The GMG Community School District’s 1925 core secondary building in Garwin last Monday evening. The 99-year-old building would be replaced if a proposed Nov. 5, 2024 bond referendum is approved by a 60% supermajority of voters. The GMG school board approved contracting with design-build firm SitelogIQ during the Monday, June 10 meeting as part the planned referendum. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

GARWIN – During Monday night’s meeting, the GMG school board voted unanimously to hire design-build firm SitelogIQ as part of the district’s efforts to put a bond referendum — likely in the amount of $11.65 million — on the November 2024 ballot with the goal of replacing the district’s nearly century-old secondary building in Garwin.

The board approved a motion, 7-0. to hire SitelogIQ to guide the district’s community engagement efforts ahead of the referendum as well as to provide design services if the bond issue passes. Any referendum put to voters for general obligation bonds to fund school facility improvements requires a 60% supermajority.

Prior to the vote, which took place toward the end of a meeting that ran over two hours, SitelogIQ Planning Executive Jeff Herzberg gave a brief facilities and referendum presentation. As part of Herzberg’s introduction, Superintendent Chris Petersen presented documents to the board from the financial firm Piper Sandler summarizing GMG’s financial capacity, debt limit, and the impact a school bond could potentially have on the district’s property taxpayers.

According to the documents, the district retired some $235,000 in general obligation bonds during the past fiscal year and is scheduled to retire another $100,000 during fiscal year 2025.

Monies available in the district’s SAVE fund (local option sales and services tax) and Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) fund total just under $550,000.

Members of the Green Mountain-Garwin Board of Education along with Superintendent Chris Petersen, fourth from left, elementary principal Stacey Busch, and SBO Betsy Spaur, listen as SitelogIQ planning executive Jeff Herzberg, back right, gives a presentation on the district’s facilities this past Monday evening. Later in the meeting, the board approved, 7-0 an agreement with SitelogIQ for both professional and design services as part of a planned Nov. 5, 2024 bond referendum to replace the district’s 1925 secondary building in Garwin. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Passing the maximum $4.05 per $1,000 of taxable value levy for facility improvements would generate about $11.65 million in GO bonds for the district. SitelogIQ’s management fee — payable only upon referendum passage — is 18.75% of the total bond value.

Construction following passage would start in the spring of 2026, Herzberg said; the new addition would then be ready for students in 2028.

“[Now] really is the time to move [on the bond decision],” Herzberg told the board. “When’s the best time to plant a tree? Yesterday. Right? The next second best time is today. So we need to get moving if you’re choosing to do this.”

During discussion with the board, Herzberg told board members they would need to be “the face” of any community meetings held this summer and/or early fall ahead of the vote. Herzberg also said the district’s former interim superintendent – and current financial consultant – Gary Sinclair should be part of the community outreach process.

“Gary Sinclair probably needs to be involved at some level, just because of his history with the district and people’s … trust in him,” Herzberg said.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

At one point during the discussion, board member Kristine Kienzle brought up recent “bad press” surrounding SitelogIQ’s work with the North Linn Community School District.

According to reporting by Iowa Capital Dispatch published in February, back in August of 2022, North Linn “allowed some of its employees and other workers to be inside an asbestos-contaminated building despite a warning from state regulators to vacate it.” The asbestos exposure was the result of a facilities improvement project.

SitelogIQ (along with Tricon General Construction of Dubuque) was part of the North Linn project and, according to Dispatch reporting, were initially fined $99,000 by OSHA and $6,000 by the DNR. The school district was also fined more than $75,000 as a result of the contamination.

“During the process, our construction manager, our team had made the folks painfully aware of where the asbestos is and we don’t abate asbestos, we help everybody understand where it is,” Herzberg said. “[T]ypically, we would leave an allowance [for asbestos] if it’s in the buildings … that’s between [the school district] and [the contractor] to take care of it.”

He then elaborated further on the specific case to which Kienzle referred.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

“In [the North Linn] case, the plan all along was to cover the tile floor and one of the [Tricon General Construction] people working that day didn’t get the memo … that information had been painfully clear to everyone, we thought, but somebody working that day took a scrubber in there and exposed it,” he said. “So the school district, us, Tricon … paid a fine. … We felt like we had done our due diligence as the construction management company, but, you know, things happen.”

Full steam ahead

Later in the meeting, under new business, the board approved two agreements with SitelogIQ – one for professional design and another for professional services including pre-bond community engagement.

“This is big,” board president Jill Roberts said. “That (1925) building’s not going to last forever, and if we just keep kicking the can down the road – and we don’t do something somewhere – what chances do we have of continuing this district? Are people going to pull out because we have crappy buildings?”

She continued, “For me, personally, I feel it’s critical – the time … Time is of the essence, and I’m ready to move.”

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Board members mostly agreed with Roberts, including Ann Jackson, who spoke next.

“[T]his really just puts the decisions in the hands of the voters to pass this issue. … If a majority of our citizens don’t agree, then we know that … But we need to do something over here,” Jackson said.

Board members were also in agreement that Herzberg sufficiently assuaged the board’s concerns regarding SitelogIQ’s involvement with North Linn.

“I felt he answered that question,” board member Jackie Stonewall said.

For his part, board member Doug Dieleman said he was “ready to go” but that he was also “nervous” about the bond referendum passing.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

“But you’re not going to know unless you try. And then you’re going to kind of know where you’re at,” Dieleman said.

David Collins said he was concerned about the 18.75% fee SitelogIQ charges.

“But they’re doing the majority of the work,” Roberts said. “We’re the figurehead that’s talking to the community.”

Collins agreed with Roberts but said that the hefty fee would still be a topic of discussion among voters.

Superintendent Petersen told the board that if they were to parcel out the work of a bond referendum, including the resulting construction project, among several different firms – a community engagement firm, a design firm, a construction firm, etc. – rather than one firm like SitelogIQ, the best a district could hope for was paying 15% in fees.

Board member Justin Hornberg – in perhaps the most pointed comments of the evening – rounded out the board’s discussion.

“This is gonna be a tough sell, I’m afraid. I don’t think the community is going to rush in and say, ‘Heck yeah, let’s raise my taxes.’ Judging by what I’ve seen in the surrounding communities, I’m very hesitant to think that it’s gonna just [pass] with 90% approval,” he said. “Being as we’re so heavily open-enrolled, we’re a small district but (with) an actual small enrollment from our in-district people.”

He also expressed concern with any prioritization of the district’s open-enrolled families in the bond referendum’s community engagement piece – a topic which was addressed earlier in the discussion by Kienzle.

“What’s that going to make our district families feel like? … We need to make sure we’re mainly involving our (taxpaying) community in this decision,” Hornberg said.

But he also added that if the bond passes, the district should include open-enrolled families in the design and construction process. Hornberg then addressed Gladbrook-Reinbeck – the district, along with Marshalltown, from which GMG draws most of its open-enrolled students.

“If we want to stay up to date with one of our biggest contributors of open-enrolled kids – which is directly north of us here – we’ve got to stay [competitive]. This has become an arms race now – what can you do to pull? Because families aren’t just moving into small town Iowa districts right now,” he said.

“There’s not a lot of places to move, even,” Kienzle added.

Hornberg ended by saying that it was something the district had to do to remain viable. Following his comments, Petersen reminded the board the decision they were considering – to contract with SitelogIQ or not – would ultimately give the district’s property taxpayers a voice in the future of GMG.

“And then it’s in their hands what they decide,” Petersen said. “And if it’s not supported, then we’re gonna have to come back to the table and figure out, ‘Hey, then what are we doing?'”

Dieleman made the motion to approve the SitelogIQ contracts with a second by Hornberg. The motion was approved unanimously.

“A reminder that there’s no financial commitment at this time,” Roberts said. “But this will push the ball.”

The next regular meeting of the GMG school board is set for Monday, July 8, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in Green Mountain at the elementary school library.