District to Focus on Elementary Renovations and 10-Year Facilities Plan

The Linn-Mar Community School District’s Board of Education has decided to focus on addressing the immediate needs of several schools in the district and postpone a new bond referendum until September 2018 at the earliest.

The decision came during the school board’s regular meeting Monday, November 6th and following a recent meeting to analyze the results of the September 12th bond referendum outcome and feedback gathered from the community.

“The results of the recent vote do not diminish our primary purpose of educating our students,” Linn-Mar Superintendent Dr. Quintin Shepherd said. “We worked hard to develop a fiscally responsible plan that would help us address growth in our rapidly growing schools.” Now, the district must do what it can to ensure we provide the same high level of quality education with the existing resources we have available to us, he said.

“The school board recognizes the district must take immediate action to address renovations needed at Indian Creek, Bowman Woods and Wilkins Elementary in the upcoming year,” said Shepherd. The district’s goal is that improvements to these buildings will be followed by renovations at Excelsior Middle School occurring as early as 2019. “These renovations help ensure that a safe and secure environment conducive to learning exists for all school children in the district,” he said.

The district will also take a comprehensive look at it’s 10-year facility plan and identify available funding streams for projects within that plan.

The Linn-Mar school board will meet Monday, December 11th to further discuss the upcoming construction cycle, 10-year facility plan and begin to set a timeline for the projects and outline the necessary steps to move forward.