• Created by Community Engagement Team Members of SitelogIQ

    The Community Facility Group met on Tuesday, April 5th in the high school media center. At this second meeting, the group built upon the knowledge and exploration they did at the previous meeting to explore priority areas and project opportunities in the district. Community members spent the majority of their time working together in groups to brainstorm and discuss project opportunities that would benefit students in the particular area they were working on.

    The evening began with a brief review and overview of the process being undertaken to provide input to the school board to consider when defining the referendum. After the review, Superintendent Mark Raymond took time to review the basics of MN school finance and how school funding affects the Dassel-Cokato Public Schools. This included outlining the funding mechanisms the school board may be able to use to complete projects in the district.

    After the review on school funding, Superintendent Mark Raymond then took some time to review information that had recently been presented to the school board regarding the infrastructure and building systems. SitelogIQ, the engineering partner helping the district, recently completed an engineering study that indicated potential project opportunities in several areas, including the heating and ventilation systems in the Middle/High School building and energy savings projects.

    The group then reviewed examples of what other school districts have been doing to capture project opportunities and make improvements in several areas, including:
    • Career and Technical Education (C.T.E.) and other career pathways
    • Common spaces (i.e. Library-Media Center and Commons)
    • Classroom spaces
    • Student support spaces, including school entryway and office spaces
    • Building infrastructure and systems 


    After reviewing these examples, participants self-selected into one of the areas outlined to brainstorm and discuss potential project opportunities that related to their area. After brainstorming and discussing, the groups identified several of their top priorities that benefitted students, staff, and the community and that the school board may want to consider. Each small group presented their ideas to the full community group with a short explanation as to why they believed the projects were important for consideration.

    Each participant was provided several stickers that they were able to place on the projects they believed were their top priorities. Each project was scored based on the number of stickers it received, which allowed a ranking of the project areas and the individual project opportunities developed by the community group.

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE STAFF GROUP WORK

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE COMMUNITY GROUP WORK