The upcoming bond referendum for the Greene County School District is less than two weeks away.
The school district offers several career and technical education (CTE) classes at the high school. Part of the $35.48 million project is to build a new high school and career academy. Superintendent Tim Christensen says there won’t be any changes to the CTE classes that they currently offer.
“I would continue to offer the existing CTE courses that we’re offering. Some of those would potentially be offered at the high school, some of them would potentially be offered at the career academy. I think the main thing that people need to know, we can’t duplicate the space in both locations. So we’re not looking at decreasing any of the CTE offerings. In that regional academy, those courses again would be a supplement on top of what we’re already offering.”
The educational strains preliminarily slated include: software development, advanced manufacturing, culinary arts and agriculture technology. As part of the agreement, Iowa Central Community College will lease the facility on a ten-year renewable agreement, including staffing and providing all equipment for the building. We’ve previously reported that Pillar Technology, a software developer, is willing to locate an office in Jefferson, if the bond passes. Linc Kroeger with Pillar Technology says they’ll provide training paths with the school district to educate people to do the jobs that they need.
“It’s not in the favor of a company to do this because it is such an expensive operation to do. You have the building, you have all of those pieces, and then you have the training, and then you have no client. So why would a company open something in rural Iowa where its just as expensive as opening a new market in say Kansas City, Minneapolis, Atlanta? And then there’s already talent there that doesn’t need the education. So mostly there’s the motivation for a company to do something like this.”
The ICCC Board voted unanimously to give their support to the project.
The polls will be open Tuesday, April 3rd in Jefferson, Scranton and Grand Junction from 7am to 8pm.