Earlier this year, a bond was passed that allowed the North Polk School District to build a new elementary school and an addition to the high school. Now, construction is beginning on the addition to the high school, and ground was just broken for the new elementary school. 

“The high school addition, if things go well, [people] can potentially be in there January of ‘22,” commented District Superintendent, Dan Mart, on when the addition should be finished. 

Over the past years, students may have noticed that things are starting to feel more crowded. North Polk is a very rapidly growing district and these additions are needed for that reason. 

“If this wouldn’t have passed, we would have gone back to the drawing board,” Mart said about the bond vote that allowed these additions to be built. 

The new elementary school is very important since both West Elementary and Central Elementary are both very full currently. The new elementary will house third and fourth grade students from Polk City and all fifth grade students in the district. 

“Instead of one building that buses go to, now it’s two… we haven’t talked about [routes] yet… [but] we’ll continue to talk about what the transportation looks like,” said Mart about how bus routes will have to change. The building will be built near Big Creek Technology Park, where conveniently, Polk City also purchased around 60 acres of land for sports fields that the new school should be able to utilize. 

The high school addition is vital too, so that there is more room for classes to be; as it stands right now, some classes even have to be taught in the media center and board room due to limited space. The addition will be going in on the side of the building that faces the middle school track, and it will have 8 classrooms.

Growing so rapidly as a district has been a challenge, but hopefully this building and addition will address many of the issues that North Polk has been facing.