A plan to fund a new sixth-grade wing at Mandan Middle School moved forward.

The Mandan School Board approved a resolution to issue $3 million in general obligation bonds to build the sixth-grade wing.

Bonds would be paid for out of the current building fund, which is at 16.5 mills and has a cap of 18 mills. The board decided at its meeting Monday to advertise a legal notice that gives patrons 60 days to protest in writing the issuance of the bonds.

In November, if the resolution makes it past the protest period, bonds can be issued.

The building fund currently pays for the middle school bond, the Fort Lincoln School bond and building maintenance in the district. If the bonds for the sixth-grade wing were added, it would be tight for three years until the Fort Lincoln bond is paid off in 2012-13.

If the board raised the building fund mill levy to its maximum, it would let the district keep up its current obligations in the building fund and pay for the sixth-grade wing.

Maintenance projects run the district between $200,000 and $250,000 on maintenance. If taxable valuation increases about two percent a year, the next three school years could see between $100,000 and $180,000 for maintenance, or more, if taxable valuation increases at a greater rate than 4 percent.

The board did get a deferred maintenance grant from the state. It will get about 130,645 for the current biennium. This will be used for roofing projects, rekeying the high school, remodeling the main floor bathroom at the high school and repaving the food service and Roosevelt driveways.

Those items were part of about $320,000 in maintenance items approved this spring.

The sixth-grade wing will be an addition to the new Mandan Middle School. It could be finished by fall 2010. Currently, renovation is under way at the old junior high to make it ready for sixth-graders this fall. Then it will open as the Great Plains Sixth-Grade Academy.

The sixth-graders who will start at the Great Plains Sixth-Grade Academy will be bused to school this fall. Busing also starts the first day of school instead of Oct. 15, as it has in past years. Changes such as these were outlined during the meeting Monday by transportation director Gordon Berge.

The plan to get the district's sixth-graders to the Great Plains Sixth-Grade Academy and the new Mandan Middle School uses many of the elementary schools as pick-up points, and a few buses doing double runs in the morning. Afternoon routes are still being worked out.

Fine tuning still needs to be done on timing. Buses start picking up students between about 6:45 a.m. and 8:10 a.m., depending on the route. At the middle school, the first bus could start dropping off students as early as 7:50 a.m. Classes start at 8:35 a.m.

The board and the superintendent talked about ways to supervise students before school starts. The school libraries could be open, and Superintendent Wilfred Volesky would like to see the breakfast program expanded in the district. Board member Kirsten Baesler said she'd like other types of programs for the students to take advantage of the time they are at school.

A letter will go out to parents, telling them of their child's pick-up point and to verify the parent wants the child to take the bus. There will be two copies of the bus information. One is for the parent to return and the other will be for the parent to keep, because bus drivers will not be making phone calls this year to tell parents about bus assignments, like in the past.

Elementary school students will continue to walk to their neighborhood school.

"If they have a sixth-, seventh- or eighth-grader, we will be picking them up, and if there is a third-grader in the household, they may have to walk," Berge said.

Sixth-graders within walking distance of the Great Plains Academy will be expected to walk and the same goes for the new middle school. The district buses students from Diane's Addition to Lewis and Clark Elementary School.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)