Screen Photo The Minot Public School Board is shown after the vote approving the relocation of Souris River Campus from the Quentin Burdick Job Corps facility to the empty McKinley Elementary School building at its meeting on Thursday.

The Minot Public Schools Board considered the sale of district property, discussed the relocation of Souris River Campus and reviewed an efficiency review for the district’s maintenance and transportation departments.

The meeting began with an executive session for the board to consider the sale of Idlewild land near the new Erik Ramstad Middle School and the sales of Bell Elementary and Jefferson Elementary. Appraisals of the properties were prepared by Simonson Appraisals.

The Idlewild 3rd Addition land consists of 127 parcels totaling about 27.69 acres, which have been platted as residential lots composed of about 23.38 acres. The remaining 4.36-acre parcel was deemed unusable due to the presence of wetlands. The Idlewild land was valued at $1.07 million.

Jefferson Elementary School was valued at $630,000, but the appraisal noted the building had received minimal updates in recent years and would likely require a new heating system to be brought back into usable condition. Another area requiring attention was the need for new flooring throughout the building. Bell Elementary was valued at $620,000

The board tabled further discussion after exiting the executive session until a later meeting when all board members could participate in person. Board member Bill Irmen was appearing virtually and Scott Louser was absent.

Job Corps

Superintendent Scott Faul introduced the issue surrounding the fate of the alternative schools at Souris River Campus, which is located at Quentin Burdick Job Corps. With the news of the pause at Job Corps nationwide, Faul said the district had reached out for conversations regarding planning, saying the situation was very challenging and had created unanswered questions for all involved.

Todd Kaylor, secondary assistant superintendent, said an action plan was being prepared to address what he called an unstable situation. Kaylor said Job Corps representatives had indicated the federally owned property could be locked up on June 30.

“We’re supposed to get more information on June 17, but with that it’s given us this unstable feeling with what we’ll do with our students and staff that we have with Souris River,” Kaylor said.

One solution Kaylor proposed involved reopening the McKinley Elementary building, which would be rebranded as the McKinley High School Center for Alternative Education. Kaylor said utilizing an empty building would be a benefit for the community, and after a walkthrough it looked to still be in good condition. Kaylor said that even if the Job Corps situation improves, it could find itself in a similar situation during the next school year.

School board member Sabrina Herrmann acknowledged that members of the community could be concerned about an “alternative school” occupying the space, but she herself wouldn’t be concerned about older students in the area working to achieve their academic goals. Herrmann said having the alternative school relocated to a centrally located school would be a benefit as some in the community experienced challenges getting to Souris River’s current location at Job Corps.

“I would love to see a little bit more life moving around down there, and we’d have a facility that I think is being utilized and think it’s being good stewards of the dollars we have for our community and taxpayers,” Herrmann said. “It’s a good thing for our students and staff. I wouldn’t want them to be in this position in two months, and then again in four months. If we’re just going to keep moving the ball, I don’t know why we would do that. Now is the time to make some decisions and have them have a permanent home.”

Herrmann motioned to approve moving Souris River to McKinley. Her motion was approved unanimously by the members present.

Efficiency review

The board received a facilities and transportation department efficiency review presented by Byron Headrick with Lean Frog Consulting. Headrick presented a summary of Lean Frog’s findings, and said there were a lot of good things identified in the review, but several items had caught their attention.

Headrick commended school leaders and custodial staff, saying they clearly took pride in their facilities despite aging infrastructure, noting they were clean and well maintained. Headrick said the maintenance team was responsive and improved diagnostics over time despite addressing challenges such as chronic sewer problems and roof leaks. Headrick also noted the utility costs as measured by per square foot have reduced by 15.83% year over year and are significantly below those of national peers.

Headrick identified six critical maintenance challenges facing the district. These challenges included reactive maintenance with minimal preventative actions, inconsistent custodial practices, unclear roles and responsibilities, underutilized work order system functionality, lack of measurement and increasing costs.

Immediate recommendations included standardizing custodial cleaning procedures, restructuring custodial oversight and establishing key performance indicators for ongoing monitoring purposes.

Short-term improvements for the next school year include bringing on skilled multi-trade technicians to address specialized areas such as HVAC and plumbing. Headrick said the district was already practicing the approach but needed more staff with the capabilities to address multiple areas. Headrick also recommended aligning custodial staffing to facility size, implementing a preventive maintenance program and optimizing the work order system.

“We’re not saying add people for this, We’re talking about shifting some responsibility and roles from within the existing group. This will increase your response time, reduce your contractor dependency. It’s going to open up more time for your maintenance people to accomplish the tasks they are being asked to do,” Headrick said.

Long term improvements include establishing building engineer roles, a standardization of custodial tools, storage and restocking, improved snow removal operations, and standardized maintenance shop and vehicle organization.

Transportation issues identified in the report included the aging fleet of vehicles requiring excessive repairs, solo routes for Individual Education Plan (IEP) students creating cost outliers, overtime from activity trips and after-hours service, constraints limiting maintenance efficiency, lack of measurement and increasing costs.

Headrick recommended reviewing the special education route and solo ride review and optimizing non-IEP route efficiency through community engagement. This could involve identifying low-use routes and hosting listening sessions to phase them out if supported.

“You really have to provide the service level your community needs, and they really need to be a part of this discussion and this decision,” Headrick said.