What’s Next, Central Lee and Other News

The Central Lee School District held a meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the future plans for upgrades to the schools.

The meeting, titled What’s Next, Central Lee part 2, revisited the original plan that was created in 2017. This original plan won a vote with a 57% approval, but since it was through a general obligation bond it has to receive at least a 60% vote, according to Central Lee Superintendent Andy Crozier.

Nothing is set in stone at this point and the main reason for the meeting was to receive community feedback on two new plans that have been created.

Last year, the plan would have cost $13.3 million, but due to an increase in costs, the plan would now cost over $14 million. Crozier said the district knew since they did not get approved at the lower cost, they would not receive approval on the new cost.

This meant they needed to redo the plan.

This boiled down to two options, option one is a rework of the 2017 plan that would include moving the high school office and creating a new secure entryway, a new band and vocal space that could be placed nearly anywhere around the perimeter of the school and a new performance gym as well.

For option two, they started by looking at the possibility of renovating the current gym the high school uses, but it would actually cost more money to do this and they would lose the ability to use the gym for over a year. Crozier said this is not something they want to do.

Option two consists of turning the current cafeteria into a new choir room and allowing the band to have full access to the current music space. They would also begin the building of a new gym and repurposing the current one into locker room space and a multi-purpose room that could be used for plays, musicals and would also be used as the new cafeteria.

The original plan for FCS and the Ag program would be changed.

This plan comes out to around $10.6 million.

Crozier stressed that nothing has changed for the K-8 school from the original plan. This is due to their commitment to safety and growth for younger students.

This portion of the plan is also only $2 million and Crozier said there was not much they could cut at all without drastically changing the plan for the K-8 building as a whole.

Crozier ended the presentation by once again asking the community to provide feedback.

In sports news, the Keokuk Community School Board approved a request on Tuesday night from the Keokuk Little Feathers to attend the National Dance Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.

Earlier this month, Little Feathers head coach Mallorie Maerz had said the team would be looking for approval and doing fundraising. She also said that Nationals provides a different challenge than the State Dance Competition.

Keokuk’s Little Feathers program has had quite a bit of success in 2018 having won first place and Judge’s Choice Award for their Elastigirl Kick routine, another state title in Class 10 Pom and also a third place finish in Contemporary in their first time ever competing in the category.

The competition will take place in Texas on Mar. 22 and 23, which also happens to be during Keokuk’s Spring Break.

Thursday night will be the final competitions for Keokuk wrestling, boys basketball and girls basketball for the 2018 calendar year.

Wrestling is headed to Solon for a meet with Midland, Solon, South Tama County and Vinton-Shellsburg while both basketball teams will be in cation against Fairfield on the road.

We will have wrap-up coverage of all three varsity athletics in Friday afternoon’s newscast.

After the holiday break, wrestling will start the brand new year hosting a varsity triangular against Fairfield and Van Buren at 6 PM on Thursday, Jan. 3.

Then they will go to Ottumwa for a varsity meet on Saturday, Jan. 5.

Boys’ basketball will also have a competition on that Saturday with a tournament against West Hancock in Warsaw, IL, the time is yet to be determined.

The girls’ game will be against Iowa City Liberty on the road on Monday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 PM as part of a freshman, junior varsity and varsity tripleheader.

At the college level, the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball team will be on the road to take on in-state rival Drake on Friday night.

The game will be played at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

Drake is led in scoring Sara Rhine, who is averaging nearly 19 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, and Becca Hittner, who leads the team at 47% shooting from downtown and is pouring in 16.5 points per game.

Rhine has also done most of her scoring while coming off the bench, having started only two games on the season. She will likely be matched up with Iowa’s All-American, Megan Gustafson, who comes into the contest averaging 24.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.