Property taxes and more

The December 31 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper included two school board stories. One of them featured information regarding the property taxes that will be paid by local taxpayers at B-B-E schools in 2021. 

If you have read the story, you'll know that the property tax amount paid will total about $2.5 million. A large portion of that (approximately $1.5 million) will go towards payments on the current building project.

Speaking of which! Here's video from December 21 when crews were pouring cement for footings on the elementary's south wing addition:

News from around the area: 

Over in Lac qui Parle Valley schools, the December 29 issue of the Western Guard newspaper in Madison included a story stating that their taxpayers will pay about $4.215 million in 2021 for operations and also a building project. Based on memory, they passed a building project somewhere around $35 million in 2019 that's currently in progress. For comparison, if B-B-E schools had the same level of property taxes, our amount levied for 2021 would be approximately $3.3 million.

The December 29 Western Guard story mentioned adding a new roof on the LQPV high school's main gymnasium in Hantho Township as well as a new entryway/office area at Madison-Marietta-Nassau elementary school in Madison. The pre-K through 12th grade enrollment at LQPV schools was 820, according to the latest information I can find online. For the most part, they are in the same MSHSL playoff classes as B-B-E is.

Fun fact: in 1871, my great-great-great grandma Ane Boraas settled within a few miles of the present-day site of the LQPV high school in Madison Township She staked a claim on a 160-acres of homestead land despite being a widow. You can read more about her life in the December 24 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Today, the city of Madison is in Madison Township, although there was nothing where Madison stands today back in 1871 besides prairie grass.

To the north at Staples-Motley, their school board has set a dollar amount for how much money to ask for in a proposed building renovation. According to the December 30 issue of the Staples World newspaper, a proposed referendum question has a total of $64,380,000 of projects for remodeling and construction at both their elementary and high school buildings. The election date is April 13, 2021. The scope of the project is to renovate and build additions at the elementary school campus, demolish the 1935 building portion of the high school and renovate other areas and build additions. Another component of their project includes discontinuing use of the Motley Early Learning Center, which would leave Motley without its own school building. The Motley building would then be up for sale. A proposed completion date is August 2025.

For the sake of comparison, Staples-Motley is considerably bigger than B-B-E with K-12 enrollment of about 1,100 students.

A major construction project is underway at Dawson-Boyd schools, where they have an addition with classrooms being added. One of the rooms is a "robotics" room as well as rooms designated for younger elementary grades.

Bids for new construction at MACCRAY schools in Clara City were approved at a recent school board meeting. Their goal is to create one K-12 campus in Clara City while abandoning the school buildings in Raymond and Maynard.