Des Moines Schools Plans To Build New Northeast Elementary

DES MOINES, IA — A new elementary school that would serve up to 450 students could be built on the city's northeast side, district officials announced Thursday. Plans are underway to to purchase an 18-acre site at East Douglas and Colfax avenues.

District officials said the building is being planned as a Montessori school for pre-kindergarten through sixth grades but that it would function as a neighborhood school with enrollment boundaries. The district currently has one Montessori school, located in Windsor Heights.

“The addition of a new school will provide two very important things to better serve students,” Superintendent Tom Ahart said in an announcement on the district's website. “First, it will expand access to a Montessori education, a very popular and meaningful program, and serve to benefit many more of our students. Second, it will provide relief to two of our largest elementary schools, Brubaker and Garton, that are seeing a growing number of students.”

The school board will consider a resolution at its meeting on Tuesday to schedule a Nov. 21 public hearing on the purchase of property. The sale was negotiated at a price of $595,000.

District officials said if the property purchase is approved, planning and design work on the new school would begin this winter, with site work to start in April and construction to begin next fall, with completion and opening for the 2020-21 school year. Community meetings with the neighborhoods that would be served by the new school would be scheduled.

Officials said funding for the land purchase and construction of the school will come from revenue through the statewide one-cent sales tax in support of school buildings and facilities.

The Montessori method of education is a child-centered approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood, with a focus on whole development — physical, social, emotional and cognitive.

Opening another Montessori school will be a significant addition to the educaitonal formats offered in the district and "a welcome addition to best serving more students on the east side of our community,” said Susan Tallman, the district's executive director of elementary school, in the district announcement.

The new school would help alleviate space needs in northeast Des Moines, where Brubaker and Garton schools have seen steady increases in enrollment with about 1,400 students combined.

“Our number one job is providing a great education for students, which means we need to be responsive to changing demographics so that every student has a great place to attend school,” Bill Good, chief operations officer, said in the district's announcement. “Our schools also serve as cornerstones of their neighborhoods, and we look forward to being a bigger part of the northeast Des Moines community.”

The district closed two northeast elementary buildings in the area that would be served by the new building, shuttering Douglas Elementary in 2003 and Adams Elementary in 2007. The Des Moines Register reported that Good said those buildings were sold in 2010 for $195,000 and $100,000, respectively.

Image via Des Moines Schools website