- Lewis Central Superintendent Dr. Brent Hoesing isn't sure how he's going to accommodate his district's needs after voters failed to pass a bond in the November election.
- The district has a growing number of open enrollment students in addition to expected growth within the school district, which sits just to the south of Council Bluffs.
- Iowa loosened its policies around open enrollment and Hoesing says it made it harder for his district to limit students from other districts, despite not having much extra space.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
In November, a $90 million bond issue with the Lewis Central School District failed to pass. I asked Superintendent of Schools, Brent Hoesing, what’s next for the district.
I’m your southwest Iowa reporter, Katrina Markel and Hoesing told me that, despite the bond issue not passing, he’s still going to have to find a way to fund his district’s needs.
The district sits on the southern edge of Pottawattamie County and anticipates growth through open enrollment and new housing. The bond would have paid for more classroom space and building repairs.
“Where are we going to put kids? Because we currently sit with class sizes at the elementary ranging from 23 to 28 kids per class and we currently have at our middle school class sizes of 30 to 34. Where are we going to put kids as they start to come in?” Dr. Brent Hoesing said.
Meeting Iowa's new open enrollment law is another challenge for the district.
“Now, because the intent of the law is that students can attend any school they want to at any time. Then, the attorneys are telling us that we can only restrict open enrollment if we do not have physical space to be able to add students to our classrooms. Well, how do we prove that we don’t have physical space?” said Hoesing.
The district, Hoesing says, will go back to the drawing board to find a plan that works for the community. He says a last resort would be using trailers for additional classroom space.
