A member of the JCHS Way Forward Steering Committee Pat Landes told the USD 475 Board of Education there’s a big opportunity here. He spoke before the school board voted to accept a committee recommendation by agreeing to try and build a new high school at  new location. The cost could not exceed $105 million and the local property tax levy could not be increased.

Landes told the Board, “I want to see this school district, and this community and this county grow. And to do that we need a great school, a great high school, to attract people to come here. I think that’s vitally important.”

Committee member Jim Schmidt informed the Board the committee those are the right steps to move forward. “We believe that this presents an opportunity to address safety and security, and ADA issues, but also gives us an opportunity to positively affect the academic system going forward.” Schmidt added infrastructure challenges with the current high school facility speak for themselves.

The Board has scheduled a bond issue election for May 9th.  Voter approval of a bond issue would be necessary to obtain state aid to help fund the project. Federal heavily impacted aid would provide the remainder of the money to build a new high school.