Chisholm school board authorizes application for IRRRB funds to build shared public works and bus garage

The Chisholm Public School District board voted unanimously May 11 to authorize a resolution allowing the district to apply for and accept funds from the IRRRB School Collaboration Fund to build a shared public-works and school bus garage with the City of Chisholm. The superintendent told the board the project would place a new bus facility on the same property as city maintenance operations to create shared wash bays, a joint fuel tank and vehicle lifts to allow in-house bus maintenance.

The superintendent said the measure would be submitted to the IRRRB for a vote the next day and estimated "about $4,400,000 of money coming from the school collaboration fund." He added the grant would not draw on existing referendum funds or raise local property taxes: "So there would be no impact to our taxpayers at all." The board approved Resolution No. 26-5-26-01 by roll call, with all listed directors voting yes; the motion carried unanimously.

In describing implementation logistics, the superintendent said the district would keep its existing bus garage during construction and temporarily park several buses outdoors for about a year while reassigning carpentry shop space into the older garage. He also noted the IRRRB docket included a separate one-time allocation for Chisholm of $118,240 tied to redistributed funds after regional mine closures, calling it "a positive to us" while acknowledging the closures' negative regional impact.

Board members did not request additional substantive amendments to the resolution during the meeting. The next procedural step is the IRRRB consideration of the application at its meeting the following day; the superintendent said if the board had not passed the resolution it would have been removed from the IRRRB agenda.

Reported authorities and actions from the meeting include Resolution No. 26-5-26-01 (authorizing ISD 6-95 to apply for and accept IRRRB School Collaboration funds) and the recorded roll-call approval at the May 11 meeting. The board also discussed timelines for demolition and reconstruction of the CE building and noted logistics that could affect access during the summer construction period.

The board recessed later in the meeting for a superintendent evaluation; no further action on the IRRRB item was recorded in this transcript excerpt.