MINOT—Voters chose to pass all 3 measures in Tuesday's school bond election.
Measure 1 regarding the $84.4 million request for a trifold project that would create 2 grades 9-12 high schools from the donated Cognizant building on North Hill and Magic City Campus, as well as an additional middle school from the Central Campus facility passed with 3,647 Yes to 705 No votes.
Measure 2 requesting an additional $24.2 million for adding a competitive pool and sports complex at the new high school passed with 3,376 Yes votes to 965 No votes.
Measure 3 requesting to fund measure 2, which would increase the MPS district’s debt limit to 10% passed with 3,323 Yes votes to 1,020 No votes.
According to the Ward County Auditor, they collected a total of 4,363 ballots with 2,126 on election day, 1,939 from early voters, and 298 from absentee voters.
**Updated at 11:00 p.m., Dec. 7, with reaction
The election results showed overwhelming support from the voters within the Minot Public Schools (MPS) district. Approximately 80% of the votes were in favor of all 3 measures proposed in the bond.
“We walked into the election today feeling good. A lot of positive feedback from the community. Shocked at the high percentage of yes votes, and we are thrilled,” said Mark Vollmer, superintendent of MPS.
Moving forward with the results, Vollmer expressed his zeal for getting the ball rolling with the Realignment Project, “We are looking at having these building projects done by August 2024, and while that sounds like it’s a long way out there, we have a lot of work to do. We are excited and ready.”
President of the School Board Jim Rostad said he is also looking forward to the culmination of the MPS Realignment Project, “I was ecstatic! I truly was. We passed it, and we passed it decisively.”
Despite the effects of inflation and Measure 3 resulting in an increase of property taxes for MPS district residents, both Vollmer and Rostad said they viewed this as an opportune time to go forward with the Realignment project.
“The Cognizant building, a $14.5 million property given to the district [for $10]… and $10 million in federal funding that is free money for us that came from COVID relief… and we’ve got some grants floating around out there too,” Vollmer explained.
Rostad reiterated, “We can’t control inflation, and with the savings that we have already incurred with getting the building for $10 and potentially saving around the $15 million dollar mark, and that coupled with the $10 million of ESSER funds, this truly is an opportunity that has presented itself that we couldn’t afford to miss out on.”
As Vollmer has stated on many occasions when presenting this project, the solutions will resolve overcrowding in middle schools and remedy a variety of high school challenges by providing more academic, social, and extracurricular opportunities for students.
