MARSHALL — The cost of an agreement for Marshall Public Schools to use athletic facilities at Southwest Minnesota State University will be going up next school year. MPS Business Services Director Dion Caron said the change reflected rising costs for electricity and facilities upkeep.

On, Tuesday, Marshall School Board members voted to approve a five-year facilities agreement with Minnesota State for facilities use at SMSU. The district’s current agreement expires June 30.

Caron said MPS staff met with SMSU athletics, finance and facilities directors a few times to talk about a new facilities agreement.

“It’s been a great collaboration with SMSU. We had some good conversation both on their facility and on ours,” Caron said.

MPS and the university were proposing a five-year agreement for use of facilities like gymnasiums, the SMSU natatorium, the Schwan Regional Events Center, and the Marshall Regional Track and Field Complex. The agreement would run through June 30, 2029.

“We all agreed that doing five years just made sense. If something comes up, we’ll revisit that as things go on,” Caron said.

Agenda packet materials for the school board meeting said the first year of the contract would have a cost increase of 26% from 2023-24. The change was due to “significant increases” in the cost of electricity and facilities upkeep over the past couple of years. Each of the next four years of the agreement would have a 3.68% increase.

According to the facilities agreement, MPS would pay the Minnesota State system $59,200 in fees for facilities use for the 2024-25 school year. Fees would then be $61,640 in 2025-26; $64,080 in 2026-27; $66,520 in 2027-28; and $68,960 for 2028-29.

Funding for the facilities agreement comes through MPS levy dollars, school board agenda materials said.

School board members unanimously approved the 2024-2029 facilities agreement.