The time has come to provide our students with improvements

A school building, like many other important pillars of community life, has a usable lifespan.

Residents of the school district need to decide when that span’s end has arrived, and what upgrades and replacements are warranted.

Major school building improvements and replacement projects should not be undertaken lightly. They will serve the district’s youngsters for decades, even generations, to come.

It’s a big deal.

That’s why, under Iowa law, it takes a 60-percent supermajority of the school district’s voters to approve a school bond issue.

Some Iowans object to setting the bar that high, and would prefer a simple 50 percent plus one requirement.

I don’t agree. I think a project as important as school facility upgrades or replacements deserves more of a consensus in the community than a simple majority would represent.

This coming Tuesday, we’ll see if enough Greene County Community School District voters have decided the time has come for major improvements to the district’s facilities.

I’ll be voting yes.

The facts presented by the district’s facilities committee over the past several months make a convincing case that the time has come to provide our students with up-to-date, efficient building improvements.

When should a school district take such an important step?

• When existing facilities are unable to meet modern teaching standards.

• When existing buildings, like older cars, become too expensive to maintain.

• When other school districts’ facilities are obviously more attractive to young families looking for a home community.

• When significant annual operational savings can be realized from the upgrades.

• And when local youngsters return from trips to schools in other communities wishing their own schools were like those others.

The former East Greene building in Grand Junction, now serving as the Greene County district’s intermediate school, was begun in 1914. The middle school building in Jefferson was begun in 1920.

When they were constructed, they represented the state of the art of Iowa public education.

At that time, there were close to 100 one-room country schools in Greene County. Each township was authorized for nine of them, and most of those were in operation. Over the next several years, as transportation infrastructure, technology and teaching methods improved, school consolidation took place here and across the state, and the one-room schools were replaced.

About 25 years ago, the current Jefferson Elementary School was constructed. It replaced the old “Pink School” north of the Square that had served the Jefferson district for over 100 years. The venerable old building’s time had come, and the district’s voters realized that. The new school was the result.

Could we get by for awhile longer with the present five-building configuration? Yes — and if the bond issue election fails, we’ll have to.

But we will be required to pour several million dollars into the current facilities to meet requirements, and the clock will continue to tick. They will have to be replaced at some point, as other school districts have done and are doing with their old buildings.

It doesn’t make good economic sense to stretch the life of the old buildings with dollars that could otherwise go toward the upgrade projects envisioned under the bond issue. It’s “pay me now AND pay me later” if we do that.

And the Greene County Community School District will save an estimated $350,000 a year in operational costs if we reconfigure into two buildings instead of the present five.

Those are dollars that can then go for curricular and related uses.

Good school facilities are one of the key assets of a community. Delaying them will make the district less competitive for young families — and young teachers — who are looking around for a place to make their home. That in turn limits the potential growth of the district’s tax base.

The district’s facilities committee has made its case, and it’s a strong and sensible one.

But the decision is not up to the committee — it’s up to all of us in the district.

I hope we don’t put it off.