Photo by Jill Schramm/MDN Minot School Superintendent Mark Vollmer looks out large windows in the former Cognizant building in describing expansion work that has started outside the window. The windows eventually will look into a commons area at Minot North High School.

A North Dakota House bill that would lower the interest on school construction loans could save money for taxpayers in Minot Public School District.

Although the district already has issued millions of dollars in bonds for the new high school, Superintendent Mark Vollmer said the bill that recently crossed over to the Senate would benefit Minot.

“The biggest part of this that’s helpful for Minot Public, and really for all schools, is we can borrow more money from the state at a lower interest rate. As our bonds become callable, we can refinance,” he said.

House Bill 1186 would increase the maximum loan amount from the state school construction fund from $10 million to $20 million, or a maximum of $16 million if the district’s unobligated general fund balance exceeds a limit set in state law. The interest rate on the loan would be 1% annually rather than the existing 2%, and districts that secured loans on the open market, such as Minot, could refinance through the state fund when those loans become callable. The bill passed the House Monday, 82-11.

Minot Public Schools already has issued $90 million in bonds for construction of the new Minot North High School as well as renovations to turn Magic City Campus into a 9-12 grade school and Central Campus into a middle school. Some of those bonds carry an interest rate up to nearly 5%, Vollmer said.

The district has been approved for a $10 million loan from the state. Should HB 1186 pass, the district would apply with the state for that loan along with $9 million remaining to be bonded, for a total loan of $19 million at the 1% rate, Vollmer said.

A proposed amendment to House Bill 1186 that would have provided grant dollars to help schools address inflationary expenses never made it out of the House Appropriations Committee, but Vollmer said the proposal is not dead.

“We are hopeful that could be reinstated in the Senate,” Vollmer said. The amendment had set aside $40 million in one-time funding for school construction grants of up to $8 million. Schools would have had to match the grants with the same amount of local funding.

The grants would not only have helped Minot but also Mandan, West Fargo and Rugby, which all were caught by high inflation after approval of school bond issues, Vollmer said.

Minot voters had approved a bond issue in December 2021, but construction costs have risen significantly from projections at the time.

“As bids came in, the district worked to adjust our sails, and looked for cost savings in every aspect of our construction projects,” Vollmer told the House Appropriations Committee during the hearing on HB 1186 in January.

The district cut $5.5 million from the budget. It eliminated tiling on many bathroom surfaces, a commercial kitchen in the Family and Consumer Sciences department, science preparation areas and storage areas. Lighting systems were modified and plans for a large data center didn’t advance.

The original rooftop air handlers on the former Cognizant building being renovated into a high school won’t be replaced as originally planned. Vollmer said the air handlers are 20-25 years old and nearing their end of life. The original plan had been to replace them with more efficient, modern units requiring less maintenance, he said.

The Minot district held an additional bid opening Thursday on the science remodel at Magic City Campus and another bid opening will take place next Thursday on the Minot North stadium. Voters elected to include an outdoor athletic complex and 50-meter pool in the new school project, and Vollmer said the district needs to honor those directives despite the inflationary impact.