T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — If a bond issue vote to renovate the BCLUW elementary and high school buildings in Conrad passes, the middle school in Union, pictured, would likely be closed and partially demolished at some point in the future, according to Superintendent Ben Petty.

CONRAD — Members of the BCLUW board of education and the district’s administrative team are currently in the process of gathering signatures to put a $13.4 million bond issue for facilities improvements — $4.6 million of which would come from the SAVE penny sales tax and have no effect on the levy — on the ballot for voters in the November election.

According to Superintendent Ben Petty, discussions about the future of the district’s three buildings — the elementary and high schools in Conrad and the 5-8 middle school in Union — have been ongoing over the last several months, and the board has engaged an architectural firm to present an analysis and master plan in light of continuous declining enrollment. At the turn of the century, BCLUW was serving around 700 students annually and within the next five years, that number is expected to drop to 400 based on current projections.

Like the leaders of many other small districts in Iowa, Petty’s wishlist for improvements is long, and one of the first ones he mentioned was the fact that at the elementary building in Conrad, students currently eat lunch in the gym, which can create scheduling conflicts with physical education or for indoor recess in the event of inclement weather.

“That’s something that we’ve been looking at for the last couple of years, but it led us into doing a more comprehensive look at the district and the buildings, and a big part of some of the recommendations the board had made involved with that deal with looking down the road because we didn’t want to make one change without really looking at what our needs are for the next quite a few years here at BCLUW,” Petty said.

Other key elements include building secure entrances at the elementary and high school, additional classroom space to accommodate grades 5-8 and for agricultural science education, renovations to the current office areas, a new gym at the high school (which would be used for junior high and junior varsity events and would not replace the current competition gym) and new locker rooms and restrooms on the northeast side of the high school.

The elephant in the room with these decisions is the potential for the closure of the middle school in Union, the oldest of the district’s three buildings, which would move all classes in grades K-12 to Conrad. Petty, who is well aware of the controversy that unfolded at neighboring Gladbrook-Reinbeck after that district’s board voted to close the Gladbrook campus in 2015, said the Union building would be the most expensive to maintain over time and, because of the setup, wouldn’t be easy to convert into an elementary or high school. The most likely outcome is hosting grades K-6 at the current elementary building and grades 7-12 at the current high school, which would then be known as the secondary building.

“In analyzing the three different buildings, the board has decided that if we do go forward with a large scale project, it’s going to be having some new additions and renovations at the high school with the likelihood being that several years down the road, we would be a two-building district at BCLUW, having an elementary and a secondary,” he said. “We know those are challenging conversations to have, and we know that other districts around have had to deal with some difficult issues with that as well. But we have to look forward to the future of BCLUW, and we have to deal with the realities of population dynamics.”

It isn’t all doom and gloom, however, as he does believe moving junior high students over to the current high school building would allow them more access to the weight room and for exploratory class opportunities in fields like agricultural science and industrial technology.

“Ultimately, we’ll see some efficiencies by being able to bring those grades together in two buildings, and I think those efficiencies are gonna be more important down the road as we look at ongoing enrollment decline as well as the likelihood, I think, of pretty stagnant state funding for public education,” Petty said. “Because the state has made it a priority to use public funds for private schools going forward to the tune of — eventually — hundreds of millions of dollars a year, for the state to find those additional funds, I really think it’s gonna have an impact on the funds available for public schools, I think, over the next several years, unfortunately.”

He also noted that the board has expressed a commitment to keeping the middle school building open for up to five years if, and likely when, the shift to a two-building district occurs while hoping for some sort of community partnership down the road that could result in transferring ownership of at least a portion of the building to another entity. The bond project would provide funding for the demolition of the main classroom wings so that the library, office areas and gym can be “more efficiently maintained” with utilities provided down the road.

Echoing many of Petty’s sentiments, School Board President Adam Probasco called the potential bond issue “exciting” and “an opportunity to make some great improvements.”

“We face some challenges, not unlike a lot of rural schools in Iowa, but I think we have a good group in place to lead us through this next phase for this school district,” Probasco said before citing the aforementioned declining enrollment numbers. “Obviously, our funding is based on enrollment, and we’re going to be looking at ways to use our funding more efficiently. Moving forward with three buildings isn’t viable, so taking steps to make that a reality is going to be more important. And after meeting with an architectural firm that conducted a facilities analysis, our two best buildings reside in Conrad. This bond issue would be focused around improving both facilities in Conrad.”

He added that positioning BCLUW for the future was the core objective of the potential improvements.

“It’s a pretty wide range of what we’re looking to do, but moving forward, this project is going to be essential to provide the best education possible for our students. In order to have a viable district for the years to come, it’s important that we get this in motion, and I’m hoping we are able to accomplish that,” Probasco said.

The necessary signatures to put the matter on the ballot (120 are required) must be submitted to the county auditor’s office by Sept. 22, and the board would likely then take the next steps to call for a vote in November. A public hearing on the SAVE bonds is scheduled for Aug. 21 at 5:00 p.m. at the high school in Conrad.

The $8.8 million in GO bonds would increase property taxes by approximately $1.95 per $1,000 of valuation for residents of the district’s five communities and the surrounding rural areas. School bond votes require a 60 percent supermajority to pass.