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School board adopts 10-year LTFM plan, prioritizing roofs and health-and-safety projects
Summary
The Albert Lea School Board voted to adopt its fiscal year 2027 long-term facilities maintenance (LTFM) plan, a 10-year blueprint that emphasizes roof work, health-and-safety upgrades and a phased recovery from a prior maintenance deficit.
The Albert Lea School Board voted to adopt the district’s 10-year Long-Term Facilities Maintenance plan for fiscal year 2027 and authorized staff to submit the required documents to the Minnesota Department of Education.
The plan maps out allowable LTFM and capital projects across district buildings, prioritizing roof replacements, health-and-safety work and accessibility upgrades. Facilities presenter Paul Durban told the board the district will submit the revenue and expenditure worksheets required by MDE and sign the related assurances before the July 31 deadline.
Durban said the LTFM program “is a program that's run through MDE, Minnesota Department of Education. And it's required to get school board approval every year.” He told members the district builds a 10-year master spreadsheet tying projects to UFARS finance codes and that the plan is revised annually when unexpected failures occur.
The plan calls for a mix of capital and LTFM spending across sites. Durban said roofs are the single largest category in the 10-year plan, accounting for roughly a third of projected LTFM expenditures, and that Albert Lea High School — the district's largest building — represents about 29% of the planned spending over the decade. He also said the district is working to eliminate a roughly $750,000 maintenance deficit over several years rather than in a single budget cycle.
Durban walked the board through site-level priorities now planned for the coming year: restroom and fixture replacements at Lakeview and Halverson elementaries; new steel door frames, locks and classroom doors at Hawthorne Elementary to standardize safety hardware; ill-performing boilers at Hawthorne and other sites; ongoing heat pump replacements at the high school; and a retaining-wall repair near the high‑school greenhouse. He noted that projects above $175,000 require formal bidding while smaller projects typically use three quotes.
Board members asked about the plan’s detail and the meaning of an “other” category on a spending chart. Durban said each spreadsheet cell ties to a detailed needs list and invited any director to review the master document for site-specific breakdowns. He thanked facilities staff and consultants involved in compiling the plan.
The board approved the resolution adopting the MDE LTFM plan after a motion and second and recorded voice votes in favor.
District staff said the construction fund (fund 6) items tied to the high-school HVAC and dehumidification work are expected to be completed in the current fiscal year and that staff will continue to update the plan annually to reflect repairs that arise during the year.
The board’s adoption allows district administration to file the required LTFM paperwork with MDE and continue planning bid and procurement steps for the projects listed.
The board's finance and facilities staff said they will provide board members additional detail on any spreadsheet cell on request.
