Central Lee mulling 4-year bond for elementary expansion

DONNELLSON – The Central Lee school board will be considering a 4-year bond for another expansion of the Donnellson campus.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Central Lee Community School District’s Board of Directors, Superintendent Dr. Andy Crozier said the district is fortunate to be in a position to be a little more aggressive with the bond that would pay for an expansion to the northeast section of the elementary building.
The project, which is still in the design phase, would cost the district about $3.4 million. It would add four classrooms, additional restrooms, another outdoor courtyard, and a corridor connecting district entryways and hallways,
“Any construction progress is to meet demands of students, and as we continue to grow, we’re trying to meet those demands,” Crozier said.
“This is still in the planning stages with a core planning committee of teachers, staff, and administration going through the schematic details. That process will be done close to the end of the school year and then architects will take the summer to finalize plans so we can go out for bids somewhere around October.”
Crozier said the goal with the project is to minimize any long-term debt for the project.
“We have a decent fund balance that allows us to be more aggressive here. Most districts would go for 10 to 15 years.”
The bond would be paid for with the district’s sales tax funds, not property tax revenues.
The district completed a $13 million expansion to the high school about four years ago and is close to finishing a new administration building. They also just recently completed a $600,000 upgrade to the high school science facilities that was paid for in cash.
“We were really excited about doing that, as well. We knew for five or six years they needed attention. We weren’t sure what we needed to do, but over that timeperiod, we got a roadmap,” he said.
The district refurbished four classrooms, one of which wasn’t being used as it was an outdated science room. They knocked out a wall and created a more comprehensive and contemporary space.
“It was good timing. We have a healthy fund balance, attacked that and paid for it in cash, and we didn’t add to any existing debt,” Crozier said.

The administration building was long overdue with the district currently using three mobile units that were put together over the past 45 years.
“People in the district have an expectation that we make sure our campus and staff are held to high standards. But in the same breath, we are tax sensitive, and we want to make sure we are doing right by taxpayers,” he said.
We’ve been able to find solutions. There are 10 other things I’d like to do. The sports boosters have taken on fundraising for the fields. That’s a huge advantage for us.”
He said the $13 million renovation and addition resolved a lot of lingering issues and allowed the district to save sales tax dollars because there wasn’t a whole lot of other things going on that required expenditures outside of that project.
“Because of that addition and construction, and during Covid, we were pretty conservative in what we wanted to accomplish. We’ve also increased resident enrollment from about 770 a few years ago to 830. Those extra students generate revenue that we didn’t have,” he said.
He also pointed out the district is able to capitalize on efficiencies of scale with the entirety of the district being located at one campus.
In other action, the board:
• approved fiscal year 2025-26 contracts for non-certified staff.
• approved the 2025 graduating senior class.
• honored outgoing senior student board representative Lauren Sanders.
• approved voluntary coaching positions from Jesse Day, Ron Walker, and Lane Weirather for high school baseball.
• approved hiring of Andrew Olson at Middle School Math PLC; Drake Drish as PE Instructor; and Kendra Fuget as elementary instructor.