The search for a site for a new Decorah elementary school seems to be stuck

"Representatives from the Decorah School District and from the City of Decorah continue to meet on a regular basis to discuss the school district's desire to buy city-owned property for the site of a new elementary school.

The meetings are held in private because there are two School Board members and two City Council members, which avoids having to comply with Iowa's Open Meetings Law.

Since there are just a handful of people taking part in these meetings, I have come to doubt--even if an agreement is reached between the city and the school district--whether any such agreement will win the approval of the public.

That's because Decorah is a very different type of community than many other communities, one in which, as one person once said to me, "Everybody wants to be a chief!"

I'd agree with that assessment, and add that it's not surprising that in a community with a lot of educated people, the public wants to think for itself.  Ask yourself whether Decorah is the kind of community were people would say, "Well, if the school board wants it, it must be right, so I'm going to vote 'Yes," or whether it's the kind of community where people will want to debate school traffic patterns, classroom sizes and the depth of classroom cabinets.  I thought so!

So I've had plenty of people share with me their thoughts about the best location for a new elementary school--and al most every thought is different from the last one.  It would appear everyone in Decorah is not just a "chief," but also a real estate expert!  And everyone who has come up with an alternate site for a location of the elementary school will probably be a "no" vote if there ever is a bond referendum. 

What is needed, I have come to believe, is a different approach to finding a location for a new elementary school, one which starts by asking the public to become involved in the process by submitting all their ideas about locations.  Then there needs to be a very public review of the pluses and minuses of each location (privately-owned sites, which some people have suggested, could not be discussed in public) and a public discussion of the "matrix" of factors used to judge each site.

It turns out there's one major shortcoming of the current set-up: it doesn't seem to be working."