A crowd of approximately 120 people attended the latest United South Central Community Engagement meeting held on Feb. 19, at the Golden Bubble, south of Wells.

“Tonight is about information sharing,” InGensa president and CEO Jacqui Coleman explained to the crowd. “It is a data dump, but it is also a chance for you to ask questions. We want to make sure and address any concerns you might have.”

Coleman said the evening would be split into three topics.

“The first is the planning overview which includes the demography, the facility condition and education adequacy,” Coleman shared. “Then we will review preliminary options and conclude the presentation with the financial impact of the options.”

Julie Baeb of Teamworks spoke on enrollment trends.

“Despite demographic decline, USC has experienced strong enrollment growth,” Baeb stated. “Since 2016-2017, K-12 enrollment has risen 11.4 percent, driven primarily by increases at the elementary level. Survival cohort data remains consistently positive, indicating strong student retention and attraction. Current facility utilization rates exceed 100 percent district-wide, with the elementary building nearing capacity thresholds.”

Baeb also addressed USC’s market share by noting that the district educates 70.9 percent of resident K-12 students, leaving nearly 30 percent attending nearby districts, private schools, charter schools or homeschool.

“Improving market share provides substantial growth potential,” Baeb said. “Achieving a 75 percent share would add 86 students while reaching 80 percent would add 111 students.”

Baeb concluded her remarks by revealing that baseline projections show enrollment peaking at around 800 students before stabilizing near the 768 range in 10 years.

“With targeted market share growth, enrollment could rise to between 854 and 879 students,” she commented. “These scenarios highlight the importance of community outreach, program visibility and strategic planning to shape future facility and staffing needs.”

Luke Pfotenhauer, vice president of development and operations for InGensa, shared facility condition assessment information. He divided the needs by priority guidelines which included near-term, mid-term and long-term needs.

“Near-term needs include replacing group bathroom entry doors, repairing cracks in a polished concrete floor and washing/scrubbing the auditorium,” Pfotenhauer said. “Work in the boiler room would include replacing flues, adding draft controls and correcting the boiler pump system.”

Other near-term needs included increasing the main gym and elementary gym lighting, replacing distressed sidewall area, repairing, sealing and adding pavement around the bleachers and restriping, sealing and coating the tennis courts.

Among the mid-term items needing attention were compressor replacement, mechanical accessory replacement and kitchen refrigeration and makeup air unit replacement.

“Long-term needs we identified include replacing Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) with Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) in all classrooms and replacing the small and large rooftop HVAC units,” Pfotenhauer commented. “The dust collector, water softener, power roof ventilator, and heating system pump are also on the long-term replacement list.”

The estimated 2027 total cost of the near-term replacements was $1,175,105, the mid-term replacement cost was $1,459,875 and the long-term replacement cost was $10,047,320.

The overall Facility Condition Index (FCI) for the current USC school is 1.7 which puts it in the excellent category.

Rochelle Van Den Heuvel, an educational design director for InGensa concluded the presentation by addressing the educational adequacy of both the pre-K through elementary and the high school staff needs.

“In both cases, the highest priority needs were seen as being the need for additional gym space and more classrooms,” Van Den Heuvel said. “Other needs listed included desires for more large-group spaces as well as more small-group spaces.”

The different options for expanding the current facilities were also presented along with preliminary financial information, including discussion of the Ag2School Credit and Minnesota Property Tax Credit programs. These programs were highlighted as a significant opportunity to improve school facilities while helping reduce the overall financial impact to the community. These could lead to important tax advantages should the district pursue a referendum.

Coleman closed the meeting by reminding people that no decisions have been made on a project option at this time.

Anyone who was not able to attend the meeting may go to the USC District’s website to view the information presented at the meeting.