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<br />Ehlers Advisor . August 2006 <br /> <br /> <br />E' .""'~1lC: <br />,,\,,,:,::: '''', ,'If: <br /> <br />t;'~'j'!i:ht;;~ <br />a.:JEIfTSONTHE.OJlE <br /> <br /> <br />Take a look at some of <br />our clients lion the move" <br />with new projects! <br /> <br /> <br />The Byron School District recently completed <br />construction of Byron High School, designed <br />for up to 680 students in grades 9-12. The <br />new school is part of a plan to relieve <br />overcrowding in this growing district, <br />located eight miles west of Rochester. The <br />plan also includes conversion of the existing . <br />high school to a middle school for grades 5- Byron High School <br />8, and conversion of the existing middle school to a community education center. Built for approximately $25.7 million, the high <br />school includes 142,450 square feet of space and is located on an 80 acre site on the north edge of the City. District voters <br />approved the school as part of a $27.6 million bond referendum in May 2004. The school will open in September of 2006, a full <br />year ahead of the original schedule. The architect is Rozeboom Miller Architects of Minneapolis and the construction manager is <br />Kraus-Anderson Construction of Circle Pines. Graphic courtesy of Kraus-Anderson and the Byron School District. <br /> <br />The White Bear Lake School District is completing construction of Oneka Elementary School, designed for up to 750 students in <br />grades K-5. Built for approximately $20.2 million, the school includes approximately 105,000 square-feet and is located in Hugo. <br />The new school is part of a plan to accommodate growing enrollment in the northern portion of the school district. District <br />voters approved the school as part of a <br />$28.2 million bond referendum in <br />November 2003. The plan also includes <br />renovation of the existing elementary <br />school in Hugo, once the new elementary <br />school opens this fall. The architect is UIB <br />of Minneapolis, and the construction <br />manager is Kraus-Anderson Construction of <br />Circle Pines. GraPhic courtesy of Kraus-Anderson <br />and the White Bear Lake School District. <br /> <br /> <br />Oneka Elementary School <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />~y: <br /> <br />u ;',T erear <br />. ,n(lisi;iJes:th~fdon't <br />> .arerefUndedand rioe . Istrj(:fnotalways :caichth~seerro'rs; . 'efyyea: ' <br />,,: levy toomLJch ortoolittleJor debt service:. ithe'rtY'pe of error cahcreaie serious problems,' ',' <br />"changesin1eviesfrom year toyeararidpot~~iial shortfalls offunds to make bond payments. . , <br /> <br />To help our school district clients avoid sucherrors in future levies, Ehlers staff compared the levies from the MDE data bifse to our: ' " <br />own records this summer. Where we found discrepancies, we contacted district and MDE staff to correct the errors. We also provided <br />payment and levy schedules to MDE so that they could correct their data base for future years. Finally, we are verifying the calculation <br />of "debt excess" adjustments to levies to ensure that any funds that need to be reserved for future payments are indeed reserved. <br /> <br />In general, we have been very impressed with the accuracy of the data maintained by MDE; the levy amounts for over 95 percent of <br />bond issues tied out exactly to our records. However, because of the large number of new bond issues and refundings done every year, <br />some level of error is inevitable. This year we found errors in the levies for 10 districts. The errors ranged from $1,800 to $91,000. <br /> <br />We still encourage our clients to independently verify their debt service levies. But if your district is an Ehlers client, you can rest <br />assured that we are doing everything we can to verify the accuracy of your levy data. <br /> <br />.4. <br />