IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – UPDATE 9:00 p.m., September 11 : Today, in an empty plot of land, with a few excavation vehicles, the Willow Creek Elementary school project officially broke ground.
The ceremony saw representatives from companies and sponsors that are making the project possible grab a shovel and officially break ground.
"we spent the last year doing a lot of planning with our architects." Said Scott Woolstenhulme, the Superintendent for School District 93.
He continues, "It's a new design from what we've built over the last 30 years in our school district. The first time we're using a different design in 30 years. So it has taken a lot of collaboration with our architects, making sure that things are just right."
There are multiple reasons a new design is being used, and one of them is over-crowding in schools.
I got to speak with Paul Jenkins, the Chairman of Bonneville Joint School District 93.
"We are overcrowded. if you go to Iona, you'll find that we have 160%, I believe is the number." Jenkins said. "We need buildings. We're always using, what I call a cabana, which are trailers, mobile classrooms. And that's not really the place that we should be educating children. We need them to be in the school buildings, where they have all of the fine facilities that children deserve."
The Willow Creek Elementary is set to be completed in 2 years.