GRANITE FALLS — With a large marginal passing rate of 70.6%, theYellow Medicine East School District voted to approve a $74 million bond referendum for school infrastructure expansion and updates. 

With a special election held on Tuesday, unofficial results revealed 1,319 people voted to pass the referendum, and there were 548 votes opposing the bond. 

“I think it showed their (the community’s) trust in us and our process we used to get to this point. We put a lot of work into it to make sure it was the best option because it is a big expense and a big commitment for our community and taxpayers,” Yellow Medicine East Superintendent Rich Schneider said. “They do believe in the value of what we’re providing here in the education, and they see this as a big part of our community.”

The referendum will offer numerous fixes and updates to the aging infrastructure. The biggest renovations will be new elementary and secondary schools, along with a large Career and Technology Education (CTE) space, a new auditorium and more. 

YME will come together as one building for operational sufficiency, but will have separate wings for the elementary, middle and high school, and the CTE. YME currently has two buildings on the same campus. 

According to YME’s referendum site, “Except for a 2019 gym addition, funded by a donation from a community member, the schools both date from 1930 to 1980. The oldest sections from 1930 and the 1950-’60s have extensive accessibility, life safety, deferred maintenance and educational deficiencies.”   

The Bert Raney Elementary School, which serves early childhood to fifth grade, was built in 1952 and the secondary school, grades sixth through 12th, was built in 1930. YME has not had a bonding referendum to update its facilities in place for over 40 years, and the district has made necessary building updates with only annual long-term facility maintenance funds. 

“The reason we’re replacing this is because of a number of things, but you look at even the safety and security of our building, and to be able to bring things up to modern standards and a great place for students and families to use,” Schneider said. “We’re very proud of how they supported us, and I think that’s pretty clear by that vote.” 

Along with the school additions, a handful of other urgent facility updates will be made. 

The upgrades will include a secure entrance into the building, updated and expanded classroom and support spaces, fixing of electric and plumbing systems, leaking windows and roofs, window and door replacements and new student lockers as a majority of the current ones are broken and unusable. 

There are also traveling challenges for those with physical disabilities in the middle and high school building with having to use two elevators and a few ramps, and elementary students currently have to travel outside in all weather conditions to the secondary building for meals and indoor recess. There will now be a larger, shared dining area, and building accessibility will be updated.  

Specific to the new elementary school, some additional renovations will consist of modern classrooms, storage space, tornado shelter serving the entire building, fire alarm systems and an updated roof. 

For the secondary school, the referendum will cover full-accessible restrooms, science labs, the CTE space, also along with fire alarms and a new roof. 

According to the referendum website, the total bond amount of $74,395,000 has a term of 29 years, and the state of Minnesota will pay for nearly $40 million of it with property tax credits for agricultural property through the Ag2School program. 

The Ag2School program is an automatic 70% property tax credit for agricultural land covered by the state, a program passed by legislation in 2017. 

As a basis, a $150,000 homestead will see a tax increase of $18/month. 

The district will now begin meeting with the project team to start planning the renovations, with an estimated final completion of all construction to finish by January 2029. 

Bidding is to begin this November and carry through to April 2026. Construction for the middle and high school addition is projected to take place spring of 2026 to September 2027. 

Construction of the elementary school will follow in spring 2027 to September 2028, while the CTE will aim to finish by December 2028. 

“Just a huge thank you to everyone that was involved in this process that got informed. There was a lot of people on the ground that helped make it happen. People knocking on doors, helping us get information out,” Schneider said. “We went out there and we informed people, and hopefully they saw that as valuable.”

So, thank you to everyone for entrusting all of this in all of us.”