Staff photo by Fritz Busch About a dozen people attended a GFW School Board meeting at the Fairfax Community Center Monday. Another 40 people watched the meeting streamed on the school district’s Facebook site.

FAIRFAX — After 42 minutes of closed session negotiation Monday, the Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop (GFW) school board directed Superintendent Jeff Horton to negotiate a purchase agreement with a Burnsville company to buy the former Fairfax Middle School.

After the board meeting, Horton said Retro Companies, Inc., of Burnsville made a $75,000 offer for the former school buildings and property, which was the only offer received by the school district for the property by the Oct. 2 deadline.

Horton said he will meet with the Fairfax Economic Development Authority (EDA) and other interested local organizations and the school district facilities committee to gather input on what they feel are the pros and cons of selling the school and property.

Horton said the school board decided to close one of the three school sites last year as a way to save money in light of the school district operating a statutory operating debt.

“We had twice the amount of (school) space we needed, according to a facilities study,” Horton said. “Now, we are operating two school lunch programs instead of three and saving money. We still have so much school space, we can offer all-day in-person learning.”

Horton said state law allows the school board to go into closed session to negotiate real estate, and that a public meeting to do so would put the school district in a poor position to negotiate.

The board unanimously approved:

• Ratification of the sale of $469,000 in Series 2020B, General Obligation School Building Refunding Bonds, on a motion by Phil Klenk, seconded by Mike Kuehn.

The bond sale was awarded to First National Bank of Fairfax who bid a 0.75% interest rate. Other bids were 0.92%, The Bank of Elk River; $1.24%, Minnwest Bank; and 1.45%, Woodlands National Bank.

Series 2009A bonds at 5.24% interest will be refunded to achieve a debt service savings of $36,720 over five years that will come off the GFW tax levy.

“I want to thank PMA (Securities) for helping us save this money. It’s one of many steps were taking to save the district money,” said Horton.

• Presenting a school and community recognition plaque to the Dollars for Scholars organization for awarding $59,500 in scholarship funds to students earlier this year.

• Horton said he plans to review his 100-day plan and discuss next steps at a special school board meeting on Monday, Nov. 2.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.