On November 7, 2023, the ADM school district community will vote to approve or deny a $58 million bond issue. In order for the bond issue to go through, the vote needs to be in favor of it by a super majority: 60%, plus one. In the event that it receives the necessary amount of votes in its favor, the bond issue will fund a series of projects throughout the district.
The largest portion of the money would go towards funding a new high school in Adel. $65 million of the bond would be taken out of the budget in order to make the new school building for the community a possibility. With the new and consistent growth of the ADM community, the current high school building is holding more kids than ever before, especially more than it was designed for. In order to adapt to the growing numbers, the high school has slowly started creeping into the middle school. The newly thought-out building will be equipped to initially hold 800 students through grades 9-12. Following the current timeline of the project, the school is set to open in the fall of 2027. A purchase agreement has already been made on land for the new school. It will be located south of the existing high school, to the west of Highway 169, near Grace Lutheran Church and the recently added Casey’s. Located on an 80-acre lot, full of lush evergreen, the planning team has already begun thinking of ways to build the pre-existing trees into the design of the new building. They would like to attempt the preservation of the wildlife in the area. Within the new high school, people can expect things such as a new auditorium, updated weight rooms, a new football field, etc. A couple years later, once the completion of the updated De Soto building is over, the Facility Master Planning Committee thought it best to eventually add an additional wing to the new high school in order to stay on track with the expected growth rates of the student body. This new addition is estimated to be finished for the 2031-2032 school year.
In addition to the new high school, the remainder of the money is planned to be used for updating the De Soto Intermediate building that is currently holding 5th and 6th graders. Parts of the building, which were originally constructed in 1922, are simply too outdated to be worth the cost of repairs and accommodations at this point. After the AC unit fire of spring 2023, the school district has come to an agreement on what had been a topic of discussion for years: tearing down the original 1922 wing of the school. While historic, the entirety of the building can be put to better use by destroying the liable pieces and converting the space into the new ADM Preschool Center. This is set to be finished for the 2028-2029 school year.
Lastly, to wrap up the project, the final predicted updates to the ADM school district would be to recondition and improve the middle and high school building, while also constructing new outdoor athletic facilities. This is set to hit for the 2032-2033 school year. It will include updating the HVAC system and modernizing the 1986 building to meet the constantly changing needs of the students. This will be used to house the 5th-8th grade students. Minimal renovations would be done to the building, allowing for a much quicker, but also effective process. At an estimated cost of $9,855,000, the new outdoor athletic facilities will be the last and final step of the reconstruction of the district and will go through the construction process “as time and budget allow”. The new outdoor facilities will be located on the campus of the newly constructed high school and will increase the capacity of fans in the stadium for the community, relieving congestion, easing traffic flow and allowing for a large variety of events and athletics to be hosted by numerous ADM teams.
The projects corresponding with the bond issue will NOT increase ADM’s debt service levy rate. Without increasing the debt rate, the 10-year reconstruction plan will extend the debt payment 11 years from the original payoff date, making the final payoff year 2051 rather than 2040. In the event that the referendum does fail, the high school will have no choice, but to do its best to accommodate for the increase in students. This would cause severe overcrowding in the high school building and much larger class sizes. It would also delay other necessary district improvements and increase construction costs for taxpayers because of the inevitable future that they would have to deal with the situation later.
For any more questions about the bond, visit www.admschools.org/bond2023 or contact Superintendent Greg Dufoe at 515-993-4283.
