To the editor,

At a recent RFSD Board Meeting (Nov. 20, 2023), outgoing Superintendent Benson spent considerable time defending the process used to build a new school building for the REN/RCA. (Alternative High School). It became obvious by the “shill-like” questions asked by Board Member Mike Miller that Benson was responding to an article recently circulated through social media.

The article entitled “How To Build A New School Without Prior Referendum Approval From Taxpayers” was written by the staff at the Macliver Institute. While Benson methodically detailed how he followed the law and was attempting to be transparent, he failed to mention some indisputable facts:

To get this new, “permanent home” (Bensons words, not mine) off the ground, the district transferred approximately $948,000 from a maintenance fund directly to the builder just to get the project going. This amount is 30% of the agreed upon future purchase price of $3.2 million. In exchange for this hefty fee, the district receives the opportunity to rent the facility from the owner. The rent is a little over $17,000 per month and is scheduled to increase each year.

Also not mentioned in his attempt at transparency, is an additional monthly payment of $1,500, the on-going cleaning/maintenance cost of the building, AND the district is on the hook to pay the property taxes. That’s right, the school district will use your tax dollars to PAY the property tax owed by the owner.

To put this agreement into numbers that are easier to grasp, imagine you want to rent a home in River Falls that is worth $320,000. Let’s say the rent is $1,700 per month. However, the owner tells you that in order to sign the deal, you must fork over 30% of the value or $96,000 cash. You might object thinking this is a crazy high cleaning deposit. However, this is not a cleaning deposit. The 96K is non-refundable and is NOT applied toward the purchase price presuming you have a purchase option, like the School District does. On top of that, you will pay for the upkeep, pay an additional fee, and pay the owners property taxes.

Does this sound like a good deal to you? It does not to me. However, the board president said this is a great deal because there is an option to purchase the building for $3.2 million at some point within the next 20 years.

Some time ago at a board meeting Benson was asked about the district’s plan to purchase the building for the REN students. Benson replied that he has also heard this and called it a RUMOR. He stated the district simply does not have the money to purchase a building. The truth is however, they did have $948,000 to pay the builder and another $250,000 or so to purchase a house next to the current bus barn for future expansion.

How will they raise the rest of the funds to purchase the REN building or build out the bus area? Likely through future referendum funding. In other words folks, we are already on the hook for these projects or risk flushing the spent money down the drain. I am not opposed to upgrading our bus maintenance area, but I AM OPPOSED to pushing expensive projects forward by meeting a minimal amount of legal notification then claiming how transparent the district operates.

Let’s pay closer attention folks. Maybe it is time to elect some different board members in April 2024 as we move past the Benson era. In the meantime, vote NO on the new tax referendums in February.

Jim Souder

River Falls