Truman nears completion on $13.8 million project

TRUMAN - After two years and $13.8 million, students walked into safer, expanded and renovated Truman School buildings this year, and what construction does remain is nearing completion.

It is a full-circle moment for Superintendent Lisa Shellum, who has worked on several issues since taking over the position for the 2018-19 school year.

"We battled off statutory operating debt," she said. "We battled off the legislature not closing us in 2019. We battled off low enrollment, which is rising every year, and our quality of teachers is unreal. We’ve got teachers; 70 percent of them have their master’s degree."

Major parts of this project included electrical concerns, with some of the wiring in the original 1935 school building dating back to its opening, a boiler that was over 50 years old and needed constant repairs, asbestos abatement, roofing concerns and issues with airflow with univents instead of rooftop units. All of this was already on the school's radar. Work on the roofs and asbestos had already been started, and they had already had an audit done through SitelogIQ on the building, its needs, and costs.

By spring 2024, the ball was already rolling on some of these issues. At that time, the school was told if it did not fix these issues, its insurance company would no longer insure it. These, along with other needed fixes including fixing classrooms on the 1935 building's second floor that had been out of use since 2019 and upgrading kitchen facilities from the 1970s, added to a $13.8 million total cost.

"The state of Minnesota several years ago gave school districts authority to bond certain dollars for certain projects," Shellum said. "This is an indoor air quality project, which qualified for the school board to initiate bonding. It's not that easy. We have to go through all the steps and submit a plan to the state. We have to submit a budget. We have to submit everything to them and get approval first. It’s not like we can just go out and tax the taxpayers."

It's also much cheaper than the alternative option, to go out for a referendum to build a whole new school building, which Martin County West did at $64.7 million. This is especially true considering part of the $13.8 million was paid by the state via the Ag2School credit.

"This place has been completely transformed inside and out, and it will not cost the price of a new building at all," Shellum said. "It will be a fraction, pennies on the dollar."

As for how everything was planned out, Shellum said once they opened the bids, it was up to getting the right permits and everything else in place.

"It was a two-year project," she said. "Last year bids were opened for the summer of 25. We had to go through permits. We went through planning. We did some work on some of our floors, and we did some asbestos abatement. We did a lot of that stuff in the very first phases. We gave them the 1935 building in January of 26. They were ready to rock and roll with the rest in April. We then planned to have them do this building and the gym area during the summer, knowing that we had to have a place to stay. We also needed to keep our daycare open."

Because of the school's need for office and daycare space, the timeline was stretched out from Aug. 15 to Nov. 15. Shellum said the contractors, many of whom are from Truman and the surrounding area, were glad to have the extra couple of months to get everything completed.

"We are just moving back into the gym area now," she said. "We gave them September, part of October, to finish off all the details in there. We’ve had the gym for a while, but locker rooms, music, Ag, we’re getting those back this week, and they’ll be done with that by November 15."

On one of the first days Shellum stepped into Truman's school building in 2017, she said a ceiling tile fell right in front of her. As Shellum took the reins, the school district has battled through statutory operating debt, nearly being shut down by the state in 2019, and low enrollment, which has risen yearly.

To make it to this point where the work has been completed, all the areas with severe age or that were unusable have been overhauled, and solid ground has been established for the future of education in Truman, Shellum said she does not even know how to describe the elation she feels.

"As I was walking through this whole building being redone, the tears rolled down my face," she said. "I was so happy and excited for the community because Truman is small, but our students and our community deserve to have a school that is just like a metro school or a brand new school. We deserve it just as much as anybody else."

It's not just the administration feeling overjoyed either. Teachers like fifth-grade teacher Kristi Burk who taught on the second floor of the 1935 building for over a decade and subsequently had to leave their classrooms in 2019, have returned to teaching in their original classrooms. Students have been able to utilize the new spaces as well, and by Nov. 15, the full school will be ready and primed for learning.

While a time has not been decided yet, Truman schools will be open on Dec. 8 for an open house showcasing the entire building.