By Comments made by state legislators during the first Comprehensive Property Tax Task Force has given members of the Aberdeen School Board cause for concern.
The Aberdeen School Board met on Monday, June 9, where board member Duane Alm provided an overview of task force discussions about the school funding formula. Alm said he there was a “concerning” comment made by Sen. Sue Peterson, a Republican from Sioux Falls.
Peterson, who worked as a teacher herself and supported private and homeschooling lobbying efforts from groups in South Dakota during the 2025 Legislative Session, took a dig at local school boards voting to approve opt outs or bond issues without voter approval.
“It needs to be mentioned that a big part of the property tax issue in certain areas, which especially in the Sioux Falls area is the opt outs and additional bond issues done by school boards that don’t have any sort of approval required by the people. So I think that’s an imprint thing we have to look at, too, is that process and making sure that the people have a say in that, and that there’s not just an open checkbook for school boards to spend whatever they want on capital expenditures without the consent of the people,” Peterson said during the task force meeting.
“That’s a really sad comment,” said board member Brad Olson of Peterson’s comment.
School board meetings are public as are budget discussions about the need for an opt out or bond issue. Any action taken by the board in relation to those issues, must be done in open session during a publicly noticed meeting. They can also be referred to a public vote through a public petition process.
Alm said overall, the task force is looking at funding education differently in the name of lowering property taxes.
Alm said Governor Larry Rhoden has not shown any direct interest in changing the school funding formula used by the state to determine property taxes, and Rhoden was quoted in a South Dakota Public Broadcasting article in February on how he doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong with the state’s education funding formula.
“It’s election year next year, and people want to be re-elected, likely. Along with that, despite all the fanfare we’ve gone through there is public education support in this state. At times it may not look like it, but there is,” Alm said. “There’s a lot at stake here.”
Summer projects include FACS remodels
Ben Schnell, Building and Grounds Director of Operations, updated the board on summer projects and routine maintenance efforts. A few statistics he shared follow:
- Employees will dedicate 21,600 labor hours to clean 22,000 square foot of flooring over the summer.
- The hard surface team will use 780 gallons of floor sealer and wax and 450 gallons of paint to touch up or repaint areas of the floor.
- Crews will also mow 2,500 acres of grass on various school properties. By summer’s end, the school’s lawn mowers will have used about 875 gallons of diesel fuel.
“Those are just kind of fun facts, but it boils down to it’s a bunch of work, coordination and planning. And our team does a wonderful job,” Schnell said.
Schnell said the second phase of replacing Central High School’s roofing at a cost of $521,155 will be completed by July 1.
Daktronics will also be replacing the digital sign at the entrance of the high school and use a high density foam material rather than brick for the sign’s base. The foam is just as durable and much cheaper than actual brick.
Schnell said the City Parks and Recreation Department has two signs on different sides of the Aberdeen Recreation and Cultural Center, one that is made with brick and the other with the high density foam.
He said it’s hard to tell which one is which, as both look like actual brick.
Family and Consumer Sciences classrooms in the high school and Simmons Middle School have also been stripped and prepped for renovations. The high school renovations will cost $150,000 and the middle school renovation work, which is a bit more extensive, will cost $320,000.
A summer surplus sale is planned for July 4, which will include a list that is mostly comprised of appliances and items taken out of the FACS rooms.
The items that made the surplus list were “plain worn out” after 21 years of use, Schnell said. The other appliances that were still working in good order will return to the classroom.
Crews planted 31 Aspen trees in an area surrounded by a newly built brick retaining wall in front of the Brownell Activities Complex. This will provide a nice outdoor area for students.
The C.C. Lee Elementary playground will also get a new coat of asphalt and concrete, while the parking lot in front of Simmons Middle School will have new colored concrete poured in different sections. That work will cost $244,652.
Annual flooring replacements will cost $114,000, well under the budgeted amount of $150,000. Rayman Flooring of Aberdeen is doing the flooring work and is currently prepping the areas to be ready for installation.
Schnell said tariffs did not impact project costs much because of the way he planned out the projects. Materials were purchase in advance and placed in storage before bidding. The only tariff-related cost increase he’s seen so far in an invoice for a furniture purchase, Schnell said.
“This is the reason why we started doing it this way, the lead time on some of these materials were so long you couldn’t make it work,” Schnell said.
“Last year it was touchy, So far we have been able to avoid added costs due to tariffs. I’m sure it’s there, but what we use is mostly local. There’s been an increase on furniture that we’ve seen, with tariffs noted as the reason on the invoice,” Schnell said.
“We’ll take the money out of the ‘check book’ we have if we need to,” Olson said jokingly referring to Peterson’s comment that was discussed earlier in the meeting.