Iowa Valley schools ‘in full construction mode’

MARENGO — The school year ended Friday for Iowa Valley students, and contractors were scheduled to begin renovations Tuesday following the Memorial Day holiday.

“May 28 is when walls are going to start coming down,” said Iowa Valley Superintendent Curt Rheingans. “We will be in full construction mode by that Tuesday.

“We wasted very little time,” Rheingans said. Voters approved the $10.6 million bond referendum a little more than 14 months ago, with 73% of voters in favor.

The cost of the roof alone was $2.1 million, Rheingans said

Rheingans arrived at Iowa Valley Community School District in the fall of 2021, he said. He walked through the school on a rainy day. “There were all these leaks.” He realized the school needed a new roof, and he started identifying other needs and asked voters to pay for the capital improvements.

Rheingans wasn’t surprised by the outcome of the bond election. “We had a great committee that really worked hard at it,” he said, and community response had been positive.

Both the elementary and the junior-senior high school buildings will get new roofs and heating, ventilation and air conditioning this summer. New FFA and industrial tech rooms will be constructed at the high school.

The new nurse’s office will be meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

Offices will move to the east side of the high school, and the superintendent’s office will become a Spanish room, Rheingans said.

Within two years every classroom in the district will be renovated, said Rheingans. Remodeling in the junior high wing will start this summer. Half of the elementary school classrooms will be remodeled this summer, and half will be completed next year.

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LED lighting has been installed in the elementary school and high school lighting will be changed this summer.

New flooring will be installed in the high school beginning July 29. It’s supposed to be completed by Aug. 23, Rheingans said. School begins Aug. 26, so the district doesn’t have much wriggle room.

If construction runs a little behind, some of the projects can be pushed back to Christmas break, Rheingans said.

New windows were installed this month.

The elementary school has a new cafeteria with a new floor, suspended ceiling and LED lights. “That’s what we’ll have here as well,” he said from his office at the high school.

As each classroom is renovated, the district will finish it with new furniture, said Rheingans.

The district found asbestos “every time we turned a corner,” said Rheingans. “We have to pay for removing that as well.”

Some improvements were done during the school year. Other renovations have to be done while students are out of the building.

Junior high classrooms are scheduled for renovation in the summer of 2025. Contractors created a new art room on the second floor of the high school and will remodel the former art room and expand the industrial arts class into that space. Iowa Valley will be the only school in Iowa County with an auto lift, said Rheingans.

The band and choir rooms will be remodeled in 2025.

A spread sheet with a timeline hangs on the wall in the superintendent’s office, but Rheingans prefers his handwritten notes on the white board. He can see at a glance which projects are completed, which ones are ongoing and which ones are set for next year.

The white board also shows whether the funding from each project is coming from the bond, for from Physical Plant and Equipment Levy money.

“The teachers [and] staff have been fabulous,” said Rheingans. “The community has been fabulous.” He’s heard no complaints during the renovation despite inconveniences.

Iowa County’s certified nursing classes have been moved from Iowa Valley High School to the Marengo Public Library this summer due to the construction.

Unrelated to the bond projects, the district will get a bus barn this summer. The City of Marengo is giving the school district a building. It will be moved to the elementary school grounds June 3, Rheingans said.