The voters in the Adel-DeSoto-Minburn School District have approved the $15.75 million bond referendum for a new elementary building in Adel, so now the question is: what’s next?

Superintendent Greg Dufoe says there’s still a lot of work to do on the design of the facility, which will have a capacity of 650 students and house grades 2-4. He points out that they already have a good idea of what the building will look like, and the public will possibly see some dirt moving in the next 7-8 months. “We’ll now be able to engage in the full planning process for the facility, and we expect bid documents to be able to hit the streets in the November-ish time period. We’ll receive bids, oh December or January, and then we hope to start work as soon as possible after that. So we expect construction to start as soon as weather allows this winter.”

The site of the building has been chosen already and a purchase agreement struck, which will put the school on 49 acres of land on South 15th Street, just to the northwest of the Adel Family Aquatic Center. Dufoe says the School Board felt the location was ideal because of the space available, its proximity to newer neighborhoods, and that it’s further from the busy Highway 169 corridor. He adds, the best access to the site is Meadow Road, and the City of Adel is expected to expedite the process of paving the road to better accommodate the school.