(Radio Iowa) – Officials in the Glenwood area are discussing what may happen to the property once the state facility that provides residential care to adults with intellectual disabilities is closed in 2024. Devin Embray, the superintendent of Glenwood schools, says his district had developed plans to build a new elementary school, but they’re now evaluating whether a building on the Glenwood Resource Center campus can be renovated.

Embray says the state would have to agree to turn over a building that’s ready for development, however.

The Glenwood Resource Center campus covers a thousand acres and at one time the middle school for the Glenwood Community School District was on the property. The Glenwood School District has just under two-thousand students and officials are concerned about enrollment losses as employees at the Glenwood Resource Center leave the community for work elsewhere. Embray says his district is working with Iowa Western Community Community College and Iowa Workforce Development about retraining programs for the state employees.