Work on new high school in Independence kicks off

INDEPENDENCE - The late afternoon may be one of the few times the Independence Junior/Senior High School isn't crowded during the school year.

“We have the most students that we've had in ten or 15 years,” said Jen Sornson, who is in her third year as the school's principal. “We have over 600 students in this buildings. We have two annexes. We have two places where students go outside, which is problematic all throughout the day.”

The school opened during the 1950s, an era of bomb shelters and the Cold War. On hot days, there is no cold air. The halls were filled with humidity this week, even on a relatively mild day.

“With 600 kids, it's pretty hectic,” said freshman Nicole Volentine. “It would be nice to not be so jam-packed in the hallways.”

Last September, nearly 70 percent of voters in the Independence Community School District approved a bond of about $27.5 million to go toward building a new junior/senior high school for grades 7-12. Similar bond referendums had failed in years past.

Sornson said the current junior/senior high building “served its purpose” but now the push is on for the new building, about 2 miles west of the existing school, on Iowa Avenue on the western edge of the city.

“It will be absolutely wonderful that we can be climate-controlled,” Sornson said. “We aren't right now. It's burdensome.”

Larson Construction of Independence is overseeing the construction of the new school. The firm took part in rebuilding Aplington-Parkersburg High School in 2008 after a deadly EF-5 tornado swept through the town, tearing the roof off the school and destroying the gym. Larson also has worked on multiple building projects at the University of Northern Iowa.

The new Independence Junior/Senior High School is scheduled to open in August 2013. Area leaders held a groundbreaking ceremony for the project last week.

“All of the moving, the amount of staff,” Sornson said, “we're going to have to tackle it like a military operation. It all has to be very orderly.”