School board unanimously votes to demolish building

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

CORWITH, Iowa (AP) — The Corwith-Wesley School Board unanimously voted this week to demolish the district's middle and high school building, which local families said they're sad to see go.

The board voted Tuesday to raze the structure, a decision that superintendent Jon Hueser said was difficult for members but necessary, The Messenger (http://bit.ly/1dKjzHC ) reported.

It comes after years of financial difficulties and a September 2014 vote to dissolve the district. Elementary students next year will move to the Lu Verne Community School District, while middle and high school students will go to the Algona district.

Some who have had generations of their family attend the Corwith-Wesley district said they didn't want to see the end of the building.

"I started kindergarten there and went clear through," said Carol Niewald of Corwith. "I have two children who graduated and my grandson was in the last class that graduated. We've got quite a history there."

She said that she could tell board members had struggled in whether or not to raze the building.

The board had considered a proposal that would have given it a one-year extension on having to decide whether to tear down the building. But Hueser said if that extension had been approved, the Lu Verne school district would have been responsible for the structure because it's adopting around 87 percent of Corwith-Wesley's assets and liabilities.

"We can't leave this undone and pass it on to another board to deal with," said Hueser. "We need to close everything that our district is doing, which includes the building."

___

Information from: The Messenger, http://www.messengernews.net