“We were losing 20 students a year,” Toliver said. “My second year here we lost 40 students. Even a few years before I came, there was five years of declining enrollment. We were graduating 80 students and bringing in under 60.”

It was a time of uncertainty for the district.

“There were big changes right when I got here,” Toliver said. “The main challenge at that point was financing. How do we get the district financially stable when you are losing enrollment all the time?”

Toliver said with the exception of major cities, many communities in Iowa have dealt with a decline in student population.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson David Varland, 11, works on his next creation in the makerspace at Robert Blue Middle School recently.

In Toliver’s third year the numbers began to stabilize and in the last few years Eagle Grove has started to see growth again.

“We went through a period of decline, but it’s coming back up a little bit,” Toliver said. “Currently some of our larger grades are in elementary and middle school, which is usually a good sign of growth as well.”

Toliver reported that the district serves about 800 students.

The finances have also leveled out, according to Toliver.

With the prospect of Prestage Foods of Iowa bringing more than 1,000 jobs to the area in the coming years, Toliver and Eagle Grove schools are faced with a new kind of challenge — the potential for rapid, increasing enrollment.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Payton Terwilliger, 9, practices her balance in the smart room at Eagle Grove Elementary School recently. The smart room is a new concept to activate students’ brains by having them complete a variety of physical and mental skills activities.

Prestage plans to build its $250 million pork processing plant five miles south of Eagle Grove.

The plant could open in the fall of 2018.

The chance to increase student population is something Toliver welcomes.

“When you have a major employer coming to your area, it’s nice to look progressively to put together ideas on how to handle growth versus declining population,” Toliver said. “Hiring teachers is a lot easier than reducing staff.”

Toliver said the district has already begun the process of preparing for the possible growth.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Kaylynn Keppler, 10, gets to work during a sewing class at Robert Blue Middle School in Eagle Grove recently.

“We are now in the planning stages of how that is going to affect our district,” Toliver said. “Right now we have facility groups meeting to see what they can handle and how we can handle the additional growth if we see it.”

“From an educational standpoint, we are exploring options of what our student base could look like and how do we prepare for them,” he added.

One area the district has already been addressing is accommodating English as a second language learners.

“Within our ELL programs, we have ELL teachers at all levels and additional teachers and administrators getting trained,” Toliver said. “We are sending teachers to conferences on how to serve that base.”

He reported about 20 percent of elementary students in the district are students who speak English as a second language.

“That population has been growing over the past five to seven years,” Toliver said.

“I believe we have a good base on what we need to do to make our students successful, we just may need to expand on what we have and the programs we currently have,” he added.

There’s really no way to tell how many students may attend an Eagle Grove school, he said.

“Our challenge is going to be the timing of the opening of the plant, and how do you staff your building to handle growth,” he said. “There’s no way to predict when the plant opens, who’s going to show up at our door.”

Toliver said if the plant does open in November of 2018, the district will need to be ready to act fast.

“I am not sure we will have the resources in place, but we will have a plan to get the resources in place very quickly,” he said.

Whatever does come, the community and school district will be ready.

“Our staff, our students and our community are very loyal,” Toliver said. “They are very family-oriented. A lot of people care about each other within the schools and community here.”

Classroom changes

Technology has been significantly upgraded in the Eagle Grove Community School District in recent years, according to Toliver.

Almost four years ago, the district went one-to-one in grades five through 12.

One-to-one means that there is at least one computer for every student in the school.

“We are updating those and moving it down to our third- and fourth-grade rooms,” Toliver said. “Our lower levels have iPads.

In 2016, Eagle Grove began implementing what’s called a smart room at the elementary school.

Joe Erickson, Eagle Grove Elementary principal, said the smart room is a different concept on how the brain develops.

“In the last few years there has been emphasis on developing the brain by doing specific tasks that get their brain activated,” Erickson said.

The room combines physical and mental activities.

Erickson said the students typically use the smart room in the morning to help kick off the day.

He also said the room comes in handy when the weather is too cold to have recess.

At the middle school, a makerspace was added thanks to donations from the community, according to Principal Scott Jeske.

The makerspace is an area in the public library used for different games and experiments.

The creations tie directly into science, technology, engineering, art and math, Jeske said.

Old computers, Legos, and other toys can be found in the makerspace.

“The kids can tear into these and see how they work,” Jeske said. “It’s a chance for them to get creative.”

Performance

According to the Iowa Department of Education’s state report card, Eagle Grove Elementary was rated as commendable, Robert Blue Middle School was rated acceptable and Eagle Grove High School was classified as needs improvement.