(Milford)– The Okoboji Community School District today (Monday) held groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of a new elementary school and for the 1st phase of improvements to the high school. The projects were made possible by a $67 million bond issue voters approved in 2024. Superintendent Todd Abrahamson…
“Here on the elementary site they’ve started moving dirt. They’ll stage equipment probably in the next week or two at the high school to start phase one of that. And then I would say late fall, or early fall, they’ll start designing the last phase of the high school project which is more additions, expanding the commons, kitchen, weight room, the concession stand there, and then doing the remodeling of the 1960’s portion of the high school. With all these projects, from the start of the elementary and phase one and last phase of the high school, all projections are everything will be ready to go and move into fall of 2027.”
Okoboji Elementary Principal Dave Vonk says the new facility will address three important issues they’re facing with the current building…
“A lot of safety concerns, this will definitely resolve those issues. We’ve talked about space issues, it will definitely resolve those issues. We’re going to have a nice big building with lots of different learning spaces, and we also talked about the future of education, being able to match the programming that we have, and Co-Op Architects have done an awesome job of designing a space that’s going to fit all of our needs and it’s just going to be a great space for us for the long term.”
Vonk says the new facility will also allow them to expand to five sections down the road, as enrollment continues to increase…
“We won’t necessarily be at that amount right away when we open up but we will have the availability to move into that whenever we continue to have more students enroll. And I think the beautiful building itself is going to help open enrollment as well. We have a high percentage of that already. I think as people move to the area and come and see our spaces we’re going to have from preschool through 12th grade some of the best facilities around, so it’s going to be great. We’re set up for the future with the growing student body, extra classrooms. We’re going to be good to go.”
Okoboji High School Principal Brian Downing says the 1st phase of work at the high school will be getting underway in coming weeks…
“If you drive past on H Avenue you might not see it as much right away, but it is a huge multi-purpose wrestling room that will be big enough for three mats. During the off season we’ll have turf underneath those mats so we can use it for any other pretty much athletic event or marching band practice, things like that. We’ll also have three new science rooms that will have built in science labs. Right now we have three science teachers sharing one lab, they’ll each have their own lab. And the family consumer science room, they’ll have separate areas for textiles and food and a demo area, and then we’re going to be able to renew and refresh some areas in our career and technical education and our ag and industrial tech, some new breakout spaces and restrooms. It’s going to be a really big addition to our facility.”
School officials expressed their gratitude to voters of the Okoboji Community School District for supporting the bond issue.
Abrahamson says costs for the projects are coming in under budget, with the elementary coming in $2.3 million less than estimated and the 1st phase of the high school coming in $2 million under budget.
