Failed Referendum Leads Little Falls District To Pursue State Maintenance Funding

LITTLE FALLS (WJON News) -- A Central Minnesota High School may be getting some needed improvements despite a referendum failing last April. Little Falls Community Schools is looking to make needed updates to the high school through the Long Term Facilities Maintenance (LTFM) program.

READ MORE:  Voters Reject Funding For Aging Little Falls High School Upgrades

Three of the high school's original six air handling units do not work, so the district wants to replace those along with updating other mechanical systems. Little Falls is waiting on the state to approve the $17.1 million plan.

Superintendent Greg Johnson says the school board felt using the LTFM program was the right thing to do for everyone:

"We can't have facilities that continue to struggle with providing high-quality indoor air quality and learning environments for our staff and students, and these costs continue to go up because of inflationary increases every year, so it's really prudent that we do this as soon as possible to keep that impact on our taxpayers as minimal as possible."

Johnson says the program will only help with air quality upgrades and not with other improvements still needed to bring the over 50-year-old building up to date, like learning spaces, the media center, the gymnasium, and more.

READ MORE:  Little Falls Schools Plan for New Future for the Middle School

The district hopes to have state approval of the plan by the end of September. Johnson  says if approved, work could start fairly quickly:

"If the process continues to move forward with the support of the board and the state, we would be looking at some of that construction beginning in the summer of 2027. With putting together the final architectural drawings and going through the bid process, it's going to push that down the road a little bit."

Even with the air quality improvements, he says more conversations will need to be had about how to make the other improvements down the road. The Little Falls Community High School was built in 1972.