“We were up 47 kids on count day,” Jess Toliver, EGCSD superintendent, said. “We have added 16 kids throughout the district since Christmas.”

Prestage’s plant, which is to employ 1,050 people, is set to open in March and some workers have already been hired.

In preparation for that growth and future growth, the district has added onto its elementary school with a space that occupies 13,000 square feet.

Ten classrooms, including two special education classrooms, were added.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Neeyah Nelson, 5, of Eagle Grove, looks through a picture book in one of the pre-kindergarten classrooms at Eagle Grove Elementary School recently.

“We have enough to go to a fourth section in every class,” Toliver, who has led the school district for about a decade, said.

The lunchroom, which is shared by the elementary school and middle school, was expanded to 2,475 square feet.

“We did a complete remodel of the kitchen to accommodate another 150 kids over lunch,” Toliver said.

He said additional serving lines were needed.

“The problem wasn’t the lunchroom, it was getting the lines in,” Toliver said. “So we have reconfigured that space.”

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Jim McLaughlin, fifth-and-sixth grade science teacher at Robert Blue Middle School, engages his students in a class discussion recently.

Locker rooms and restrooms were remodeled.

The district received funding help from the county to pay for the $6 million projects.

Wright County supervisors provided $1.5 million in tax increment financing to the school.

According to Toliver, the district borrowed against the statewide penny. The district will also use future property taxes from the Prestage plant to help pay for the projects.

Some of the rooms from the elementary remodel sit empty — for now.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Mack Morgan, 13, a seventh-grade student at Robert Blue Middle School, races toward the ball with his hockey stick during PE recently.

“Space will continue to be a challenge,” Toliver said. “We are not in a position to sit and wait and see because if you do that you will be out of space before you know it.”

With enrollment up and an already diverse group of students, the district has plenty of work ahead of it.

About 64 percent of Eagle Grove’s students have a low socioeconomic status. About 70 percent of its elementary students have a low socioeconomic status.

About 16 percent of Eagle Grove students speak English as a second language.

In terms of performance, Eagle Grove’s high school and middle school were Targeted by the Iowa Department of Education for achievement gaps that exist.

These performance scores are included in Iowa School Performance Profiles. They designed to show how public schools performed in a new accountability system that meets the Every Student Succeeds Act. Every Student Succeeds is a federal law that replaced the No Child Left Behind Act.

The profiles display a school’s score based on overall performance, as well as scores based on the performance of subgroups of students.

Subgroups include students who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, students receiving special education services and students from racial/ethnic minority groups.

“Not all schools are made up of the same type of students,” Toliver said. “That being said our job is educate our kids to the best of our ability and move them forward to where we can get them. The challenges we face that will continue to be a hurdle is between our ELL (English Language Learners) students and non-ELL students and special ed students and non special ed students.”

Toliver said student success coordinators have been added at the elementary school and middle school to help identify the services students need.

Increasing staff is a top priority moving forward.

“Hiring staff,” Toliver said. “We just put an ad out to hire additional elementary teachers. We’ve got our first class that is pushing where they need four sections. I’ve got another one or two that are getting close and that’s before the plant opens.”

Toliver said another ELL teacher would likely be added by next year.

“We will probably add two to three more positions to accommodate specials and then get some help at the middle school,” Toliver said. “We still don’t know what’s coming. We don’t know what it will look like in March or August, so we are doing everything in our power to prepare for it.”

Change has become visible around the city and Toliver has monitored the housing situation.

“We have a lot of people redoing old housing,” he said. “The real estate market is hot right now. You have people building in town. Main Street is filling up again. There are very few empty buildings. Older houses are going down, new is going up.”

The recent developments has the community feeling optimistic, Toliver said.

“We are very progressive right now and a community that is growing and set to grow,” Toliver said. “A lot of people in key places have worked very hard to take advantage of this plant coming to town to improve this area and our district.”