At the Nov. 20 River Falls School Board meeting, Superintendent Jamie Benson wanted to set the record straight about the district’s lease agreement on the Renaissance Charter Academy building, …
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At the Nov. 20 River Falls School Board meeting, Superintendent Jamie Benson wanted to set the record straight about the district’s lease agreement on the Renaissance Charter Academy building, which opened at the beginning of this school year.
“Tonight I wanted to present to the board, primarily due to some social media posting that led to a few community misunderstandings, I just wanted tonight to clarify our process that was used in developing our lease for the Renaissance alternative high school.”
The RCA was founded in 1998 and serves about 65-70 students. The new facility, built on 1.57 acres of land on Sunshine Avenue by River City Roundabout LLC, contains about 10,800 square feet of learning space. The district leases the building and has an option to purchase clause built into the agreement.
The RCA is dedicated to:
Benson went on to reiterate the district’s board approved strategic plan, beliefs, mission and values.
“The first one being centering our policies, practices and our actions on doing what’s best for kids every day,” Benson said. “That’s what we do in this room every time we have a board meeting and that’s what we try to do every day when we’re face-to-face with our kids.”
The district also makes sure the needs of every child are supported and that they receive dignity and respect, Benson added.
Goals in the strategic plan that connect the RCA to the rest of the district are:
Benson said people will always have an opinion on what the district spends money on, whether it’s technology or operating the RCA. Some people don’t believe the district should have the RCA, while others think it’s a Godsend.
“I think the values and the strategic plan and the goals and the mission we have as a district certainly support that (the RCA),” Benson said.
The RCA has changed locations six times over the past 10 years: the former Academy building (site of current Montessori elementary), the former PR’s Place on Wasson, a temporary space at UW-River Falls, then Hagestad Hall (which was torn down), and the old police station.
“We were really scrambling in those phases of 2, 3, 4 and 5,” Benson said. “We knew they were temporary, they knew they were not long-lasting.”
The strategic plan for 2022-27 identified finding a permanent home for the RCA as a goal, which has been found in a building at the corner of Wasson Lane and Cemetery Road, just east of the high school. This location was chosen for its proximity to the high school, CVTC and UW-River Falls.
In September 2021, the district was looking at at least seven different options for a new RCA location, Benson said.
“Three of them were in the industrial park a little northwest of town,” Benson said.
They also considered a vacant curtain factory in town, two independent vacant properties, building on the district-owned ag/FFA land or an addition to RFHS. Considerations included the quality of building, price negotiations, renovation costs, price comparisons for leases, near and long-term benefits, location and logistics (bussing, food service, parking).
“After lots of exploration and looking at different options, we then landed on what we thought was the best alternative, the place that we’re at now, and I wanted to mention that the requirements for a school district, in order to enter into a lease agreement, it’s really not for the board to vote on that,” Benson said. “It’s a community vote.”
State law requires the district to post the meeting notice for the electorate meeting in the newspaper for two weeks. They also posted it on their website and at Dick’s Fresh Market, River Falls Public Library and First National Bank. The public meeting, held on Aug. 30, 2022, was the community’s opportunity to vote on the lease agreement.
“Then there was a vote by the public,” Benson said. “Those that came were given an overview of the least agreement, explained a little bit about the history as we’ve done here tonight, and then that lease agreement was past in August of ’22.”
Some community members have accused the district of being sneaky when approving the lease agreement and sidestepping a referendum, including in letters to the editor. Benson said if the district wants to purchase the leased building, it doesn’t have the money to do so and that vote would come to the public by way of a referendum. That option has been ruled out after a community survey did not indicate support for purchasing the building right now, Benson said. It will not be on the ballot in February.
“There was certainly no hidden agenda,” Benson said. “It seemed to be wise fiscal management (to have the option to purchase included in the lease) and if I could on behalf of the board, I think that you were being good stewards of taxpayer dollars knowing that maybe we would want to have that option if and when the opportunity were to arise, but it wasn’t a behind closed door, back-handed slippery move by any means.”
Board President Stacy Johnson Meyers asked Benson to speak as to why housing the RCA at the high school wouldn’t have worked. One reason is that there is no space available at the high school. An addition would have been needed, which would have had to go to referendum, which wasn’t in the cards due to timing issues. The Ren’s temporary location at the former police department on Elm Street was approved by the state on a “very temporary” basis because of code issues, Benson said. The district must follow a strict timeline by state law when considering bringing referendum questions to the public, and the timing did not work out to bring the RCA building to referendum.
At a special elector’s meeting Aug. 31, 2022, Benson said the 20-year lease comes with the option to purchase the building as soon as year two. The lease agreement costs about $19.65 a square foot with a 2% annual increase.
“In the district because we want this to be a school built to our standards from the ground up, the district is investing $880,000 as a part of the build up,” Benson said in August 2022.
In an email to the Journal Dec. 11, Benson had something to say about people accusing the district of approving the lease agreement under the table.
“If people want to suggest that if we hadn’t invested in the REN student’s facility then we wouldn’t need a referendum, most would understand that one-time construction costs do not equate to an ongoing structural deficit problem,” Benson said. “If people want to suggest inappropriate use of public funds done in a closed door, cigar-smoke filled room decision-making process (without public transparency), I know that claim is untrue. If people want to suggest these 60 kids are not worth the investment, most in our community will argue otherwise. To be clear, the district did utilize part of our very limited annual facility improvement budget to outfit the REN facility to our school needs - it's a school, not a warehouse.”
Benson said the RCA (Ren) students deserve a permanent, suitable facility, just like all SDRF students.
“During the 2021-22 school year the district explored seven facility options to include a referendum-based addition to the high school; three industrial park options; using our Ag/FFA land; and other independent lease/ownership facility options. Meanwhile the REN was bumped from one location into using two different UWRF facilities and then into the old police station - the last three of their six moves in a decade,” Benson said. “The district began negotiations with several of these options and landed in our current location. In all of our options, the district would need to invest in the infrastructure as none were designed as a school. Twice, public notice was provided in our local paper, district website, and three community locations related to a public vote which passed this RE lease agreement.
“Truth in transparency is important. If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me at any time or check-out our district website www.rfsd.k12.wi.us and go to the Menu > School Board > Board Meetings to view the REN google slide and video presentation provided on November 20, 2023.”
Personnel
The board approved the following personnel recommendations:
