MASON CITY – John Adams Middle School (JAMS) and later the High School in Mason City is poised to undergo a $41 million renovation, starting over winter break in late December.
One of the main targets of the project right away will be the cafeteria and kitchen area of JAMS. This area will be unusable for students the entire second semester of the 2010-2011 school year. Some of the electrical work has already started on the project.
Rumors in the community are swirling about how this renovation would affect the students currently enrolled at JAMS. Superintendent of Schools Anita Micich has her own blog website where she goes into great detail on the “planning” of this project and “how it will be paid for.” Curiously, her website says very little or nothing about the affect on or thought given to the students who currently attend John Adams.
Questions are being raised and not many answers are out there right now.
For example, if the kitchen and cafeteria at JAMS will not be available, where will the students eat, and how will their food be prepared?
A call to the Mason City School administration building yielded very few answers and raised more questions. “We are working on the development of that process,” NorthIowaToday.com was told. Apparently, the student’s food would be prepared at another location and then shipped or transported over to John Adams for the children to eat in the gymnasium.
This does not sound like an efficient plan, at all. Less than six weeks from the start of the project, (and students returning to school shortly after that) and the process is still being worked out? How would food be transported for several hundred kids in a sanitary manner, from another location? Who is transporting the food? Will the regular food menu be affected? Where will the dishes and silverware be cleaned and stored? Wouldn’t gym classes be affected? Why have parents not been notified or consulted on this situation? Also, how would classes be conducted in a construction zone?
It seems that this project is so out of whack that school officials, at a meeting with school personnel and teachers on or about November 9th, floated the idea of JAMS 7th graders moving to the old Madison elementary building and 8th graders moving to the high school for the second semester of school. Some of these school personnel and teachers are actually taking a tour of Madison School this Tuesday morning.
That’s not much notice to parents or school staff, let alone students. Is Madison ready to take on all these 7th grade kids? What about the high school? Can it handle the 8th graders? How would they be integrated into the high school? Which plan are school officials leaning to, moving the students or moving the food? Are City officials aware of these plans, or lack thereof?
Perhaps there are good reasons why this project seems like a mess. We will give school officials the benefit of the doubt, for now. We left our callback information for Anita Micich last week, but so far have not heard from her.
In the meantime, NorthIowaToday.com will be searching for these answers and more to keep you informed.
