ADAMS —To find out what the Southland School District needs to do in order to pass a referendum, they’re turning to the community to answer their questions.

On Thursday, Southland officials will present their community survey during their regular school board session. What will be discussed are the three potential options that would be taken in regard to Southland Elementary School in Rose Creek that’s slated for closure in June 2019. The school’s closure was a result of dwindling student enrollment and declination of funding, according to previous coverage.

Those options include constructing a new building; a renovation option that would be less than what was requested in a referendum last summer; and a wish to only have funding secured to address critical maintenance needs and have small renovations done to add classrooms in the existing media center, according to Superintendent Jeff Sampson.

“After the survey results are given in July, the next step for the board would be to decide what direction if any, they want to go,” Sampson said. “They might go for a bond in the fall or they may choose not to. The survey will provide the board a lot of the information to make that decision.”

This survey was created after the Southland School Board voted to close down the elementary school in mid-April. The plan now is to bring elementary students will be brought to the Adams campus after the 2018-19 school year. The board engaged School Perceptions to create the predictive survey that would help indicate what the Southland community may approve in a new referendum, that was planned for a possible vote in November.

Southland worked with School Perceptions to send out, to collect and to deliver the survey results to the school board that would presented in July. Each household in the district would receive a mailed copy, and some electronic versions of the survey would be sent to those with email addresses in the district’s system.

Sampson said if individuals want another paper copy of the survey for another adult in their household, that they should contact the district office for a copy. Each survey taken online would need a code for access. The district will not handle the completed surveys and are mailed directly back to School Perceptions, and the firm will bring the results of the survey to the meeting in July.

“The district will not be monitoring the results or see them until just before the board meeting,” Sampson added.