“It’s exciting that the district is growing but with growth comes a lot of questions,” Colman-Egan School Superintendent Scott Hemmer said.
Hemmer’s comments follow last week’s school board meeting where members spent a good portion of the night discussing how to best handle a growing student body and the challenges and opportunities that come along with it.
The district right now is gaining new students through new residents in the communities that it serves. It may also see a bump in enrollment after schools in neighboring communities of Rutland and Oldham Ramona consolidate. No one is sure yet what the consolidation might mean, but Hemmer brought it to the board’s attention as district boundaries are often redrawn when that happens.
Questions centered around how many more classrooms it might make sense to add, how might the school make better use of the space it already has in the meantime and moving forward, and which way to build off of the current complex. No one seemed sold on the rendering they are currently working off of, which would place a new addition off of the elementary wing to the west. The initial plan, revealed in October, was to add four classrooms and a set of restrooms to our elementary wing of the school, with the possibility of adding a weight room/fitness area to the school.

“We are looking to see how many classes may need to have sections added and also the possible need for more staff and or programs. We haven’t made any decisions but the talks have been more in depth as far as what size the addition may have to be and also the exact number of classrooms… This is the first possible building expansion that myself and the board have been involved in and we want to make sure that we are giving due diligence to everything that will come with it,” said Hemmer.
Also further discussed was a track and football field complex for the CE Hawks. Hemmer added that they’ve been looking at what other districts have done and trying to make the best decision moving that forward as well. Runners currently do their workouts on area streets.
The ultimate cost and how to fund any expansion project was addressed but actual numbers are unknown until the scope of the projects and the needs that will accompany them are finalized.
Also mentioned during this last meeting of the CE School Board, an update on a new softball team for the district this spring. The season will run from the end of March through the state tournament in early June. This will be the first year for sanctioned softball in the district.