BROOKINGS The Brookings School Board voted to give the Fifth Street Gym to the city of Brookings for no cash or other consideration. The 5-0 vote came during the boards Monday night meeting.
This is a transfer with no investment from the city to us for the Fifth Street Gym, Keli Books, school board member, said. So were not selling the gym to them for money. Its a transfer of property.
In a March 25 news release, the city announced its intentions to acquire the property at 606 Fifth St., pending approval of an agreement with Brookings County to allow city use of the county-owned parking lot adjacent to the gym. On April 1, the Brookings County Commission approved a parking easement with the city on a 5-0 vote.
An important factor is the cooperation that we had also from the county relative to the parking lot, Wes Tschetter, school board member, said. The public needs to know it was a joint effort between the city, the county and the school district. The investment the city will be making in this facility is no small amount over time to get the facility and continue to have the facility serviceable to our patrons in the community.
The citys news release said the gym will continue to be available for community leagues, camps, and activities including pickleball, volleyball, basketball and futsal. The transfer agreement between the school and the city said, the city agrees to utilize the above-described property for recreational and other public purposes. In addition, the city agrees to make the repairs and improvements it determines, in its sole discretion, are necessary to utilize the building for recreation and other public purposes.
School Board President Teresa Binkley said the board listened to community feedback about the gym.
When the whole topic came up, we certainly heard from many people that wanted the gym to stay a gym facility for the community, Binkley said. I think in the end, its good that we have all come to agreement and the city is willing to take on the responsibility to keep the facility up to date and open for the public.
The transfer agreement between the school and the city is subject to possible voter referral.
Per an August article inThe Register, the city estimated the Fifth Street Gym could require at least $2.6 million in improvements plus somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000 in annual operating costs.The school district spent $925,000 to build gym and operated it for 37 years. In November, the district declared the gym to be surplus property.
In other business Monday night, the board briefly discussed HB1239. That bill originally sought to impose criminal prosecution and potential jail time on librarians if children access library materials deemed obscene or harmful. After being gutted and re-written, HB1239 passed and now requires schools to develop and implement policies restricting minors from accessing obscene material.
Were looking for a little bit of guidance from the state level. So we will make, update our policy when we have that guidance, Superintendent Summer Schultz said. We do have to take a really hard look at that word obscene and make sure that our process is aligned to what the law intends not necessarily with how we see it. We just need to be really intentional about understanding what that means and what the state is expecting of us.
She said the district is waiting to hear from the Associated School Boards of South Dakota.
Every time theres a law that changes policies in schools, then the Associated School Boards will come out with recommendations for school districts to make on their policies, Schultz said. They will be giving all schools in South Dakota some guidance, but I do think its going to be very difficult to create policies. One persons definition of the word is going to be different than another.
After certifying the results of the recent school board election, the board also briefly discussed another new state law. HB1130 requires future school board elections to take place with the November general election or the June primary election.
House Bill 1130 passed, and that affects election cycles in terms of when the election for school board and of course municipalities can be held, Tschetter said. That changes elections so we can no longer be able to have an April election. It has to be either during the primary date which is second Tuesday after the first Monday (in June) or the general election date which is in November second Tuesday after the first Monday. So this is going to change, and well have to change as a board.
The board certified on a 5-0 vote the returns from the April 8 school board election. Incumbent Teri Johnson won re-election to the board, receiving 1,691 votes. Newcomer Cassie Juba won the other available seat with 1,344 votes. Juba will replace Binkley who did not seek re-election when the school board re-organizes in July.
Contact Jay Roe at [email protected].
Leave a Reply