Elementary addition/RBMS renovations are planned to meet increase in student enrollment

The Eagle Grove Area School District has the potential to see some impressive growth in the very near future. In order to accommodate the possible influx of students, Superintendent Jess Toliver says we can’t wait for them to get here before we make the necessary room to fit all the students.

After Prestage Farms announced last July their intent to build a new state-of-the-art hog processing plant just south of Eagle Grove, Toliver started planning for the future growth of Eagle Grove schools. A facilities study was done by Carl A. Nelson & Company (out of Burlington) SVPA Architects Inc. (out of West Des Moines), evaluating all of the district’s current school and administration buildings.

They focused on student capacity, mechanics, and the overall condition of each building. (For the full details from the initial facility study, see the October 20, 2016 edition of the Eagle Grove Eagle). From there, a master planning process began to study options of building new, combining facilities, or total renovations.

SVPA then reported back to the facilities group made up of Eagle Grove teachers, administrators, business people, city officials, realtors, parents, and community members. After some questions, and suggestions, they went back to finetune the details. SVPA then returned again last week for a second meeting with the facilities group to present several options, complete with basic blue-prints and estimated budgets for them to consider. Information was based on the projection of 200 new students. Of course, that is just an estimated guess as no one can say for sure exactly how many new students could move into the district with 900 new jobs. There is also potential for a second shift at Prestage Foods, which means there could be even more students joining the district in the next few years.

Read the full article in the March 9 edition of the Eagle.