One year after the 2014 school bond issue was soundly defeated, then-school board president Tony Leavitt recruited Dan Willis to run for a seat on the board.
“I wish I could say it was all about education,” Willis said in a Register article from 2019. “But that school bond issue was the biggest driver.”
After Willis secured the seat, Leavitt had another directive.
Because he was the only school board member who had voted against the 2014 bond issue, Leavitt told him it was his duty to form a community-led effort to study school facilities.
“So I accepted, and I haven’t seen my wife or son since,” he joked at the time.
The board began working on a strategic plan to review school facilities with about 50 members of the community. From that grew a facilities action team and ultimately steering committees.
Also on board was Stacey Fager, the new superintendent of schools.
The team was methodical in its approach. And careful with feelings still raw about the 2014 defeat.
“It was disadvantaged at the beginning,” Willis opined. “It was a rushed project that was slammed down our throat.”
Willis knew this next time around the board needed to be more thorough and transparent in its findings.
In 2017, Willis took over as school board president and the momentum grew. That November, a steering committee met for the first time for an in-depth study of the district’s facilities. It included some of the 2014 “yes” voters and “no” voters, single moms, retirees, farmers, business owners and others.
Willis organized the meetings but otherwise stepped back to let residents lead the way.
“Boy, did we find some leaders out of that group,” Willis said. “The neatest thing out of that process was the people in their 20s and 30s who stepped up. As you get older, it scares you to wonder about the people behind you, how we’re going to build that next generation. But our future as a community is in good hands, much better than I ever dreamed.”
AT THIS WEEK’S ribbon cutting for the new Iola Elementary School were some of those younger generations instrumental to its success, including Savannah Flory, Morgan (Dieker) Karmann, Kristin Stotler, Tim Stauffer, Jenna Higginbotham, Matt Stuckey, Jen Taylor, Nic Lohman and Lori Cooper.
And that momentum hasn’t stopped.
