The Keota High School commons lounge is under renovation, and the group who undertook this project is a fairly new one to the community.

The Keota Eagle Advocates formed in July of 2016. President Sheila Horras says the group initially formed to promote better communication in the district, “I said, you know we need someone to filter this information, make sure that what’s out there is the truth and that’s kind of how we started. And then we evolved into becoming a support group for the school as a K-12 school. Our purpose is to keep the community informed of school issues, to promote the school and the many successes that they’ve had. And also we try to keep them informed of important legislation.”

The advocates took on a renovation project when they had consultants look at the high school, “The one thing that they said was we have a beautiful campus, we have a beautiful school. But our lounge, which is the first thing you see when you walk into the high school, was an eyesore. And it had 350 lockers in it that were all beaten up and broken, they were original with the school. The whole area was just not very eye appealing.”

The Keota Eagle Advocates have held different fundraising events, and they received a $10,000 grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation and a $4500 grant from the Keokuk County Endowment Fund. So far they’ve taken out the old lockers and ordered new lockers and flooring. They are currently looking at furniture, and Horras says they want to purchase tables with charging stations for electronic devices. The advocates want the lounge to be a place where both students and faculty can reside.