The District is moving to an open market sale of Oppenlander, likely to a developer, as their 5/9 deadline has come and gone … with no City response. #FAIL I spent the last two days at a hotel overlooking “The Falls” in Sioux Falls, SD (a beautiful city). My 7th floor room looked out over […]
Sigh … Our City and School District Leadership Failed to Save Oppenlander Read More »
The School Board rejected the City’s 4/4 counter offer and gave the City a 5/9 deadline to come up with a “clean” offer to purchase Oppenlander. The School Board’s messaging was part posturing and part incorrect, but their intent to sell Oppenlander by June 30th was made clear. Thank you for hanging in with us
The School Board has scheduled a virtual meeting for this Friday at 3:15 pm to issue their “Direction to Staff” on Oppenlander. This meeting follows a closed door Executive Session held April 21st. The link for the virtual meeting will be on this linked District web page by Friday noon. The City made a full-priced
We have done our best with embedded email links. They work for most folks, and we can’t figure out how to make them work for the rest of you (please copy & paste email text at end of this note). In either case your emails are important!!Good Afternoon, The School Board will be meeting in
4/19 Update – Executive Session this Monday (4/21) – Decision Time! Read More »
City Council has done their part. Now the School District needs to step up. Late last month, the School District made a “firm and non-negotiable final offer” to the City to purchase Oppenlander. The closing time in that offer was unreasonable (weeks) and we need the School District to be more reasonable and flexible. The
4/6 – City Requesting School District Allow Time to Close Oppenlander Purchase Read More »
Please make sure your voice is heard. This is a key listening session so the City Council can make a decision on how to proceed. Attending in person, testifying live online, or written comments are all available (details below). We have arranged with the Mayor to expedite a few youth comments so families and children
Details – City-Hosted Oppenlander Public Meeting – Tuesday Feb 18th @ 7pM Read More »
The City has scheduled a public meeting to discuss Oppenlander … the community’s desires and next steps. Please join us on February 18th at 7pm at City Hall. We are not attending the School Board meeting tonight (2/10), and will have limited presence at tonight’s City Council meeting. Best regards,The Friends of Oppenlander team
City-Hosted Oppenlander Public Meeting – Feb 18th Read More »
January 28, 2025 The School Board, after 3 hours of public comment and Board member discussion, unanimously decided to not close any of the three small schools for the ’25-’26 school year. While the budget shortfall was a key foundation for last night’s discussion. Several attendees made comments about Oppenlander, but Oppenlander was expected to
No School Closures & What’s Next for Oppenlander – Jan 28, 2025 Read More »
January 25, 2025 You’ve probably see a whole smattering of communications and information about Oppenlander over the past 4 weeks. I apologize for not being more proactive updating all of you over those weeks, but it seems that just about the time I sit down to write an update, something else happens with the City,
We’re attending the City Council meeting at 6 and the School Board meeting at 8 to show support for the City and School District coming back to the table, “our” table, with a clean slate to renegotiate in good faith. Our persistent resounding voice … and showing up … is our highest leverage! We need
