two priorities before they move forward.

The deadline to fill out the survey is August 5th.  The school board will give a presentation on the survey results at a special meeting on August 20th.  They will then determine the next steps based on the results of the survey.

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