PVHS eagerly anticipates new expansion

Over 8000 residents have moved to Bettendorf since the last census period. Additionally, 80% of Bettendorf city spending has come from property taxes from the copious amounts of new construction going up in the area. With a growing population and student body, the Pleasant Valley Community School District is planning for the future by expanding Pleasant Valley High School.

The expansions of PVHS have been categorized by phases. Phase 1, a nearly $20 million expansion, provided a new freshman tower, lower D gym, and new office spaces. Phase 1 was completed in January 2019 and increased PVHS’s capacity from 1,400 students to 1,800 students.

PVHS Principal Mike Hawley supports the utility Phase 1 provided. “This school grows every year, and so just in the past they added (freshman tower) on down there and we’re already full again,” Hawley stated. Already filling up once again, PVHS is looking to expand, but this time on the west end of the school.

Phase 2 will expand the high school by adding 22 new classrooms, 5 state-of-the-art science classrooms, an extension to the cafeteria, a visitor concessions area and a new visitor locker room. Phase 2 will add 52435 square feet of classroom space and 5521 square feet addition to the cafeteria. “It will kind of look like the tower does from the outside,” Hawley said. Phase 2 will increase PVHS’s capacity to around 2,300 students and will cost the district around $30 million.

Hawley looks forward to the timeline of Phase 2’s construction. “They are starting right in the summer or late spring. It will take a whole year before it’s done,” he said. 

Referring to the design process of the new expansion, Hawley explains the way the district tackled the issue. “There’s a strategic plan and that’s where you start. What are our projections for students? What are our needs? How do we fulfill those needs in the most cost effective way?,” he added. “They do excavation studies to see what they are digging into,,,the board commissions architects…it’s a whole process.”

Spanish teacher Stephanie Risius expresses her excitement about the world language department moving to the new classrooms. “I get a room with a window. Who wouldn’t be excited about a room with a window?” she said. “I think it’s cool because we will have all the languages in one spot…as many departments are in one or two hallways, we are spread across 2 floors and 3 hallways,” Risius expressed. “Having all of your department members together allows for some professional dialogue between classes, kids get to see all the languages in a hallway and everybody knows it’s the world language hallway…there’s lots of positives to having all of us together.” 

Hawley commented on a future ‘Phase 3’ PVHS project. “The idea is that eventually the ABC gym will become an auditorium/concert hall… we’ll renovate it that way,” he said. “And then that whole area (D gym) will be reworked where the gym that has the track around it was built where they could just knock that wall out and make that (gym) the competition gym,” he said. These future projects would benefit the performing arts, automotive/woodworking and athletic departments at PVHS.

“One of the commitments in this district is to keep our community as one. Our high school is not too big to be one high school so we’re going to keep it as one community because we want to all be Spartans,” Hawley shared.

As PVHS’s growing community expands, a larger student body can bring new ideas and allow PVHS to stay true to its culture of excellence.