The original Valerius Elementary School Building (west wing) was constructed in 1963 for approximately $150,000. At that time, the school was at the west end of the city of Urbandale and just served the neighborhood called Patricia Park in which it was located. Now the building is almost in the geographic center of the city. The building was named after two former school board members who were related and had the same last name of Valerius. In 1975, a multi-purpose room was added. This room serves primarily as the gymnasium and lunchroom. It is heavily used by both the school and the community in the evening and weekends. Due to the district's declining enrollment in the early 1980's, Valerius was closed and served as the Iowa State University Extension Campus from 1986-1990. In 1991, Valerius was reopened due to an increase in district enrollment and with the passage of a bond issue was more than doubled in size. The school currently houses grades 1 to 5 from the Patricia Park and Golf View residential areas. The state of the art media center of almost 2300 square feet is a real showplace. In addition, separate facilities are provided for both vocal and instrumental music as well as art. The parent-teacher group has made a major commitment to building a fine playground with a variety of modern equipment located on the east end of the site. Additional improvements were made by remodeling classrooms in the older west wing in the summers of 1997 and 1998. Finally, Valerius is located on a spacious 11 acre site next to a beautiful regional park.