A group that’s been planning to open a public charter school in the small western Iowa town of Crescent is still looking for a site.
The Iowa Board of Education originally granted a charter to the “Red Barn Schoolhouse” group, to start offering kindergarten through third grade classes this fall. This summer the board agreed to provide the group a one year extension. During a briefing for the board this afternoon, Sharon Oamek, a board member of the Red Barn Schoolhouse, said promising negotiations on a three-and-a-half-acre property in Crescent stalled when the owner died and his heirs set the sale price at $700,000.
“There is an existing building that we were hoping that we could use as an interim facility,” Oamek said, “but they want $700,000 and we don’t think it’s worth that given we have to still build a school.”…