Once a new science and technology building is completed, it will be another year or so before the old one comes down.
USD 257 board members decided to hold off on demolition of the science building until after the new elementary school opens.
The reason: food.
Specifically, the current science building includes a kitchen where elementary school meals are prepared. Until the new elementary building is ready, board members can’t be certain they’ll have enough room to make the meals.
Currently, Iola High and Iola Middle schools prepare meals in their kitchens for their students. IHS also is used to make meals for the three elementary schools, which are then shipped to those buildings.
The new Iola Elementary School, when it is completed and opened in the fall of 2022 for all of the district’s preschool through fifth grade students, will have the largest kitchen in the district and will prepare its own meals on site.
The original plan was to complete the new science building and elementary school at the same time, then tear down the old science building (with its kitchen and cafeteria) to make room for a parking lot.
The new science building will include a cafeteria and kitchen for high school students, but using it to make elementary school meals could be complicated, Superintendent Stacey Fager explained.
The kitchen at the new science building would need to be modified to handle a greater number of meals. Then, it would be modified again once the elementary school opened and it no longer needed as much capacity.
Also, some of the equipment at the old kitchen was intended to be moved to the new elementary school.
“It became apparent right away we’d be kind of crammed for space and have to do retrofitting for a year, then move that to the elementary when it’s done,” Fager said.
“It probably isn’t the best way to open a new building.”
A better idea is to keep the existing building, with its kitchen, intact for a year and use it as needed to prepare elementary school meals, the board decided.
Fager cited two disadvantages to that plan: It will cost money to maintain and use the old kitchen for a year, and the cost of demolition could increase over time.
Still, the advantages of keeping the building for a year should outweigh those things, the board decided.
