About 60 people attended the Pay It Forward meeting for the Greene County School District bond referendum at the middle school in Jefferson.

Co-chairs Dr. Steve Karber and Tanner Lawton led the meeting. Karber said the proposed bond is for $22.2 million and went through plans to add four additional classrooms onto the northwest corner of the elementary school and turn it into a pre-kindergarten through fourth grade building.  The high school would be converted into a 5th through 12th grade building and it would cost $20.8 million of the $22.2 million. There would be 24 additional classrooms on the northeast corner with two floors as the new high school. The existing building would be renovated as the middle school.

As for the competition gym, the Iowa High School Athletic Association requires a gym to have a divided capacity of 1,500 and four locker rooms to host postseason contests. The current middle school gym only holds 1,200 and has just two locker rooms. However, Lawton pointed out that the gym would also serve as the students classroom gym during the school day as well.

Karber noted that the buildings would use geothermal, which would save the district about $85,000 per year. That money would go into the general fund, which can’t be used for physical buildings, but it can be used for teacher salaries and curriculum development.

Lawton stressed that if the bond doesn’t pass, the district would have to look at another bond just to make necessary repairs to both the middle and intermediate schools, otherwise the state could close the buildings.

Attendees then got to tour the 100 year-old facility. Pictures from the tour can be found below.

There is one final meeting taking place tonight at the intermediate school in Grand Junction at 7pm. There will also be a tour of that building following the meeting.

The special election for the bond referendum will be on September 13th.

Photos are from the basement of the middle school.