The future site of North Tama County Community School District’s preschool/PK playground pictured earlier this month. The lot is located at 610 Walnut Street adjacent to the elementary playground at Dennis Field. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

TRAER – Following months of discussion and late night meetings, the North Tama school board has prioritized how to spend the roughly $1,000,000 in general obligation bond revenues remaining from Phase 1 facility improvements financed by a $14.85 million bond referendum.

“After our last meeting when we left the building at about 10:30 p.m., I said, ‘I got to do something different. This is too much to process.’ So we gave the [project options to] our administrative directory team [and] said, ‘OK, here they are, rank them,'” Superintendent John Cain explained during the Wednesday, March 25 regular monthly meeting as he presented a list of facility improvement projects to the board. Seven members of the district’s administrative team, including Cain, had privately ranked the projects prior to the meeting before the list was compiled.

“We know we have about a million dollars [remaining],” Cain continued. “I’m going to lead [the] discussion one-by-one and you’re going to – as a group – tell us, is that something you want done or no? We went through this last time and all of (the options) were [labeled] yes – they can’t all be yeses. This is like $3 million (in total project costs).”

Later that evening after nearly another hour of discussion on the topic, the board approved, 7-0, a motion by director LeRoy Staker and seconded by director Marty Dostal to move forward with pricing (plans and bidding) of “Stage 1 and Stage 2 of Phase 1B” projects.

Prioritized Stage 1 projects include:

1-Sidewalk repairs around the building and to the future new preschool playground

2-A new preschool playground plus a “framework” for the elementary

3-MPR upgrades

4-Renovated junior high bathrooms (boys and girls)

The new PK playground is set to be constructed in the empty, school-owned lot located at 610 Walnut Street directly south of the elementary playground at Dennis Field. The school district purchased the property in late 2023 for $40,000, according to online real estate records, and subsequently razed the home and garage.

Renovations to the MPR gymnasium would create a space “that everyone wants to live in and use,” Cain explained during discussion, and would include fixing the floor, upgrading the wall mats, and installing bleachers.

When asked by director Seth Seda how students could continue to play basketball in the already-tight MPR with the addition of bleachers, Cain replied that the architect could “set that gym off slightly” and would only be using three-row bleachers.

“If you don’t like the (architect’s) design, we [eliminate] the bleachers and we don’t have bleachers,” Cain added.

Before discussion could fall any further off the cliff, director Doug Dvorak piped up.

“Those seven [administrators], they live and work and breathe this place…. I think we need to give a lot of respect to what they’ve done (by ranking the options),” he said.

“Your role is governance, not picking the color of paint,” Cain added, in part. “And I think just because of who you are as a parent and who you are as a taxpayer, you’re wanting to pick the color of the paint. But as a board member right now, you are governing. And Doug couldn’t have said it any better – you put a lot of money into (administrators) to make these decisions for those who live here everyday. Those people said … if we could get a little bit of bleacher space, that would just improve the space that much more.”

Later Cain said, “We’re going to get the ball rolling. We’re going to come back with the meats and the potatoes,” in an attempt to explain how the board’s work that evening was to prioritize projects for bidding – not approve moving forward with any one project, yet.

When discussing the junior high bathrooms – located just beyond the commons’ double doors and down the hall – vice chair Jenny Sniffin commented, “They haven’t changed since I was in junior high,” while Cain characterized the facilities as “disgusting” and in need of a “major facelift.”

Stage 2 projects

Projects approved for pricing as part of the board’s motion that evening under Stage 2 included:

5-North Tama Athletic Complex concession stand/crow’s nest

6-Main office refresh, including carpet

7-Further perimeter safety measures

8-Outside signage for the new addition

9-Clevertouch purchases (interactive display boards) for special education classrooms

In terms of safety, Cain said, “This building is more secure than it has ever, ever been,” before later explaining the district is in need of additional cameras due to “blindspots.”

Prior to voting on the priorities list – and before more discussion ensued on cost – Cain told the board the nine prioritized projects totaled roughly $1.2 million

“Which isn’t bad,” he said of the amount. “These are all estimates. We’ll come back with reality (pricing). … Nothing’s getting designed without more input.”

Dropped from the priorities list was a staff parking lot in the current empty space along US 63 on the south side of the new addition. Cain explained that he was the only administrator to prioritize building a lot there as part of the private rankings.

“The parking lot only got one vote, and that was mine. The parking lot will be turned back into green space – it has nothing to do with student learning,” Cain said, before somewhat humorously adding, “The nice thing is, if you want to go outside and learn in the grass … you can.”