By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
As school budgets have gotten tighter and state aid has dropped, one statistic has continually caught the eye of Mike David – principal in Nexus Solutions.
David has seen school districts in Minnesota and Wisconsin cut their budgets in the way that perhaps was the only way to avoid staffing cuts – by cutting money from operations and maintenance.
As a result, David explained Monday night at a joint meeting of the Burlington Area School District Buildings, Grounds and Transportation and Long-Range Planning Committee that one of two things are happening within districts.
One, there are newer buildings doing reasonably well but facing typical repairs. Or two, buildings from the 1950s and 1960s look every bit their age.
“Quite frankly, I was shocked,” said David, a Burlington native who moved to the Twin Cities and now has residences in both places.
David and Jim Scherrer of Scherrer Construction made a joint presentation to the joint committee Monday night, one that might allow the district to address maintenance instead of deferring it.
In the end, the two committees voted unanimously to take Nexus’s offer of a no-cost, no-obligation facilities analysis to the full School Board for approval. David estimated that analysis to cost about $20,000-$30,000, but he also stressed the company has been highly successful in moving beyond the concept phase.
Using two different portions of state law – the “performance contracting” rules and Act 32 – the district could conceivably find enough savings with upgrades to bond for the upgrades now, and then pay them back with the savings each year.
Nexus Solutions, a professional services firm, would help the district accomplish that.
As David explained Monday night, the Nexus plan works in several different phases. The presentation to the committees was the introduction of the concept, and the board will vote on the preliminary analysis at its next meeting.
If the board decides to move forward with the renovations Nexus recommends, the company will delve into a full analysis and help plan the renovations, find contractors and find funding for the project.
Scherrer Construction would serve as the construction manager for any projects.
David sold the idea as a creative way to finance repairs and maintenance that most districts are facing – with no way to fund.
He also said the goal is to find a budget-neutral impact for the work, as well as avoid impacting the tax rate.
David showed the two committees work and analysis done for three different school districts – two in Wisconsin (Baldwin-Woodville and Clear Lake) and one in Minnesota (Prior Lake). While not all of the work turned out to be funded by savings through the renovations, enough was accomplished through that for the school district’s to accept the added cost and go to referendum to cover it.
In fact, the work at one of the school district was popular enough for the referendum to receive more than 70 percent approval, David said.
“We can get it done right … and, we’re high motivated to ensure your satisfaction,” he explained.
Once the district accepts the full analysis, though, it must move forward with the work or pay a walkaway few to the companies.
David said no district that had gone that far, though, had completely walked away. In essence, enough work and savings was found to move forward with at least some portion of the proposed changes.
There were questions from the committee members in attendance, mostly sorting out when the district would be on the line for the costs. Nexus earns money by providing the services listed, and those fees are rolled into the total cost of the project.
In the end, though, David stressed that moving forward now – with interest rates low and companies looking for work – would make the most sense.
“If you don’t have the needs, don’t spend the money,” he explained. “But if you have the needs … the cheapest time to do things are now.”
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