The Greene County Schools board of education wasted little time in making it clear that closing the Intermediate School in Grand Junction is still being considered.
Voters in the former East Greene district earlier this month voted overwhelmingly against a proposed $19.4 bond issue that would have cleared the way to create a campus for students in grades 5-12 in Jefferson. Closing the Intermediate School, formerly the East Greene school, was part of the proposal.
At the school board’s regular meeting Sept. 21, superintendent Tim Christensen initiated a discussion of what the next step should be. The discussion was not listed on the agenda but was part of the superintendent’s report.
The soonest a proposal could be put before voters again is April 4. June 27 and the regular school election next Sept. 12 are also available dates, Christensen said. He asked the board to suggest ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency until voters approve a bond issue.
Responding to questions from board president David Ohrt, Christensen said the district planned to use $3 million in voted levies (physical plant and equipment levy and one-cent sales tax) for the project, and that adding classroom space to the elementary school was $1.4 million of the total project.
“The sooner we get the fourth grade back over here, we’d save transportation costs and get us started in the direction we want to go,” Ohrt said.
Board member Ashley Johnston asked if there is capacity for the district’s fifth through eighth grade students at the middle school. Prior to the reorganization, all Jefferson-Scranton students in grades 5-8 attended there. Christensen said he had not looked at numbers for the reorganized district to determine if there’s enough classroom space. Johnston, who was on the East Greene board when the districts reorganized, and Intermediate principal Maranda Van Cleave estimated the number would be 30-40 more students than when only J-S students were there.
Johnston suggested public meetings in Grand Junction, Rippey and Scranton to hear from “no” voters why they opposed the bond issue. Board member Sam Harding said a meeting should also be held in Jefferson.
“I think we have to seriously consider some portable classrooms and building the addition and just getting that building (the intermediate) closed,” Harding said. “It’s part of our plan and it’s part we can actually fund. It’s a big savings for us.”
“We need to ask the public what they think. It’s not going to be popular…. but we can’t afford (keeping it open). If we have a couple more years of declining enrollment we’re going to be in deep trouble. We have to get our costs down and it’s going to take a year to build the addition,” Harding said.
Johnston suggested that having a clear plan for the future of the Grand Junction building would be important in talking with the public.
“Nobody wants the building closed,” board member John McConnell said. “Evolution changes things. We have do what’s best for the community and the students who go there.”
Ohrt reminded the board that closing the intermediate school would not take care of other issues like the roof at the middle school.
Ohrt suggested moving forward quickly to maintain momentum. “We did get more ‘yes’ votes. We just didn’t have the majority we needed,” he said.
Board members Harding and Teresa Hagen will meet soon with the Pay It Forward committee to talk about the Sept. 13 election and how to move forward. The topic will be discussed again at the Oct. 19 regular meeting.
Board secretary Brenda Muir provided voter demographics from the Sept. 13 election. A goal of the Pay It Forward committee was to get more parents of school-age children to the polls than in the 2015 election. The assumption was they had the most at stake in the election. The number of voters ages 24-49 was 603, an increase of 211 voters from 2015. The total number of votes cast increased 574 compared to the Sept. 2015 election.
There were 709 voters ages 50-64 and 808 ages 65 and older. More than 69 percent of those who voted in the election were age 50 and older.
In other business, the board elected Ohrt as president and Mark Peters as vice president and set the third Wednesday of the month as the regular meeting day. The November meeting will be held Nov. 14 due to the Iowa Association of School Boards annual convention the third Wednesday.)
The board received Muir’s calculation of the unspent authorized budget. The budget shows a deficit of $208,041. The district will ask the state’s School Budget Review Committee for allowable growth to cover a $444,000 deficit in special education expense. The state routinely covers special education costs one year in arrears, putting districts in a deficit situation any time the number of special ed students or the level of services they need increases.
The board approved travel for the FFA and advisor Katie Akers to attend the national convention in Louisville, KY, next month and the formation of a high school art club with Sarah Stott as advisor.
