How is the Administration Accommodating for the Growth Within ADM?

In the past few years ADM has see significant growth within not only the elementary population but also in the middle school and high school levels.

We can see first-hand even in the high school that the hallways are tight, the classrooms are small, and some of the amenities are outdated. We’ve even had to start taking over some of the middle school spaces in order to hold all of our students. The high school was built in 1986 when class sizes and school capacity were significantly smaller and has only had one update in 2016 since it was built. In the fall of 2021, ADM built a new school for grades 2-4 to relieve some of the stress in the elementary grades.

Superintendent Greg Dufoe said, “The Meadowview building gave us capacity at Adel Elementary for 10 years out because we moved second out of that building. DeSoto Intermediate has capacity because we moved third and fourth [grade] out.”

The opening of the Meadowview building created capacity from kindergarten all the way through middle school. Dufoe explained that the process of a new building is tedious in order for it to work smoothly and not create more stress on our staff and students. “When there’s much change in a system to so many people and with the number of teachers who had to move spots and the amount of re-arrangement that happened, that often times creates a great deal of stress and anxiety in the system. It did for us, but what I’m really proud of is that our staff handled it really well. It’s just another indication of the quality of our people,” he said. During the planning for Meadowview, the district had to move the grades around particularly in order to create enough capacity in three other buildings.

Although there have been long-term solutions to the growth in elementary and middle schools, there have not been any solutions for the growth in the high school. “We’ve entered our second round of facilities master planning because we’re are still seeing growth, and that growth now is starting to move into the middle school [and] high school. The big question is what and where our next building will be.”

On January 16 the facilities master planning committee met “to develop recommendations for short and long-range plans to address facility needs of the ADM Community School District,” according to the ADM district website. The committee plans to meet in March to start the planning for a new ADM building. The board members range from administrators such as High School Principal Lee Griebel, to parents such as Shanlyn Doll, teachers and directors in all educational levels, and the mayors of Adel, DeSoto, and Minburn. To see the full list of board members visit the ADM Facilities page.

“The concepts are pretty simple, is it going to be a new middle school or a new high school?” said Dufoe. “We’re a long ways away from those decisions, but ultimately the board has to make those decisions.”

The issue with building a new high school is that they are extremely expensive compared to middle schools. A high school for about 1,000 students could push 80 million dollars depending on the size. “It’s all about trying to address our future growth,” Dufoe said.

There are other needs in the district that the board plans to address when the topic of growth comes up. Minburn has been unoccupied for about 10 years and ultimately the administration and school board have to make a decision about what to do with that building. Another issue is the location of the transportation building. Right now the “bus barn” resides behind Adel Elementary.

“It’s not very safe to have a bus barn close to preschool and elementary-aged kids,” said Dufoe.

Stay tuned to see the upcoming facilities changes in the ADM School District.