MITCHELL — The Mitchell Board of Education on Monday night singled out roofing on district buildings as a priority to watch moving forward.
In a discussion guided by Wade Pogany, with Dakota Education Consulting, the board took an informal straw poll to determine what projects the Mitchell School District should prioritize in upcoming years with the expectation that administrators would return to the board at a later date with more information and details. The discussion was part of a special meeting work session for the board.
Roofing at Mitchell Middle School and Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, as well as the Mitchell Career and Technical Education Academy (MCTEA) roof, were issues that rose to the top of the list.
“It was a good conversation to have,” Childs told the Mitchell Republic following the meeting. “We looked at the top five by priority, and roofs definitely came out on top as something the board wanted to see done.”
Childs had presented a number of district facility and infrastructure needs in the district prior to the poll, with roofing at L.B. Williams Elementary, Mitchell Middle School, Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary and the MCTEA building being singled out as top needs. The roofs in question are at or nearing their lifespan, according to district officials.
Selecting top needs out of those, the board decided that the roofs at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, Mitchell Middle School and MCTEA as the most in need. Roof work at Gertie Belle Rogers was estimated to cost $600,000, and similar work needed at Mitchell Middle School comes in at an estimate of $145,000. The work at MCTEA is estimated to run around $435,000.
The board took no official action at the meeting other than the informal poll prioritizing district needs. Childs said he and fellow administrators, including John Sieverding, director of buildings and grounds for the district, and Theresa Kriese, business manager for the district, would take the board feedback and put pencil to paper to see how district leadership can turn the ideas into board action.
“(We’ll) bring some heads together and kind of look at how they want to approach this and get that part of it right. So this now will move forward very similarly to the way you see other projects move forward – you can expect that you’ll see things at (future) board meetings or on the board agenda as we move through these processes,” Childs said.
A number of buildings in the district were reviewed for their current needs, including:
Mitchell Middle School
- Gym lighting upgrades, $28,000
- Roof replacement, $145,000
- Art classroom cabinets, $120,000
- Technological upgrades and concrete repairs
Total needs come to approximately $393,000 plus air conditioning and tech upgrades.
Longfellow Elementary
- Flashing replacement, $45,000.
Total needs come to approximately $45,000 plus air conditioning.
L.B. Williams Elementary
- Main entrance concrete replacement, $45,000.
Total needs come to approximately $45,000 plus air conditioning.
Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary
- Roof repair, $600,000.
- Playground upgrades, $15,000.
Total needs come to approximately $615,000.
Early Childhood Learning Center
- New playground equipment, $60,000.
Total needs come to approximately $60,000 plus interior upgrades.
Mitchell Career and Technical Education Academy
- Roof replacement, $435,000
Total needs come to approximately $435,000 plus potential window replacement. Joe Quintal Stadium, the needs of which were said to include railing repairs, caulking and the potential addition of a turf field, but those costs were yet to be determined.
Among the main learning center buildings in the district, total estimated costs of current needs work come to about $1,593,000 along with additional upgrades, the total costs of which have yet to be determined.
Childs had broken down short term goals, or goals that could be accomplished in the next five years, such as air conditioning in the gym, lighting upgrades and art classroom improvements for Mitchell Middle School; air conditioning installation in the gym for L.B. Williams Elementary; new playground equipment and interior upgrades for the Early Childhood Learning Center; preventative maintenance, window and HVAC upgrades for MCTEA and roof replacement for L.B. Williams Elementary, Mitchell Middle School, Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary and MCTEA.
Longer term goals included those that could be accomplished in the next 10 years or more, such as potentially constructing a new middle school, ongoing upgrades for lighting and HVAC efficiency and infrastructure improvements at MCTEA.
Deb Olson, a member of the board of education, said the condition of the various roofs, and the impact they can have on a building and the learning that goes on inside them, makes them a priority.
“I would advocate that the Gertie Belle Rogers roof and MCTEA roof and the middle school roof are keys to get done. The middle school roof is failing already,” Olson said.
Brittni Flood, president of the Mitchell Board of Education, agreed.
“I feel that would be number one,” Flood said.
When it comes to budgeting for such work, having priority goals will allow the board and administrators to shuffle funds and project priority as needed depending on the cost and critical need of those improvements. The district will have more funding available to put away toward such projects in the upcoming years as it works down its debt service from other recent projects.
The district is expected to have approximately $433,155 in its capital outlay fund to put toward such projects in the 2025-26 school year after debt is serviced and other budgetary concerns are met, $567,760 for the 2026-27 school year, $1,101,525 for the 2027-28 school year, $1,166,040 for the 2028-29 school year and $1,335,425 for the 2029-30 school year.
As administration looks more closely into specific costs of important projects like roofing, the more clear the picture will become on what needs can be addressed and when.
“If it’s under budget, OK, maybe now we can do some of these air conditioning things or do a repainting project or a landscaping project. We can address that,” Childs said. “Or if it’s over budget, maybe one of these things that isn’t as critical or has a little longer lifespan can be pushed to another year,” Childs said.