School district to host high school design workshops, public hearing on North Grand sale

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

BLDD Architects will host two design workshops this week exploring what the Charles City High School could become, Superintendent Dan Cox told the Charles City Board of Education on Monday evening.

BLDD will host two sessions: on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Community members should stop by the high school’s front office to be directed to the location, Cox told the board.

The sessions are open-house style and will work with community members as they arrive.

Wednesday’s session will focus on ideas from community members as architects draft sketches. Thursday’s session will have those drafts on display, and architects will accept feedback from the public.

North Grand sale

The Board of Education approved a public hearing for the sale of the 500 North Grand building. The hearing is set for June 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the seventh-grade learning studio of Charles City Middle School.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Iowa

Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Northeast Iowa wants to work with Charles City schools to offer school-day mentorships to young students.

Director Katie Orlando gave a brief presentation to the Board of Education, asking the district to consider accommodating student/mentor meeting times during the day.

The mentorship program already pairs community members with students to meet outside of the school day for friendship-building activities, but Orlando said her group hopes to provide structure and a weekly meeting point for students who would benefit more from a regular schedule.

“The program is really successful because it’s build on relationship development. We see correlations between attendance and days the mentors are visiting schools,” Orlando told the board.

The group pairs adults with students from kindergarten to around 14 years old to offer mentorship for students who are referred or seek out the program. Adults age 18 or older go through 18 different layers of background checks before they are accepted as a mentor, Orlando said.