KALLIE COOPER WTV-8 NEWS
The Waverly-Shell Rock school board hopes voters will approve an $18.9 million bond issue to help pay for a new middle school and junior high.
The bond issue election is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7.
Washington Irving elementary school was severely damaged during last summer’s floods.
Classes are currently held in the old CUNA Mutual building in the Willow Lawn Mall.
The building was remodeled to temporarily house the students, but the facility has some major drawbacks.
The walls of the building do not touch the ceiling due to heating and cooling systems.
“I’d like to have the rooms closed on top and I’d like to have a bigger T.A.G. room, because the one we are in now is very, very little,” Christian Flege, a fifth grader at Washington Irving, said.
The noise of hundreds of kids can travel from classroom to classroom disrupting students and teachers.
Kelly Flege heads the group, “Building for the Future,” which is helping promote the bond referendum that would allow the school to build a new facility.
“I see a need for the future and just feel that as a citizen and a parent in the community, I have a role to help facilitate the move forward with the new structure,” Flege said.
The new facility would house students in fifth through eighth grade, allowing the district to replace not only the damaged elementary school, but also the outdated junior high.
The school would be built on land near the high school that the district already owns.
The new building would cost the city upwards of about $23 million, leaving the district to cover the remaining cost.
The school will receive some flood relief funding to help with the project, but Superintendent Jere Vyverberg said the school will not build beyond what they are able to afford.
“I compare what we’re doing a lot to home ownership. The same thing if you are building a house applies. You start off with, ‘well, this is what we really could use, and this is what we really want,’ but if the funding isn’t there, well this is what we’re going to have to use and have to want,” Vyverberg said.
An informational campaign to promote the bond issue is underway. People can go online at www.wsrb4f.com to see a list of common questions and answers.
A large version of the floor plans (shown above) is on display at several places in town, including Hy-Vee. Yard signs will also go up this week.
Both Kelly Flege and Vyverberg said they are optimistic about the plans and if the bond is approved would like to see the project completed by 2011.
“I know all my friends and I would like a new school, because they don’t like the one we’re in now,” Christian Flege said.