HAWARDEN, Iowa (KCAU) — The West Sioux Community School District (WSCSD) hopes to pass a bond to remodel and expand their elementary schools.

In 2021, WSCSD presented a similar bond for a new pre-K through 5th grade building in Ireton. However, it failed by 33 votes. The new proposal will improve the current elementary schools in both Ireton and Hawarden.

“The big thing that we’re looking at is redoing quite a bit of the infrastructure of both buildings, the one here in Hawarden and the one in Ireton. In addition that, we’re looking at three small additions to it, the Ireton building and one here,” said Steve Grond, Superintendent for the WSCSD.

The bond would give the school district roughly $15 million to fix up the district’s elementary schools. It also includes three new buildings, one for Hawarden Elementary, and two buildings for Ireton Elementary. The new additions are planned to be 13,000 square-feet each.

Superintendent Grond said they also hope to replace some old equipment in the schools.

“Both buildings are older and there hasn’t been awful lot of improvements in terms of the infrastructure that’s here, and so what we’re looking to do is we’re gonna take out the boilers of both buildings, redo quite a bit of the wiring, look at the HVAC systems,” said Grond.

Travis Popken, the principal of West Sioux Elementary in Hawarden, said with the current infrastructure, many teachers’ rooms have inconsistent temperatures. And with the money from the bond, he hopes to improve the working and learning conditions in the schools. 

“I wanna see our kids have the best opportunities they can and that does come down to our facilities. And staff and our faculty are doing everything they can to make it the best learning environment, but there are certain things that we are up against in basically our buildings that we want get resolved,” said Popken.

Currently some students have to go outside to get to another class at the Hawarden Elementary. With the expansion, the school district hopes to keep their students inside and create more room for students to learn.

“We do have a couple of classrooms right now where you have to walk through a classroom to get to another classroom, and that causes sometimes the students and those other areas to definitely be distracted,” said Popken.

The special election for the bond is set for March 7 and if voters approve, WSCSD hopes to break ground spring of 2024.