That’s the question in front of the Tracy Public School District, and taxpayers will have their say, too
The Tracy Area Public School District not only found itself with a new-to-them building when the construction dust settled last year, they were left with money in the bank.
A lot of money in the bank, even though when you’re talking construction, money doesn’t go as far as it used to.
File this in the “it’s a good problem to have” category.
The district’s metaphorical pot of gold amounts to $4,580,937.80 — an eye-catching figure that Supt. Chad Anderson has been sharing with the school board on every board agenda for months.
But where did it come from? It’s important to note that this money didn’t just fall into their hands. Instead, the windfall is a culmination of a number of things, including wise investments from Ehlers, lower-than-expected construction bids and close oversight of the two-year, multimillion infrastructure project.
ANDERSON
That resulted in reduced labor costs, which meant the district could salvage much of its contingency funds.
“You add all those things together, and that’s why we have these funds remaining,” said Anderson. “It’s very uncommon. Now we have these dollars, which are earmarked for updates of our facilities. That’s what the voters said they wanted.”
Having so many unknowns surrounding the two-phase project actually worked in the district’s favor, because that forced the district to act as micromanagers.
“There were a lot of things that were difficult to predict,” Anderson said. “We had meetings every single week with the subcontractors; that helped us continually kept things on track.”
Contractors needed to cut out the existing terrazzo floor and cement; bring in mini excavators that would fit in the hallways and dig down 5-10 feet to remove clay, dirt, gravel and rock; remove all the old sewer pipe and replace with new PVC; connect hallway PVC with the recently remodeled bathrooms going under the existing walls without damaging the new pipe; and connect some old pipes to the new areas.
Also, the pipes in the basementneededtoberemoved and reconnected. Anderson said labor was a big unknown, as was what type of soil was an unknown.
And that was just Phase 1. “How do you bid that to know how much time and effort that it’s going to take?” Anderson said. “You have to break it down — the concrete cutters are one group, the excavators are another group, you have the pipe fitters, and that’s just to take everything out.”
Anderson said the district did not want to not estimate enough and then need to ask taxpayers for additional dollars to finish the projects or cut out parts of the project.
Since the undertaking covered two years, the district was required to obtain all bonds right away, so it earned a full year’s worth of interest on the remaining bonds.
So, the million-dollar question is, what will the district do with the loot? How the funds will be used isn’t necessarily a district-only decision since the monies are a result of a voter-approved referendum.
“Whatever we use this money for, we’re going to have to go back to the voters,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s plan starts with meeting with the Building & Grounds Committee to start to spitball some ideas. After that, comes more meetings — possibly from an advisory group or engineers — to bring in other suggestions. The process might include a community survey as well.
“We’ll lay out some needs we have, but nothing has been decided,” Anderson said. “The board understands what we need to do — they know the money is there, they know what has to be done, that it has to be voted on by the community to move forward. Before we spend any of these dollars, we’ll go back to the taxpayers and let them know, ‘this is what we’re thinking.’”
In other business Monday … • The board approved the Consolidation Plan and Plat approved by the commissioner of Education related to the consolidation of District No. 2904 and District No. 635 (Milroy Public School).
• The board recognized the latest enrollment of 603, down from 643 in February 2025.
• The board accepted the resignation of Lisa Schaar, and approved hiring her as a part time Literacy Lead/TAPS ADSIS mentor. The board also accepted the resignatoin of math teacher Mitchell Buerkle, effective at the end of this schools year, and Billy Dean as assistant softball coach.
• The board approved the hiring of Janis Rykhus to the kitchen staff at Tracy Area Public Schools
• The board approved Service Cooperative contracts for the 2026-27 school year.
• The board approved the following donations: $2,034.24 from Marilyn and Dennis Christensen for the Alice Klein Persons, and Harold and Myrna scholarships; $200 from Fall Festival Folks for students in need; $1,025 from the Tracy United Fund for student assistance; and $1,000 from Ron McDaniel for the Lyon/ Murray CEO Program.
• The board voted in favor of a door frame painting project for $33,400 for this summer using Long Term Facilities Maintenance dollars.
• The board heard the first reading of the 2026-27 Tracy Area Public Schools calendar, with the first day of school being Sept. 1 and the last student day May 27. This equates to 180 staff days and 174 student contact days.
