Members who have studied Iola schools for the past year are hoping good things come in threes.
Because that’s what they proposed to USD 257 board of education members Monday night.
At the top of the list is a new elementary school to be positioned at the east edge of Iola for grades preschool up through fifth.
Second is a new science and technology building for high-schoolers.
Third is an upgrade to the middle school’s heating and cooling systems, plus its hot water tank.
Because a new elementary is deemed the most critical of the three, members stipulated that if it fails to pass voters’ muster, then neither of the two lesser issues is up for approval.
Committee members suggested the elementary be situated at the intersection of Monroe and Kentucky streets, one block north of U.S. 54, and encompass 15 acres. The site includes 4-5 acres of playground, five times that now available to elementary students.
The school is designed with learning pods and includes a media center, storm shelter and its own kitchen and cafeteria. The price tag is $24 million.
The site offers a multitude of advantages, members said, including catering to residents in Gas and LaHarpe, spiffing up an otherwise depressed area of town, and being close to an existing walking and biking path that bisects Iola from east to west.
Moving fifth grade classes from Iola Middle School to the new elementary accomplishes two things: Frees up space at the crowded middle school and places the fifth-graders with students who are more on their social and emotional levels.
REACHING the conclusion took a bending of wills among the 22 members of the committee who have studied the state of district schools for more than one year.
Some undertook the task unwillingly.
Becky Nilges said when she was first approached to participate in April of 2017, “I thought, no way. I had had my fill.”
Nilges put her heart and soul into the 2014 campaign to build a new school campus north of town. It failed by a 2-to-1 margin.
“But I realized I had learned a lot from that effort, and I could share that knowledge with those who were going to take the baton forward.
“And I would bow out.”
Nilges, however, stuck it out, precisely because one question, “Why is this so important to me?” kept dogging her throughout the process.
“And my answer should be everyone’s answer: It all comes down to the kids. Our responsibility is to give our children the very best education that we can. To give them the tools they need to equip them for the future. And the tools have changed. I think sometimes people forget that.
