Forest Lake residents to vote on district's levy request

As a 2006 graduate of Forest Lake High School, Luke Odegaard knew the district's facilities needed to be upgraded.

But it wasn't until the lifelong Forest Lake resident joined a school facilities task force in 2012 and toured every school that he realized the extent of the need for repairs and routine maintenance.

"That motivated me to do something more," said Odegaard, who leads Vote Yes for Kids, which is supporting Forest Lake Area Schools' $176 million capital levy request. "These are old buildings, and they need to be renovated and brought into the 21st century."

District residents vote on the request Tuesday.

If approved, the levy money will be used to fix aging roofs, update heating and cooling systems, and increase security at school buildings, and for other projects.

It also would allow for creating a campus for middle- and high-schoolers by moving ninth-graders into the high school and putting all seventh- and eighth-graders into one junior high school. School leaders say that setup would be more efficient and give secondary students more academic options.

Superintendent Linda Madsen acknowledges the amount of the tax request is "considerable" but adds that the amount was determined after input from parents, students and district staff who made up the facilities task force. District voters last approved a capital levy in 1999; they rejected a smaller tax request in 2010.

If approved, the levy would cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $200 a year, but that amount would rise because the district plans to borrow money for projects in stages. In a decade, the levy would cost $332 a year for the owner of a $200,000 home, said Larry Martini, the district's director of business services.

District leaders have spent the months leading up to the vote meeting with community members and compiling information about the proposed projects to post on the district website. Odegaard and Madsen say the community response has been generally positive.

"I think people cannot deny there are some things in the district that need attention," Madsen said.

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Forest Lake residents to vote on district's levy request