The Forest Lake Area School Board made a number of noteworthy votes at its April 7 meeting. More in-depth articles about these votes will be published in an upcoming issue of The Forest Lake Times.
Project Labor Agreement passes by unanimous vote
In the last 20 years, the Forest Lake Area School Board has never had as many attendees at a meeting as there were on April 7. Most were in attendance to discuss the project labor agreement proposal concerning the large number of construction projects scheduled throughout the district in the coming years. Although any shop can bid on a project where a PLA is in place, construction unions have bargaining rights to determine the wage rates and benefits of all employees working on a PLA project. Non-union shops feel that this is unfair to them and that it provides for an uneven playing field.
Many guests at the meeting used their allotted three minutes of public comment time to argue in favor of or against the placement of a PLA. In the end, the board voted unanimously in favor of using a PLA.
Board votes to eliminate grade 7 and 8 sports
Forest Lake students in grades 7 and 8 interested in soccer, football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball, or track and field will have to look for options outside of the district beginning in the 2016-17 school year. During the April 7 school board meeting, it was decided by unanimous vote that all of those athletic activities would be cut from the grade 7 and 8 district plan. The move, which saved $80,000, comes as part of district effort to reduce $1 million dollars from the budget, as the basic dollars per pupil funding formula has not kept up with inflation. Currently, the district is experiencing a $2,402 per pupil gap.
Bond sale to save taxpayers millions
With assistance from Springsted, Inc. the Forest Lake School District was able to recently secure a bond sale projected to produce huge savings for taxpayers. The news was met with raucous applause from all members of the school board.
Springsted solicited bids on behalf of the district on April 7 for the sale of $75 million worth of general obligation school building bonds. Bids were solicited from seven different entities with Robert W. Baird and Company coming out on top. The estimated interest rate was 3.91 percent, but the actual came in at 3.09 percent. That difference equates to $8.2 million in taxpayer savings.