A reporter-estimated crowd of 160 people -- including residents, parents and school staff -- met in the South Sioux City Middle School gymnasium Wednesday to get a first look at the state of the school district through its Cardinal Vision project.
Wednesday's two-hour workshop is the first of five that the district is conducting under its Cardinal Vision project, which aims to point out information about the state of the school district and seeks public input to determine the direction the school goes to address growing building and enrollment concerns in the 27.7-square mile school district, which includes eight school buildings in two communities with more than 3,700 students.
One of the biggest takeaways from Wednesday's first meeting was the average age of the district's eight buildings, which range from 31 years (Cardinal Elementary and Harney Elementary were built in 1993) and Covington Elementary, which recently celebrated its 100th year of service to the school district and community.
In fact, six of the district's eight buildings are either at or above the national average for school buildings, which is 49 years. Dakota City Elementary (76), E.N. Swett and Lewis & Clark Elementary (both 64), the High School (56) and the Middle School (49) are all at or above that age. The school's district office was built 46 years ago.
Student enrollment is reaching the point where each of the district's buildings are at or above capacity. This year's K-12 enrollment is at 3,730 students, and projections are for that number to rise to almost 3,900 within five years, an increase of 4 percent.
Currently, four of the district's eight buildings are at or above capacity, including the Covington, Cardinal and Dakota City elementary buildings and the Middle School. Harney Elementary is at capactiy, while the three remaining schools are still below capacity but trending toward capacity.
Each of the eight buildings in the district have some sort of immediate need, from safety and security to internal and external building deterioration. Covington Elementary, due mostly to its age, has major concerns in nine of 10 areas noted during a presentation by district officials.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. at the Middle School gymnasium. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.
More complete details on this story will be in next week's edition of the Dakota County Star.
