ABOVE: GHEC Shop teacher Gina Huhnerkoch shows the limited amount of welding booths the school has now. The referendum, if passed, will allow for additional booths to be added for student use.

GRANADA – With the student population growing relatively quickly at Granada-Huntley-East Chain (GHEC), the district hopes this referendum can provide students with the space they need to succeed.

The referendum has three main pieces of growth. Renovating and expanding the Career and Technical Education (CTE) and agriculture shop, adding two general education classrooms and renovating and expanding the kitchen and serving area. Deferred maintenance needs and remodels of existing restrooms near the gymnasium stage are also included.

The total referendum is $8.745 million, but if passed, 57 percent of that cost would be covered by the state of Minnesota due to the Ag2School credit. This equals $4.984 million covered by the state, leaving only $3.76 million for local taxpayers.

With the growth in student population, Superintendent Doug Storbeck said they are near capacity in several areas.

“Since our last building bond referendum in 2015, our student population has grown over 50 percent,” he said. “We went from under 200 students to over 300 students. That has brought our building to capacity, and we’ve been utilizing spaces that are not intended for educational spaces. We are at capacity and use every space available. We feel like we need to provide additional space for our students and staff to help us prosper to the next level.”

Given the rural area and varied after-school goals of students, Storbeck said this made CTE a priority in the referendum.

“We live in a very strong ag community,” he said. “Our CTE program is very important at our school, and we’d like to expand the possibilities in our CTE program. Our classrooms we have for our CTE program are dated. They don’t necessarily meet all the modern requirements needed. That’s where major updates are required.”

By Minnesota Department of Education standards, for their size kitchen and serving area, they are currently at capacity for the number of students they have. By adding space, they can bring that back to a comfortable level for students. By adding classrooms, they can more efficiently place students and reduce usage of spaces not intended for academic purposes.

Agriculture Teacher McKenzie Wagelie and Industrial Shop Teacher Gina Huhnerkoch echoed the space and equipment concerns.

“Space is pretty limited, and with new technologies coming out, especially in the CTE and Ag world, it’s hard to incorporate that in what we have right now in our facility,” Wagelie said. “Expanding would allow us to do more hands-on activities and prepare kids for future careers.”

“We have quite a lot of woodworking equipment, but we don’t have the space to properly house it,” Huhnerkoch said. “Getting that increase in size and space would let us spread out and fully utilize the equipment we have. We have a lot of students interested in welding, but we have a very small welding shop. We’re extremely limited on how many students can take those classes and how much we can do within the school year.”

There is only room for three welding stations in the current CTE space, and with two to a station being the maximum, only six of the 14 kids in one of Huhnerkoch’s classes can work on welding at one time.

With a larger CTE space, Wagelie said they could do more hands-on activities for animal and food science, like bringing in animals or equipment for meat processing. Huhnerkoch said the new space would open them up to opportunities in automotive, construction, carpentry, or even plant science.

Storbeck agreed that automotive is a space they’d like to explore with a new CTE space.

“One component we would like to potentially add is a hoist and a full automotive type shop, where it has dual purpose,” he said. “We could be utilizing that for not only school use, but for repairs and maintenance.”

On the referendum as a whole, Wagelie said she feels like it’s something that needs to happen.

“We’ve seen growth in number of students,” she said. “We’re a very heavy Ag community. We have really heavy community support, whether it be parents, businesses as well. Seeing the whole thing come together and being able to provide those experiences for the kids is what it’s all about.”

Huhnerkoch highlighted that offering these experiences can also help induce retention of students after high school.

“It’d be really great to let us expand and give the kids opportunities that they want and need,” she said. “It’d help us connect with our community even more, because we can help students get those experiences and skill sets they need to come back to our community and use them in a productive way in the workforce.”

Votes for the referendum can be done in person from 7 a.m. to p.m. on Nov. 4 at Granada City Hall, Early/Absentee In Person from now until Nov.3 at the GHEC Public Schools District Office, or by Mail In from now until Nov. 3. Mail-in ballots are not sent automatically and must be requested via an absentee ballot application at https://mnvotes.sos.mn.gov/abrequest/index.

For more information, visit https://www.ghecbond.org/