East Sac Community School East Sac finalizing building improvements

By DOUG CLOUGH editor@messengernews.net

LAKE VIEW — Like many other Iowa school districts, East Sac County Community School District looks for ways to be efficient while meeting students’ needs.

“We have had some challenges filling teaching positions, and we knew that teachers were traveling between buildings at times when they could be teaching classes,” said Superintendent Jeff Kruse. “We knew we needed to be creative to make sure we were getting adequate class coverage. After conducting some research, we found the greatest way to do that was to reduce our district to just two attendance centers.”

The best method to do that, said Kruse, was to eliminate the middle school, adding a new fifth and sixth grade wing to the elementary and a seventh- and eighth-grade wing to the high school, creating a junior-senior high school.

“We’re down to a few doors needing some glass,” said Kruse, “but a majority of the renovations are complete.”

The renovations began in the summer of 2021 and continued through 2022.

The elementary school, which previously housed only kindergarten through fourth-grade students, added a new wing to accommodate the fifth- and sixthgraders from the now defunct middle school. The new rooms have storage, bright colors, and space to handle the two additional classes.

Improvements at the juniorsenior high school have included the stage in the “gymatorium” being repaired, sanded, and refinished. The back of the stage has been painted black, covering up decades of old paint, and new side curtains have been installed, so the music department can upgrade their productions.

A commons area has also been added and adjoining restrooms have bright red tiles to show off Raider colors; trophy cases also adorn the commons area. A new sidewalk has also been added, connecting the seventh- and eighth-grade wing to the agricultural education building. Most spectacularly, the east entrance of “Raider Nation” now sports the Raider mascot image — created by East Sac alumni Tanner King — which is back-lit to be easily seen from the highway, guiding visitors to a future newly paved parking lot.

“In this month’s board meeting, a new parking lot was approved to be surfaced over the gravel lot for 150 vehicles,” Kruse said. “We’ve been living with that gravel and dirt parking lot for a long time, and we are looking forward to that major improvement as well. People just will be amazed how a paved parking lot will keep our facility much cleaner and the newer additions looking new.”

Not only has the reduction to two buildings helped with staffing, but there is expected to be maintenance as well as heating and cooling cost savings. “This has allowed our district to maintain financial stability,” said Kruse, “during tough financial times for schools.”

-Submitted photo

Pocahontas

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“Our high school also began utilizing a house owned by the school district, which is adjacent to the high school, for the life skills curriculum for some of our students. The students are able to develop many hands-on skills in a real-life setting.”

POCAHONTAS AREA HIGH SCHOOL has added girls wrestling and bowling to its extensive list of sports and fine arts extracurricular opportunities, as well as a life skills curriculum. classrooms. Three were added at the elementary and one at the high school. Oehlertz, was a recipient of the 2022 Iowa STEM Teacher Award, as well, and is one of six educators recognized each year who go above and beyond to inspire student interest and awareness of all four STEM components. Oehlertz was recognized for her work promoting the importance of computer science for young learners, as well as the unique curriculum she creates to engage Pocahontas Area students.

Pocahontas also added girls wrestling and bowling to an already extensive list of sports and fine arts extracurricular opportunities.

“Our high school also began utilizing a house owned by the school district, which is adjacent to the high school, for the life skills curriculum for some of our students,” said Kramer. “The students are able to develop many hands-

—Joe Kramer

on skills in a real-life setting.”

Students in grade nine12 benefit by learning about all the systems within a home, daily maintenance, and the ability to fix many issues, that can go wrong at home.