Last November, voters in the Aplington-Parkersburg School District voted against a public measure, which asked voters if the district should issue general obligation bonds not to exceed $16,500,000 to renovate the Aplington building and convert the high school into a grade 7-12 building. The bond failed with 44.41% of voters approving the measure.
The Aplington-Parkersburg School Board recently held a work session to discuss what the community task force has prioritized as it relates to school projects, including HVAC work in the Parkersburg Elementary and Aplington schools. A-P Superintendent Travis Fleshner tells RadioOnTheGo News while nothing is set in stone, the end goal is to put another bond referendum out to voters come November.
“Really thankful for all the work that those people did, really thoughtful work. And then really the board kind of started their share. So really, really good conversations. I think the initial steps are the school boards really closely aligned with where the community task force recommendations, if you will. And that’s really kind of the bulk of what we did. We did just see some initial, at least pricing estimates for some of those pieces. That’s kind of where we are in the process. So the board has three meetings scheduled in August, every Monday night, pretty much all the way through August, just to continue their work on this and kind of prioritizing different components of a potential bond referendum and thinking about cost and all those things that go with those kinds of projects before we kind of officially kind of roll everything out to the public.”
Fleshner says that while the bond referendum failed in 2024, the district has learned a lot from the community through surveys and what they want in a potential bond vote.
“So there were a lot of positive things in that, even in an effort that wasn’t successful. So one of the first things the board wanted to do was really go back to the community and say, ‘okay, you didn’t necessarily like that plan. What would you support? What do you think is important?’ What kind of costing could you be comfortable with?’ So the board has spent some time even going back through that survey really probably should have backed up a little further that listening to community. You know, we kind of heard you last November. Okay. Now we need to expand that conversation a little farther. So, you know, we know that the project that was proposed last November was a big concept. The district hadn’t rolled out a voter approved general obligation bond dating back pre tornado in the A-P district. Okay. So this is something the community hasn’t really seen for a number of years.”
The Aplington-Parkersburg School Board will continue to discuss facility needs during their next work session, which is August 4th at 6:00 p.m. at the high school in Parkersburg.
Below is the agenda for Monday’s A-P work session;
