On Friday, October 5, 2012, the School District 166 school board met in special session and passed a motion to attach the Cook County Family YMCA to the school pending approval of a purchase agreement with Cook County and a public hearing regarding the closure of the school’s west wing.
Presented at the meeting was a draft shared services agreement. Because the facility is still a year out from opening and an executive director of the YMCA still needs to be hired, ISD 166 Superintendent Beth Schwarz said, “We are not in a position to make anything final yet.”
One of the topics discussed was that of cost-neutral agreements where each organization will benefit with in-kind services. Costneutral agreements include the school district providing custodial workers, facilities manager, snow removal, and annual gym floor maintenance while the YMCA will offer K-5 swim lessons/aquatic safety at 15 hours per student and aquatic safety classes to 6-12 grade students as needed, and potentially life guarding classes for PE credit.
The school district is hoping to sign a contract with the YMCA by November 16, but a user agreement won’t be finalized for some time, said Superintendent Schwarz.
Under terms of the agreement with Cook County, the school will sell the old gymnasium and community education offices area for $160,000 and lease the land under it for $1 per year for 99 years to the county.
The school would agree to pay yearly maintenance costs to maintain a newly installed wooden gym floor, while the county would pay to have it refinished once every 15 years (or when needed).
The deal won’t affect the lease agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which currently occupies offices in the west wing while work on the DNR building east of Grand Marais is being completed. The school will receive all of the lease money from the DNR, which is expected to be there through next July.
If the school’s boiler system is adequate, the YMCA will pay the district 20 percent of the west wing’s heating cost per year. Utilities will be separately metered by each organization.
An additional 77 parking spots have been identified for YMCA users but there are no funds designated to have them built at this time. These parking spaces would be back in the area where the recently demolished wood boiler used to be. Currently there are 25 parking spaces in the front that will be designated for the YMCA.
The school will receive first rights to use the gym for physical education, games and practices, along with locker room space during games, sports official locker rooms, weight room space for sports teams and possible certified strength coaches for sports teams, and the walking track for indoor recess/gym.
Because the school’s attorney couldn’t be present (due to a family emergency) the county’s attorney, Baiers Heeren, led the school board through a broad sweep of the contract. At the end of his overview of the draft agreement, he added, “But as we all know, the devil’s in the details.”
When asked how construction would affect the school day, Superintendent Schwarz said the building contractor would have to work with the staff to keep noise down, and any asbestos removal would be done outside of the instruction day—from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Board member Deb White asked about issues with air quality during the construction phase. “During the 1997 renovation there were complaints about the air quality in the school,” White said.
Schwarz said that the current air exchange in the building is very good, but added, “If someone is very sensitive, it might be an issue.”
Schwarz said Community Education would move into the community center when it was completed and that a current part-time employee had sales and marketing experience. She said there have been talks with that employee to see if they could become full-time and help sell YMCA memberships. The YMCA would pay part of that salary, said Schwarz.
After some discussion and questions for Heeren the board voted 4-1 to accept the tentative contract. Board members Mary Sanders, Terry Collins, Deb White, and Jeanne Anderson voted to approve the draft contract while Leonard Sobanja voted against the contract.
A public meeting to accept community input about the YMCA will be held October 25 at 4 p.m. at the Jane Mianowski Conference Center.
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