Public invited to listening session March 27, 30

Members of the community are invited to take part in listening sessions about the growing needs of the Tea Area School District March 27 and March 30.

Superintendent Jennifer Lowery will start off the discussions both days beginning at 7 p.m. in the middle school commons. The sessions are expected to last about an hour.

Lowery and others will share information on district growth projections, long-range planning and needs, land location and preliminary estimation of cost impact. After a short presentation, community members will be split into small groups to talk about district needs.

“We want to hear from community members in small group session opportunities about what solutions we are possibly missing, what greater community needs and logistics should we be considering,” she said.

The district wants to hear public comment about programming and how it currently builds buildings. She hopes people will be open about sharing their thoughts for solutions to building space in a growing district.

“It’s really an exciting district to be a part of,” she said.

The district has worked to hire an architect and a construction manager in order to gather information for cost and space. They have hired Koch Hazard as their architect and Jans Corporation as the construction manager.

Lowery has been working on growth projections she will share at those public meetings. The district is 14 years old and grew tremendously the first two years in existence as its own district. When working through growth projections, she took those two years out since those were an anomaly.