Finding a new life for an old school. Almost every local community has empty school buildings and many are trying to figure out what to do with them. Davenport now has Lincoln Academy where the final bell rang this May.
Already several organizations are expressing interest in using space including: Community Action of Eastern Iowa, United Way, and Scott County Family Y. There have also been several suggestions for how the district itself can reuse it. The goal at this point is that it doesn't sit empty long and to best serve the needs of the immediate neighborhood.
"This would be a great opportunity to bring a whole group of organizations together to serve a neighborhood and potentially use a facility in the heart of that particular neighborhood," said Frank Klipsch, CEO of the Scott County Family Y.
In response to the Davenport School District advertising to local organization concerning re-purposing the building Community Action of Eastern Iowa representatives say the organization could use six classrooms and an office for its Head Start program for more than 100 students.
United way is also interested and would like to set up staffers in that area in particular. "That specific neighborhood is one of the neighborhoods we're looking at to really create opportunities for people in that neighborhood to live better lives," said Jenny Parvin, Vice President of Brand and Marketing at United Way of the Quad Cities Area. The organization is looking for several offices and classroom space for its Promise Neighborhood team. A place to coordinate services that support families and children. "Whether it's tax preparation or helping with job re-skilling," said Parvin.
The Scott County Family Y is interested in offering programs like childcare, Pathways, youth and adult sports, and services it previously offered to the neighborhood through the Lincoln Academy School. "We're definitely interested in continuing our after school programming as well as our tutoring and mentoring program, our Solutions program," added Klipsch.
The school district is right now testing the waters on uses and is also looking to see if organizations will pay for space there, upkeep and utilities. Groups think it could be a chance to create a hub of community resources in that neighborhood. "This is one way we're trying to be collaborative in the quad cities. Also re-purposing those things and resources in a way we can make a really useful impact," said Parvin.
Other ideas include using it for Davenport School's home assistance program, which is currently stationed at Buffalo Elementary School and needs two rooms in the Davenport Central area. The district's dropout prevention action plan also call for possibly a separate building for an out-of-school suspension program. Moving the Kimberly Center to the Lincoln Academy building was another suggestion.
There's no time frame on when the board will discuss a plan. Selling the building altogether has not been ruled out. Closing the school this year helped the district cut more than $4 million from its budget.
