The Blue Earth Area School Board held a work session last Monday night to review the results of a community survey about the future of the school buildings in the district.

And, what they learned about the results was quite surprising to the board members.

While those who responded to the survey want the School District to do something about the condition of the buildings, when it comes to paying for it, they are not nearly as positive.

One of the questions on the survey was, “Should the District consider making an investment in our schools at this time?”

A large number said yes. That included 48 percent of general citizens, 58 percent of parents, 83 percent of staff and 44 percent of ag landowners.

The other responses were split between no and undecided.

And, when it came to what they thought should be done, the survey takers were given three choices: 1. Do light renovations at the school buildings, 2. Do heavier renovations and demo work, and 3. Build a new K-7 school building and do extensive work at the high school.

Option 3 received the highest number of responses, with 34 percent from the general public, 49 percent of parents, 73 percent of the staff and 31 percent of ag landowners.

Option 1 and 2 received less than 10 percent of the votes from any group, and once again half of the remaining respondees were split between “Do not support” and “Undecided.”

But, when it came to which bond amount the respondees were willing to support, it was a different story. While a majority were willing to support a bond of some size between $40 million and $70 million, the number who would not support any bond was pretty significant.

That included 41 percent of the general public, 27 percent of parents, 11 percent of staff and 38 percent of ag landowners, who would not support any bond.

At the same time, the highest number for choice of bond amount was the $70 million mark. That included 21 percent of general citizens, 33 percent of parents, 48 percent of staff and 28 percent of landowners.

Board members said they felt they were getting a mixed message from the responses to the survey.

The Community Task Force Committee in charge of the survey had sent out 3,177 post cards to residents informing them of the survey and how to find it.

There were 1,377 persons who did respond to the survey. That was a pretty good number according to Charlotte Nienhaus, of ISG, the group working with the board about what to do with the older buildings in the district.

Nienhaus was the person who presented all of the information to the board during the work session.

She also had additional information for the board, including the list of the $23 million in upgrades, remodeling and renovations needed at the current BEA Middle/Elementary building, and the $18.4 million in items needed at the high school, including new heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) equipment.

The board spent time discussing ways to lower the $70 million “all in” amount which would cover the new school building and all the repairs and maintenance at the high school.

Those ideas included making the new school building smaller, moving the seventh grade into the high school building, eliminating one gym space and other items.

Nienhaus said that a $60 million bond would have an impact on an owner of a $150,000 home of about a $200 increase in yearly property tax.

The board discussed other options as well, which would lower the cost even more, but as this was a work session, they did not make any decisions.

In the end they decided to let the Community Task Force meet and go over the information and possibly formulate a next step.

They also quizzed Nienhaus about possible timelines.

“We are approaching deadlines for filing with the state for an April or May election,” she said. “But we have some time before having to file for August or November elections.”

After that, Nienhaus said ISG would need up to nine months for creating plans, and construction could be up to two years.

All of that is, of course, dependent on the voters giving a yes vote to whatever plan is eventually decided on.