GREENE COUNTY NAVIGATION:
School District Facilities
The Greene County Community School district’s 200 staff members educate around 1,250 students throughout five buildings.
The district also has an administration building, which currently houses a daycare. Like other areas throughout the State of Iowa, the district is facing pressures due to declining enrollment; 2017 marks the third straight year of building consolidation for the district.
In April 2018, Greene County successfully passed the school bond referendum to build a new High School and Career Academy. Working with Iowa Central Community College, the Career Academy will offer new technology and classes previously unavailable in the region. The Academy will also work with the soon-to-be-completed Forge Coding Academy which will begin teaching classes in the Academy. This bonding action will result in a new future for Greene County, and set it up to become a premiere school district in the State of Iowa.
Beyond the lack of support for past referendum efforts, the City of Grand Junction has indicated a desire to tear the school building in their community down. While this is certainly not the preferred future, the community needs to be prepared for the fallout.
Before the building is torn down, developers should be contacted about the land. We believe the best use of this property is to keep the building in tact, it will be easier to attract a developer if the district/community offers the cost it would take to tear the building down as an incentive to a developer to repurpose the building. Additionally, the community of Grand Junction can take over the gymnasium to be used as a community center. This is necessary as a developer will likely use Historic Tax Credits to develop the building. These credits will not allow the gymnasium to be repurposed for housing, therefore the community center approach will be a great amenity and a cost-savings for a developer. More information on this is covered in the 3-Block radius section.
Additionally, both the South Grade building and the Middle School also present opportunities for similar building reuse projects.
The closed schools can be repurposed into residential units. The district expects to close two more buildings when the new High School and Career Academy are built. At the same time, the district understands the need to provide safe, secure buildings to allow students to focus on learning, to compete to attract and retain top talent – in terms of both district educators and residents with children – and, to operate as efficiently as possible to maximize funding.
