Bettendorf's Grant Wood Elementary to be rebuilt

A new building will go up at Bettendorf’s Grant Wood Elementary School. That’s after the Bettendorf School Board approved   The decision to rebuild Grant Wood Elementary comes after years of discussing the district’s elementary facilities plan.    Originally, the plan was to update the aging Grant Wood along with Mark Twain and Thomas Jefferson elementary schools.    Bettendorf Superintendent Michael Raso said building a new school ended up being the most cost-effective option for Grant Wood. Last year, the school board voted to decrease class sizes in the elementary schools. That’s part of the reasoning behind building a newer, bigger Grant Wood Elementary with more classrooms.   “A high density population of our students are from the Grant Wood area, so that was the spot that was picked, and then they decided to after that, then work on Mark Twain Elementary, Thomas Jefferson, and then on to the other three so-called newer buildings,” Raso said.    The budget for rebuilding the school is up to $16.7 million. The plan is to construct the new building on the same property, but behind the current building.    For now, administrators are giving the architects plenty of time to design the new Grant Wood before moving on to planning a concept for the other two buildings.