Entrance safety and security
With our current building security we lack the ability to see who is approaching our building and to effectively manage the flow of guests in and out of our building during the hours that school is in session.


Career and Tech Areas (Agriculture, Technology, Family and Consumer Sciences, Business/Marketing, Heath Careers)
We held an input session with a group of high school students in the fall of 2018. Students shared that they are
wanting more real world life skills program offerings. Over the years our District has eliminated multiple Career and Technical programs and course offerings for students to help the budget remain in the black (Ag and Tech Ed have been reduced, Family and Consumer Science and Business/Marketing Education have been eliminated, we do not offer any Health Careers options). Along with reducing opportunities for students, we have refrained from updating our existing Career and Technical classrooms and labs.

The District recognizes the importance of providing these types of options for our students.  We have already made the commitment to bring Business/Marketing Education back in 2019-2020.  We would like to be able to enhance the opportunities we are providing for our students by creating more space to support Career and Tech Ed programming while also bringing our existing Career and Tech Ed classrooms and lab areas into the 21st Century.

Science classroom updates to support curriculum
Our Science classrooms and labs are virtually the same as they were in 1967.  We updated one classroom using dollars from the 2001 referendum, but the others have been left untouched. Maintenance of the classrooms has fallen behind as projects have been regularly deferred due to lack of funding. The remaining classrooms have fallen into disrepair and have been virtually untouched since they were originally built.

Recognizing the need for additional programming space in our High School, our Task Force realized that it would be more economical to build a new science classroom wing to provide our students with access to 21st Century Science classrooms while renovating the existing science classrooms into regular ed classrooms.  We need the additional space, and it takes less to convert the existing science classrooms into regular ed classrooms than it would to try and address the myriad of issues that exist in the rooms to make them suitable for teaching science. 

Click here to read a letter our science teachers wrote in 2015 describing the issues and to take a virtual tour of the existing classrooms.

Food Service Serving, Prep and Storage Areas
Our cafeteria is small and congested, and cooler and freezer space is limited limiting our ability to provide greater
diversity in menu options. The current set up of the food serving area limits the programs’ ability to offer a greater variety of breakfast, lunch, and ala carte options for students and staff. Our current set up and storage capacity limits our potential for developing Farm to School partnerships which would allow us to expand menu offerings by working with more local vendors.

Cafeteria size and congestion
Our current cafeteria is crowded and congested, it limits the schools ability when it comes to scheduling breakfast and lunch, and is not conducive for supporting student and community activities and events.

A Commons Area
We lack open space for students to congregate before school and after school.  We also believe a commons area would help the High School better cater to school and community events. When discussing facility needs with our High School students, a commons space and area for students to congregate, study, and collaborate was identified as a top priority.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements for school restrooms
Restrooms are in need of updates to promote better accessibility.

Multi-purpose space needs, including community and physical education spaces
The community demand for the use of our District's multi-purpose recreational facilities continues to increase.  Our District has a thriving Community Education program, providing an array of activities that regularly need multi-purpose recreational space.  Along with the Community Education activities our District provides.  Approximately 1000 youth and 600 adults participate annually in a wide variety of the City's park and recreation programs.  These programs also need access to the District's gyms and other multi-purpose recreational space. 

Along with the City’s programs, independent programs that exist in our community are also making regular requests for access to our facilities such as the Heartland Community Church, Junior Olympic Volleyball, Traveling Soccer Programs, Youth Wrestling, and Civic Organizations.  Keep in mind, while we are trying to accommodate our community's requests, school district programming takes precedence.

Our District currently offers 52 different athletic activities. The number of athletic activities that we offer our students has increased by 372% since 1967. When it comes to athletic activities, the weather has a significant impact on activities that traditionally train outdoors which results in both indoor and outdoor activities regularly requesting the use of indoor recreational space. Elements of today’s High school athletic programs also run 12 months out of the year.  Many of these programs request the use of gym space out of season placing a constant demand for access to our facilities on our schools.

While the demand from our extra-curricular activities, Community Ed, Park and Rec, and other programs is high, it can be easy to look past some of the issues we encounter in our own buildings when it comes to providing physical education opportunities for our students. Our gyms are our classrooms. While our outdoor green space can also serve as a classroom for physical education, some lessons need to be taught indoors, and sometimes, the weather makes it clear that we will not be able to have class outdoors.

One two-station gym at the High School limits our District’s ability to offer physical education elective offerings, it can also make it difficult to run educational programming if the gym is closed off for the day for other activities such as blood drives, science and probability fairs, career fairs, community dinners, pep fests, homecoming, prom, and other activities.

Click the following links to learn more about our issues: