Public input meetings for a possible Greene County School District bond referendum continued Thursday in Scranton.
School Board member Steve Karber and his wife held four meetings at the Scranton Community Center to gather feedback and comments from attendees about how they would like to see a new high school and regional career academy for the community.
“At this point, we’re a little disappointed in the turnout because we haven’t had very many people here, and we really want feedback from people. It’s not just you’re against it or you’re fore it, we want feedback to see how we can make this a better issue for everyone, so we can come together as a county.”
Karber showed the “fireside” chat that the original community group of Sid Jones and Chris Deal started with the idea of building a career academy, that would be operated by Iowa Central Community College. ICCC President Dr. Dan Kinney said that he is flexible in terms of what classes would be offered to fit the needs of Greene County and the surrounding school districts. The proposed location is west of American Athletic Incorporated/Spalding on Highway 30. The property is owned by Mike and Kathy Bravard, who are in favor of the project. The bond referendum is still being planned for April 3rd.
Karber said nothing has been set in stone, as far as the look of the project or even a price tag, until after they get input from the public.
“This information, we’re going to take to the architect (OPN Architects) and they’re going to put things together, then we’ll come back with that product, review it with the public, and then come with the final product. So there’s a couple steps yet before we get to the final product that we want to get out there.”
There are a few opportunities left to attend the public input meetings taking place later this month. The next slate will be on Tuesday, January 9th and 18th at the Greene County Community Center in Jefferson, as well as January 22nd at the Grand Junction Community Center. Times are the same at all locations at 10am, 1, 5 and 7pm.