$5 Million School Building Purchase Approved by District 196 Board

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The District 196 School Board this week approved 6-0 the $5 million purchase of the Apple Valley building it currently leases to house alternative high school and adult special needs programs, according to the Pioneer Press, and the district should close on the property by month's end.

The purchase of the building and land—which Dakota County property records show is valued at about $3.2 million—should create a savings of between $112,000 and $120,000 per year for taxpayers, district Finance and Operations Director Jeff Solomon told Patch in May.

The district would no longer have to pay property taxes on the building, and would be eligible for the state's alternative facilities levy program to fund future maintenance, Solomon said.

"It's of value to us at that price," he said in May of the $5 million building purchase.

The interest rate for this lease-purchase will be 2.95 percent, the Pioneer Press article says.

For five years, District 196 has leased the 28,000-square-foot building—located near the intersection of County Road 42 and Johnny Cake Ridge Road in Apple Valley—for nearly $381,000 a year.

The building has been home to its alternative high school and programs for adult special needs students transitioning from a school to the community environment. None of the programs in the building would move from their current home with the purchase, Solomon .

AVP Developers constructed the facility for the district during the 2005-06 school year, and the district agreed to lease the facility through 2016 once it was completed, Solomon said.

At the time, Solomon said, the district’s lease on another building had expired and district officials were looking for a place to house the ALC and other programs. District schools were seeing burgeoning growth in the number of secondary-level students and needed a temporary solution while they determined whether the ALC, Pathway and Transition Plus could be moved back into other facilities already owned by the district, Solomon said.

In the end, the district decided there wasn't enough room in its existing facilities to reabsorb the programs, Solomon said.

The Pioneer Press also reported more about other facilities the district leases, and how it handles lease agreements.