|
1918 Kasson Public School
|
|
|
Kasson Public School, with the Kasson Water Tower in the background.
|
|
|
|
|
| Location: | 101 3rd Av NW, Kasson, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Governing body: | Local |
| NRHP Reference#: | 07001242 |
| Added to NRHP: | December 6, 2007 |
The Kasson Public School building is located at 101 Third Avenue NW in city of Kasson, Dodge County, Minnesota, in the United States. Designed by architect Nels S. Jacobson Jr. of the architectural firm Jacobson & Jacobson, the school was constructed during the years 1917-1918. Kasson's elementary and high school students began using the building on December 5, 1918.[1]
The Kasson Public School was constructed during the years 1917-1918. Kasson's elementary and high school students began using the building on December 5, 1918.[2] Samuel A. Challman, the first State Commissioner of Minnesota School Buildings and the foremost standard-bearer for the construction of Minnesota schools, expressed his approval of the school during a 1919 visit:
Commissioner Challman made the following statement about schoolhouse construction in 1914 to the National Education Association of the United States:
The school was used continuously from 1918 into 2005. For nearly ninety years the Kasson Public School played a central role in the life of the community. It served as Kasson’s only school building until 1958 when the school district merged with nearby Mantorville and combined high school classes were held at a new school north of town. It served as the Kasson Elementary School for more than four decades after that. It eventually housed an alternative school, community education and school district administrative functions. Those uses were discontinued in 2005.
In early 2006 the City of Kasson, MN obtained the school. A November 2006 referendum to reuse the school as a combination city hall, police station and other governmental uses missed approval by only 122 votes. The city council soon voted to demolish the building. In response, local citizens formed the non-profit Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE) in January 2007 to advocate for saving the school. In May/June 2007 KARE stopped the demolition by filing a lawsuit against the city. KARE then spoonsored an effort which lead to the Kasson Public School being placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 2007. The suit was settled out of court in August 2008. As part of the settlement the city and KARE partnered to conduct an Historic Properties Reuse Study which was completed in October 2009. The reuse study suggested many reuses for the school to include for example apartments, library and a community center. The city then formed a Citizen's Task Force to explore the reuse options. On November 1, 2001 the city placed the school on the market for $400,000 in an effort to attract developers. Numerous developers attended an open house at the school on November 30, 2011. The 1895 Kasson Water Tower, also on the National Register of Historic Places, is located behind the school.
The school building’s future first emerged as an issue in 2005 when the Kasson-Mantorville School District moved the few programs remaining in the building to the district’s expansive campus north of town. Seeing an opportunity to meet its needs for additional space, and also to achieve a stated objective of “develop[ing] or redevelop[ing] the elementary school site to benefit the community and enhance the surrounding neighborhood if [the school district] discontinue[d] use for educational purposes,” the city retained Kane and Johnson Architects of Rochester to complete a Space Needs Study. The study, among other things, investigated the potential for reusing the school building or site to help meet the city’s long- and short-term facilities needs. As part of this study, Kane and Johnson prepared concept drawings and rough cost estimates showing how the 1918 school building could be converted into a multi-use public building housing city offices, the public library, and space for community gatherings. The Space Needs Study report recommended renonovating the school and stated that preserving the building would be more cost effective the building new. The estimated cost of the project was $3.9 million. With this information in hand the city acquired the 1918 building and site in early 2006 from the school district forgiving approximately $320,000 worth of assessments for infrastructure improvements at the expanding north school campus in exchange for the property.
In November 2006, the Kane and Johnson conceptual plan was submitted to local citizens in the form of a referendum. An earlier ballot proposed for a July 2009 special election was deemed illegal by the Minnesota Attorney General’s office. In the November election, voters were asked to decide if the city of Kasson should “be authorized to issue its general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $3,900,000 to defray the expense of the renovation, expansion and equipping of the former elementary school for city hall, library, or other governmental purposes.” The referendum failed by a narrow vote of 894 to 1,026. Despite the close vote and no clear mandate, a few weeks later the Kasson city council voted to demolish the building without further consultation with citizens.
In January 2007, a group of preservation-minded advocates from Kasson formed the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE). KARE was formed as a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a way to rehabilitate rather than demolish the building as well as furthering historic preservation within Kasson. In light of the statistically tied vote from November 2006, KARE members lobbied unsuccessfully at numerous council meetings in April 2007 for the city council to reverse its demolition decision and further consult with citizens on the future of the school building to include using Kane and Johnson's expertise. The council chose to move ahead and announced they would open demolition bids in May. As a result KARE sued the city under provisions of the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA, which protects historic resources) in an effort to halt the demolition. The lawsuit was filed on the eve of the city opening demolition bids on May 23, 2007. After a hearing in June at which KARE’s attorney and the Cities' legal representative from the League of Minnesota Cities presented their cases, the Dodge County Court issued a temporary injunction in June 2007 prohibiting demolition and a trial was set for February 2008. KARE proceeded to have the school listed on the National Register of Historic Places which occured in December 2007.
More than a year of litigation followed during which the trial was postponed to August 2008 to give the two sides more time to negotiate. In an effort to settle the lawsuit out of court and resolve the school issue, the city of Kasson and KARE, agreed in August 2008 to settle out of court and co-sponsor a Historic Properties Reuse Study of the 1918 Kasson School. The city issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the project in December 2008 and a contract for the project was awarded to a team assembled by John Lauber and Company of Minneapolis in the spring of 2009 (ironically, Kane and Johnson also bid on it). The RFP stated that the purpose of the study was “to define and evaluate reuse options regarding the 1918-era Kasson Elementary School and/or its site.”
The Reuse Study was jointly sponsored and funded primarily by the City of Kasson and the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE). The study, which cost $30,000, was also funded in part by a grant to KARE for $2,500 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (a SWEATT Grant). The reuse study was completed in collaboration with a School Reuse Action Committee (SCHRAC) which KARE formed. SCHRAC was a nineteen-member advisory committee of area citizens, city officials, and technical experts formed to assist the Lauber Team with the effort. The Lauber Team visited Kasson and toured the school in the spring of 2009. In June 2009, the team conducted extensive interviews with Kasson's citizens and conducted a community workshop followed by additional visits to Kasson later in the summer. A draft reuse study report was issued in September 2009 and the final report was published in October and presented to the City Council. The October 2009 Historic Properties Reuse Study Report and additional information can be viewed at: http://kassonschoolreuse.net/ or the Kasson Alliances' website at http://www.kassonalliance.org/ . The City of Kasson subsequently appointed a Citizen Task Force in November 2009 to investigate options for reusing the school.
The Citizen Task Force began meeting in January 2010 and its members distributed a survey in April 2010 to Kasson's residents. On Wednesday May 12, 2010 the Task Force presented the survey results to the City Council. The survey forms were distributed to Kasson’s residents thru multiple sources (utility bills, web, newspaper etc.). Over 5,000 people reside in Kasson and 581 forms were returned. 58% of the respondents favored rehabilitating/reusing the school. Suggested uses for the building include library (211), community center (173), government offices (74), office space (58), apartments/condos (55), and shopping/dining (10). Similar reuse ideas and rankings were generated during the June 2009 Reuse Study community workshops. One of the respondents indicated an interest in purchasing the building.
On June 9, 2010 the City of Kasson passed a resolution and proposal that offered the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE) a 49% share in owning and maintaining the building provided KARE secured $3.9 million by August 31, 2011 whereupon the city would present a November 2011 referendum for $3.9 million ($7.8 mil total). The resolution, which was threatening in nature, stated that any reuse identified for the building needed to include a library component. KARE responded politely to the proposal in a letter dated June 21 stating in summary: a) it was not within KARE's advocacy mission to own and maintain buildings and b) the required planning and coordination with the library board (a huge problem in past efforts) had not yet been done to fully formulate the reuse plan for the building. KARE stated that no one would sign the proposed agreement/partnership (with a very short time frame) given that the reuse plan was still in its infancy and had not been adopted by the building's owner (the city) or the library board. The city council subsequently reminded the library board that the cities' designated site for a new, larger library is the historic school site.
Previous space needs studies in Kasson had shown that the city could benefit from a larger library which was housed in a 2,294 square foot building. The 2009 Reuse Study identified an expanded library as a leading candidate for reusing the 1918 School. So, on August 4, 2010, KARE board members and volunteers attended the library board meeting to voice KARE's support for the libraries' quest for a larger facility and to answer questions about KARE’s mission and the potential to reuse the school as a library. On parallel path, at the council meeting on August 25, Mayor Tim Tjosaas asked the council to form a Kasson Public Library Building Committee (KPLBC) composed of citizen volunteers and non-voting public officials which was approved. The KPLBC began meeting in September 2010 followed by a tour of local libraries and a tour of the historic Kasson Public School.
The KPLBC continued to meet in 2011. In February 2011 the KPLBC announced that they had met with Deb Parrott of the engineering and architecture firm Widseth, Smith, Nolting and Associates. Ms. Parrott, who has experience with library design, was asked to prepare three library design proposals for the historic school as follows: Option 1) total rehabilitation of the 1918 school building, Option 2) a partial or modified rehabilitation of the school building and Option 3) a completely new structure on the general footprint of the existing building [note: after demolition of the 1918 school].[5]
On August 10, 2011 the KPLBC presented the aforementioned Option 3 to the city council which proposed replacing the historic 1918 school with a $4.5 million dollar 20,000 square foot library facility which included 3,000 sq. ft. of community meeting space. The plan would have been implemented after demolishing the historic school. The council did not vote to demolish the school however they did vote to have the KPLBC continue with their planning effort. The chambers were full of school supporters. Council member Mike Marti expressed concern about the cost. Letters to the editor soon started appearing supporting the reuse of the school building. On August 12, the Rochester Post Bulletin editorial board stated (quoting): “don’t demolish the school until a firm decision has been made-and funding obtained for whatever structure will replace it”.
In a move that implied that the city was contemplating demolition, on Wednesday August 24 the Kasson City Council selected a bid to conduct an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) on the historic 1918 Kasson School. An assessment worksheet is required by MN state law for any National Register Listed building prior to it being demolished. The Minnesoota Historical Society, Presevation Alliance of Minnesota and all citizens can comment on the EAW. An organization called Pathfinders CRM (Robert Vogel) in partnership with the AE firm Widseth, Smith and Nolting were awarded the bid. The City Council has not voted to demolish the school but the EAW process is a step in that direction. In the meantime, Kasson's citizens are meeting with council members to discuss alternatives to demolition.
|
||||||||||||||||||||