The City of Decorah's Property Committee will meet in one week on Monday, March 20th, to revisit the proposal to sell city property to the Decorah School District for the site of a new elementary school.
decorahnews.com has learned that an interesting concept has been placed on the table by school district officials--a willingness to give West Side School to the city as part of an agreement between the two groups.
The West Side Early Childhood Center houses the school district's early childhood special education classes, four-year-old preschool rooms, and transitional kindergarten students. It also has a two-acre natural playground. But the new elementary school facility the school district wants to build is planned as a building that would house every student from three-year-olds to third graders.
The question for city officials, of course, is what use the city could find for the building. While the two-acre playground would make a popular city park, the building itself might need extensive remodeling.
Of much greater concern for city officials is replacing the softball diamond if that property is sold to the school district. Not only would the city have to find a new location for the field, but it would have to figure out how to come up with the money to pay for construction costs.