Yee Lim Shin—Staff Writer

With student enrollment rising by 50 students per year over the past 10 years, the Sioux Center School District decided it was time to build another school. The created four-facility solution would allow 500 more students to enter into the school system.

Voting for this school to be built was held on February 2nd to decide if the residents of Sioux Center would approve. The bond passed with 76.37% approving and 23.63% against it. This two-year project would lead to a fourth public school building for the Sioux Center students to attend by 2020-2021 academic year.

This means Kinsey Elementary would become the Transitional Kindergarten – 2nd grade school building, Sioux Center Middle School would have grades 3-5, the current high school would be grades 6-8, and the new high school would have grades 9-12.

“Anyone who owns property in those communities or land is going to have a higher tax level,” Education Professor Timothy Van Soelen said. Because of this, the district brought the bond to the community.

“I think the bond passing is a good thing because it’s always good to see a community supporting their education system,” senior education major Julia Brollier said.

The bond referendum issued stated the district would cover 37% ($14.7 million) of the bond while the community would cover 63% ($24.9 million).

This means residents would see a maximum of 37 cents per $1000 of taxation valuation, or an increase of $40 a year for an average household—52 cents per acre of land.

“[Education is] probably the place where things like values and work ethics gets shaped more than anywhere else,” Van Soelen said.