BEMIDJI-Like schoolchildren might, the Bemidji school district went back to double-check its work on a problem that just wouldn't go away.
The district commissioned a second traffic study on the area near Middle School Road where it has long tried and failed to build a new elementary school-for months foiled by the cost of street improvements, which approached $2 million based on recommendations in the first study. It appears to have been bad math.
At their meeting Monday, Superintendent Jim Hess told School Board members that the district might save several hundred thousand dollars by not having to construct two roundabouts that the first study recommended to handle increased traffic.
The second study, Hess said, "brought about a much lower intensity of improvements."
It gives the district the option to use four-way stops, for instance, instead of roundabouts.
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The difference in the studies, Hess said, comes from bad math. The first study assumed that the new elementary school and nearby Bemidji Middle School would start at the same time.
"We stagger starts," Hess said, "sometimes by 30 minutes."
The first study also didn't take into account that traffic would lessen considerably in the summer, and that drivers could use two roads-Conifer Avenue and 15th Street-to access the school.
"That would have a calming effect on the traffic," Hess said.
Good news has been scarce for the district and the board since the spring, when the cost of street improvements began to rise, and when the district and the city began to argue over who should pick up the bill.
The board considered two more sites-one near Bemidji High School and one in Grant Valley Township on Division Street-finding that they, too, came with problems to untangle.
But these sites were largely ignored Monday. (Hess did mention that the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners would decide Tuesday night whether to lift a wetlands protection ordinance banning the construction of a school at the Grant Valley site.)
In fact, the new school received about 10 minutes of attention-a departure from the 30-or-more-minute exchanges that have dominated meetings for months.
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But loose ends need tying if the district is going to hit its December deadline for picking a site.
The city commissioned its own traffic study in response to the district's second study, Hess said,
with slightly different results. He didn't say whether this would require further negotiations.
The district also wants the Greater Bemidji Area Joint Planning Board to amend a development agreement that requires the school only be used by fourth- and fifth-graders.
"It's an elementary school," Hess said. He wants the freedom to send other grades to the school should the district do some reshuffling.
At Monday's meeting, the board also approved the sale of nearly $40 million in building bonds, about $30 million of which will go toward the new school.
The district, it was learned Monday, secured a lower-than-expected interest rate on the project.
It could save taxpayers roughly $3 million.
