Over the last five years, the Bettendorf Community School District, Pleasant Valley, and North Scott School Districts have been looking for improvements to the Thomas Edison Education Center, which is known as Edison Academy.
Edison Academy is an alternative high school. Its website states, "Our students earn their home high school diploma upon completing the program. We strive to increase student employability and enhance life skills in a positive climate that promotes success in the present and beyond high school."
Since 1998, the academy has taught students in the former Bettendorf post office. The Bettendorf Community School District superintendent, Dr. Michelle Morse, says the district has been looking for a new building because of the aging facility.
"...[T]hey will have a newly renovated space, that in their classrooms they'll have four solid walls instead of movable partition walls," Dr. Morse said in an interview with WVIK. She says the close distance to the Bettendorf High School can allow students to take more elective classes. The school is now located at 3066 Victoria Street in Bettendorf, across from the high school.
Executive Director of Business and Operations for the Bettendorf Community School District Kurt Pratt says the transition started a year and a half ago when the previous building occupant, a benefits consulting firm, moved their employees online.
Pratt says the remodeling includes a laundry area and shower because students facing a poor home life or even unhoused may need these facilities to help them with their confidence and personal well-being.
Like other schools in the district, the academy has a Brain Health Retreat room that helps students and staff take a mental health break. The room is undergoing a soft launch so that academy staff can learn about its purpose and the admin can figure out staffing schedules. The non-profit Brain Health Now pays for the room furnishings and protein snacks.
"So all told, between purchasing the property, the construction, and hiring the architect and the furniture, we're in the neighborhood of about $4.3 million," Pratt said in an interview with WVIK. "In the state of Iowa, we have what's called the – one-cent sales tax or secure and advanced vision for education save dollars. And this project has actually been on the books for so long and been budgeted for so long, it's actually coming out of reserves of those funds. So there will be no tax rate increase that anybody will experience based on this project being done."
Pratt says because of secure funding, no other district projects had to be postponed or canceled.
Dr. Morse says she values the partnership between the three school districts in operating the academy.
"Without their partnership in terms of students and staff, this program wouldn't be possible and it does offer a select group of students who need this smaller type of high school experience to be successful available to them. And I think any time we can set our students up to be successful, then we as a community have succeeded," Dr. Morse said.
According to Dr. Morse, 55 students are currently enrolled in the academy, and the new space allows the school to accept over 70 students in the program.
Students will begin classes in the new Edison Academy on Tuesday, Sept. 24th.
