There will be a vote on a $26.8 million middle school bond referendum in South Tama on March 1, reports the Tama-Toledo News-Chronicle.
The proposal the school board decided on was renovations at the Iowa Juvenile Home site. If the plan is approved, it would resume a history of education of some form at the site since Western College relocated there in 1881. Classes probably wouldn’t be moved there until 2024.
The present middle school, originally Toledo High School, opened in April 1915 at a cost of $75,000. “The structure in all details has been erected with designs for the best building for the present day and to meet to needs of the community in future periods,” the Toledo Chronicle bragged.
Gov. Terry Branstad ordered closure of the Iowa Juvenile Home in 2014. The News-Chronicle reported that the HVAC and electrical systems have been running automatically without human operation since, and the manufacturer no longer makes the master control. “This also may answer the question some community members may have asked as they passed by the IJH facility in the evening, wondering why building lights were turned on and off at random with no apparent regularity.”
Or it’s haunted. Whichever.