Glenwood Community School District Awarded $1.4 Million Child Care Incentive Grant

The Glenwood Community School District plans to continue having its central office and Kids Place daycare in the 103 Central Building on the campus of the former Glenwood Resource Center.
The Glenwood Community School District is one of 13 recipients of the 2024 Child Care Business Incentive grants announced last week by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The $14 million in grants are being awarded to support businesses across Iowa dedicated to expanding childcare services for their employees and financial assistance for projects requiring new infrastructure to build childcare centers on-site or in partnership with local facilities.
GCSD will receive $1.4 million in grant funds for renovations to the 103 Central building on the Glenwood Resource Center campus, which houses both the district’s central office and the Kids Place daycare. The money is earmarked for renovations to the daycare facility and needed utilities improvements at the building. The funds will be paired with those raised privately by the Kids Place Childcare Champions, the fundraising wing of the daycare that has served Glenwood for over 40 years.
On July 1, the non-profit Glenwood Redevelopment Corporation is expected to take possession of the GRC property. The current steam- operated power plant that services the campus buildings will cease operations this summer as well.
The district set its sights on remaining on the GRC campus when a plan to build a new building north of the high school was scrapped last fall.
The 103 Central building is now slated to be the school district’s answer for its long-term infrastructure needs.
Glenwood Community School District Superintendent Nicole Kooiker, who wrote the child care business incentive grant application, is extremely grateful for the funding and even more appreciative of the fact the district got the amount they asked for.
“We hoped this would be an opportunity to expand Kids Place and run utilities and not have to use direct tax payer dollars to be able to offset and get 103 ready for the future while not having to utilize our SAVE dollars,” said Kooiker, referring to the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) Fund, which is a state sales tax that helps fund school infrastructure.
The district is in the process of finalizing a 25-year lease of the 103 Central building with the Glenwood Redevelopment Corp. and determining a date when the utilities handoff will happen to make the smoothest transition possible.
“We want to have something in the middle so if there is a gap when the power plant shuts off, we know when we have to have all the new utilities in place by,” Kooiker said. “We’ve been talking, and we have some ideas but nothing in place yet. But we do have some options. The sooner we can get the lease agreement the sooner we can get rolling on ordering equipment and getting to work.”
Just how much the total 103 Central building ovehraul will cost is not known currently but Kooiker did say the amount is less than what a renovation would cost at the Meyer Building.
The Meyer Building, located to the southeast of 103 Central and housed the district’s middle school from the 1990s into the early 2000s, was under consideration for the district’s future home but that project was deemed cost prohibitive.
“It’s a much larger building and we hoped to have the funding to update that building but the quotes were a lot higher than we expected,” she said.
The childcare incentive grant will allow the district to remain in 103 Central and update the utilities infrastructure, including running new power lines to the building and overhauling the plumbing, electrical and HVAC.
“The grant will offset all those costs,” she said. “It will be more than that ($1.4 million) to update the utilities up there, but this allows us to stay operational and get to the numbers we need to be able to get this done in the foreseeable future.”
Kooiker said the utilities work and Kids Place renovations will take priority. A late fall completion date is the target.
When completed, the four-story 103 Central building will house a renovated Kids Place on the first two floors, the district’s central office on the third and its THRIVE and APEX programs on the fourth floor.
The planned innovation center, which is now being called the career center, according to Kooiker, will move into the building behind the middle school that currently houses APEX and the district’s print shop.
“We will be able to meet all the needs and have all the programs still between the central office building and the building behind the middle school,” Kooiker said.
The career center will partner with IWCC to offer social media studies, agronomy operations and early childhood development certificate programs. The plan is to offer all three programs this fall.
The Kids Place Childcare Champions was formed in 2023 with the intent of raising $1 million for the daycare to continue self-sufficient operations – whether in the now cancelled new building or in their current building.
The Champions, made up of a committee of parents and teachers in the district, stayed steady in its fundraising goal even as the district’s plans remained in flux.
With the recent grant, Kooiker said, the plan is solidified, and the Champions are well on their way to their $1 million goal.
In December, the group received a $500,000 Lakin Community Foundation grant. Last September, Mills County pledged $150,000 this year and a promise of $20,000 annually for the next five years.
“They’re close,” Kooiker said. “They don’t have all the money, but they have most of it committed. They and I are very optimistic they will have that money in the bank March 1. The goal is to get started right away on paying for the updates on those first two floors.”
Kooiker said she has her fingers crossed the Kids Place work will be completed by the Fall. This summer, during construction, the plan is to temporarily transition Kids Place operations to Northeast Elementary.