Lake Park, Iowa — The Harris-Lake Park School board has chosen one of the options presented to take care of issues at their elementary school.
Harris-Lake Park Superintendent Les Douma tells us that they decided on Monday night, April 17th, that they will approach the voters with a proposal to build a new elementary school onto their current 6-12 building. Douma tells us why they need to do something at this time.
The cost of that option was $18.5 million dollars, says Douma. Interestingly enough, the second option, adding a new elementary facility to the current 6-12 building, was actually estimated to cost LESS than the renovations to the old building, at $17.1 million. Douma explains.
That option, which is what the board ended up choosing to bring to the voters, would create a PK-12, all-in-one-location setting, says Douma.
He says they also asked the architects for a barebones third option for the elementary, in case the board thought it was too much to ask of the voters to attempt the other two options. He says they came up with a minimum package estimated at $10.9 million.
Douma tells us that as far as bonding, it didn’t really matter much whether the board would have chosen option “a” or option “b.”
In the last few weeks, the district hosted five forums for public input. A straw poll came out strongly in favor of the PK-12 setting. Between now and election day on September 12, 2023, Douma says the board will continue to inform the community. He says once FEH Architects provide drawings of the facility, the board and administration will begin to organize and move forward to “sell” the plan to the community.
Douma says one good thing is that their current tax rate for the school is very low.
According to Douma, the administration, board, and citizens have an opportunity to provide long-term viability to the district with this project. He calls it “an exciting time.”
