Menke updates WP council on elementary project

WEST POINT – An effort to add onto the Holy Trinity Catholic Elementary School was in front of the West Point City Council Monday night.
At the regular meeting of the council, Ann Menke, who’s leading the effort to build the $6.3 million expansion of the Holy Trinity Catholic West Point campus, said she was there just to inform the council of what the plans were for and ask for any assistance the city could provide with city infrastructure at the site.
Menke is leading the effort as part of her father Dennis’ legacy of work in the catholic education system.
“We lost Dennis in September. He had started this project and so, by default, I’m stepping into those shoes to finish what we started,” she said.
She said the foundation has decided to make another investment in the City of West Point.
She said everything west of the current gym will be demolished.
“When that school opened in 2020, there were 188 kids in that school. The school was built for 210. It was built for two sections of each grade K-6. Now between four different locations on the West Point campus…we’ve experienced a growth in enrollment and our average grade size is 31 kids per grade,” Menke said.
The purchase of the Sunshine Daycare has turned into a big expansion for the system. Now there is a total of  49 three-year-olds in West Point and Fort Madison, and 48 four-year-olds between preschool and pre K.

“When those three-year-olds hit kindergarten, we don’t have room for them, so that’s why its important that we build this,” she said. “These numbers, I don’t have to do much convincing. The kids are there and the growth is there, we just need to get it done.”
The new addition will be on the east side of 4th Street from the sidewalk back to the current elementary gymnasium and will include 11 new classrooms, a multipurpose room, a music room, storage, restrooms, office spaces, a conference, and a staff common area.
Menke said she had five months to raise the money for a summer construction start date. The Diocese requires the system to have at least 60% of the funds for the project on hand before beginning construction, which is $3.8 million and they have about 10% of that currently. They have a goal of March 1 for fundraising, but she said they would like to break ground on the project in May.
“It’s going to take about 13 months to build and those kindergartners are going to need to be in the building by 2027,” she said.
“We’re gonna work real hard to get this done in a shorter period of time.”
Menke asked the city for some help with sidewalks and curbing that may get torn up during construction. She said there is an old sewer line under the project that the city may need to get involved in through the utility board or through the city.
“We just want to make sure we stay square with you and make sure you know what’s going on,” she said.
Menke said contributions can be in the form of multi-year-pledges, cash or checks, security donations, IRA charitable donations, corporate support, grain or livestock donations, matching gifts, and gifts of property or equipment.
Before his passing, Dennis had already begun laying the groundwork for the second phase of the Holy Trinity Elementary campus to answer the growing need for more classrooms, early childhood spaces, and specialized learning environment. He, and his wife Kate, spearheaded the effort to get phase 1 done in 2020.