Local school board members should not be deterred by the underwhelming response by area residents in a recent survey concerning district schools. SCHOOL administrators are frustrated Iolans are so complacent with their schools. The three elementary schools, besides their decrepit condition, prohibit the pooling of resources and talent. One building to incorporate all elementary students is the preferred model. IT’S REFRESHING to have leaders believing in the future of education. Judging from the Kansas Legislature, one is led to believe our children aren’t worth the investment.
From a drive-by perspective the schools look fine, and the survey’s results said as much.
Instead, the board of education should use what they know, follow their instincts, and ask for a bond issue to build new schools.
Why? Because every six years we are spending on average $5 million to patch up deteriorating buildings, just to maintain the status quo, which sorely fails as a model for teaching today’s students.
So every day we are paying more to go backward.
Five of the six district buildings were built in Iola’s Industrial Age of the early 1900s. Today’s schools require computers in most every classroom in addition to computer labs. Schools also must accommodate children with handicaps and special needs.
A result is overcrowded classrooms. In some, partitions are used to turn one classroom into two.
Closets become testing stations. And children who are ill sit in the hallway instead of in a nurse’s station. Neither Lincoln nor Jefferson has an elevator, though they have two levels. None of the schools is adequately equipped to accommodate handicapped children, though it’s federal law.
But what about taxes, people say. We can’t afford to pay more.
The biggest threat to any district is that its tax base shrinks, putting a bigger burden on fewer people. The best way to grow a community is through good schools, good healthcare, adequate housing and good jobs.
Because Iola is within easy driving distance to Chanute and its new schools, Iola has seen an increasing number of professionals locate 18 miles south in part because of its superior schools.
USD 257 is the third largest employer in Iola with 240 employees, second only to Gates Manufacturing and Russell Stover Candies. The majority of these employees have college degrees, if not master’s and doctorates. Average pay for teachers is $47,000. These are the caliber of people who invest in their community. They buy good homes. Shop in retail stores. Eat in local restaurants.
A district’s facilities play a critical role in attracting high-caliber teachers and administrators, much as the new $25 million hospital is working to attract new health care professionals.
Of all the buildings, the high school is the biggest drain on the budget. Its antiquated heating and cooling system, continual water seepage and ensuing mold, keep the building smelling like a musty basement and that’s not even addressing the problematic configuration of classrooms.
The middle school is said to be in the best shape of all district buildings, though its roof leaks like a sieve, and the two-foot thick plaster walls prove a hindrance to hooking up new computer systems.
Proponents of new schools envision one campus accommodating all grades, K-12.
Though that might be a pipe dream for today, they should keep one campus as their goal, and perhaps work in stages over the next several years to get there.
Preliminary plans show a price tag of almost $21 million for one elementary facility; another $17.3 million for a middle school, and $22.5 million for a new high school, all on a 95-acre campus. Under the existing funding formula for aid to poor districts such as ours, we can expect the state to pick up about half the tab.
As a school district, the vote gives us the power to say we believe in the future of not only our schools, but also our community.
— Susan Lynn
Rehabbing Iola schools like lipstick on a pig; they’re still inadequate
