Exciting times in Monticello, Iowa!!! As you know, on September 11, 2018 our community overwhelmingly voted to support the construction of a 5th-8th grade building attached to the high school. Over 70% of the voters were in favor of this measure. After a lot of planning and several months of construction the doors to the new middle school will be opening for over 300 students in the fall of 2020. This will complete Phase I of our School Facilities Plan.
When the building is completed we will begin focusing on Phase II of our School Facilities Plan. Phase II will include making a final decision on the Old Middle School and considering options for our Transportation Center. As promised, we will make a decision soon and the Old Middle School will not sit “as is” very long. The options as of now include the demolition of the entire building or the modification of the building to only keep spaces that are still used by the school district. We will begin working with architects soon to explore both of these options in more detail. Following the completion of the Old Middle School project we will begin planning for the Transportation Center. Those options include a remodel or a new location and rebuild.
Looking farther down the road, we will continue to discuss options for attaching an Elementary School to the New Middle School/High School and completing a “One Campus Plan” in the Monticello Community School District. In the collection of information on the New Middle School project, the “One Campus Plan” theme was obviously something that the Monticello community valued and wanted to consider as an option in the future. Phase III of the School Facilities Plan will require that we go back to the voters for the approval of a bond to build the Elementary School. We are not able to do that for at least another 6-8 years until we can build up our bonding capacity and pay down the bonds we currently have.
As we move into the future we will continue to make the Monticello Community School District facilities be the best they can be. That does not mean we are not concerned with the budget and taxes. We will always strive to make every penny count and continue to make this a great district for all of our students.
As always if you have any questions please feel free to send me an email at brian.jaeger@monticello.k12.ia.us or give me a call at anytime. Thank you for your continued support of the Monticello Community School District!
Dr. Brian Jaeger
Superintendent