The Albert Lea school district’s public presentation at Sibley Elementary School was met with lower attendance but high support Tuesday.

The four attendees expressed support for the district’s planned referendum, which on May 8 will ask voters to approve a $24.615 million general obligation building bond for updates to Hammer Complex, Halverson Elementary School’s gymnasium and office, and Albert Lea High School’s gym and swim locker room.

“I taught in the district for 20 years, so I’m for it and I know they need something,” Dorothy Pomerson said.

Pomerson said she considers Albert Lea a good town and Albert Lea Area Schools a good system, and she thinks the changes would help reflect that.

Should the referendum pass, the funding would go toward bringing Hammer Complex up to ADA and Title IX compliance. The fieldhouse would be expanded and reorganized to better accommodate male and female sports, as well as visiting teams. The stadium would become handicap accessible and include running water and permanent bathrooms. The softball fields would be updated to be more comparable to Hayek Field. All of the practice fields would be irrigated, and Hammer Field and the softball infield would receive artificial turf.

Also, Halverson’s gym would be expanded to full size and the office would be moved closer to the front of the building for increased security. At Albert Lea High School, the gym would have air conditioning installed and the swim locker rooms would be completed; they were not finished when the school was built in 2000.

At the presentation, Albert Lea Area Schools Superintendent Mike Funk also addressed the referendum’s impact on taxes — which would stay level if the bond were to pass, or decrease if the bond were to fail.

“A lot of people say $24 million is a lot,” Funk said of the referendum amount. “It is. But I would also say that we’re timing this so it’s not going to have an impact on people’s taxes. It will extend it, but we’re not going to have a spike in the taxes, and I think that’s important for people to realize as well.”

Lynn Rothmeier, who is in her 24th year as a trainer for all of Albert Lea’s high school sports through Mayo Clinic Health System’s HealthReach, said she experiences firsthand the conditions Funk described in the presentation.

“It’s hard to be put in that public position to welcome teams when we don’t have anything really great to welcome them to,” Rothmeier said.

When she works in the training room, she shares a bathroom with the male coaches. The training room is located in the midst of the boys’ locker room, which she said is not ideal for her or the female student athletes.

Rothmeier said she also sees student injuries that come in as a result of unirrigated practice fields; they include more ankle and knee injuries and scrapes as the ground, she said, is less forgiving.

“There’s a need,” Rothmeier said. “It’s not just a want, and we’re very far behind the schools in the rest of the Big Nine Conference.”

Rothmeier also works as a physical therapy assistant in the schools.

“When I have to do therapy on those kids, I have to be out in the hallway because there’s not enough gym space or space for me to work,” she said.

In addition, Rothmeier’s stepdaughter plays sports at the high school. From each of these angles, she said she sees no negatives to the referendum.

“Every single bullet point Dr. Funk talked about, I can tell you things that need to be fixed there,” she said.