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The school board has decided to use the proceeds of bonds that were sold last year to overlay the track at Paulsen Field and replace the roof at the middle and high school. A larger project will be needed in the future to address subsurface issues beneath the track. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
The Pipestone Area School (PAS) Board has decided to use bond proceeds to replace the roof on the middle and high school and overlay the track at Paulsen Field.
Earlier plans included using the bond proceeds to install a turf field at Paulsen Field, build a new greenhouse, upgrade the family and consumer science area, and relocate the industrial technology classroom. Those plans were first thrown off when soil borings on the track made it look like it was at the end of its useful life. The roof then moved to the top of the priority list due to water infiltration.
School board and facility committee members Mark Hiniker and Lance Oye said they thought the school district should take care of the existing property rather than taking on new projects.
“It makes it difficult because there was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about the other projects, but, again, as the committee talked about, those might be things that get considered down the road as we talk about that track as well,” said PAS Superintendent Klint Willert.
Willert said the facilities committee looked at potential costs from a couple roofing providers and suggested working with Tremco.
“They’ve worked on a number of schools in the southwestern part of the state, a number of schools across the entire state actually,” he said.
A preliminary project timeline from Tremco shows design work being done this summer, a bid opening in October, starting phase one of the project in June 2025 and the second phase in June 2026 with completion in September 2026. Willert said the bond funds have to be used by September 2026.
The board approved developing a working agreement with Tremco that will be brought to the school board at a future meeting. Willert said Tremco would serve as a designer of the project and contractors would bid on the labor to install Tremco products.
The board opted to overlay the track for now in hopes of keeping it usable for another three to five years and take on the subsurface work at a later time.
The bond funds that will be used for the roof and track projects were part of the $27,730,000 in bonds that voters approved in 2019 to fund the construction of the new elementary school and other improvements. The school district sold $25,415,000 in bonds at the time rather than the full amount voters approved because it received a bond premium of $2,944,938.75 and state law at the time limited the bond amount plus the premium to 102 percent of the amount voters approved. That statute changed in 2021 and the school district was able to sell the portion of the bonds that were approved, but not sold in 2019.
The school board sold $2,315,000 in general obligation school building bonds and $370,000 in capital facilities bonds in August. The bid included a premium of $274,645, bringing the total amount received from the sale to $2,959,645.
Another $300,000 is available from the sale of the Brown and Hill elementary school properties and around $110,000 in long-term facility maintenance funding from the state is available that could be used for the resurfacing of the track.
