Cedar Rapids Schools survey omits cost breakdown of new bond proposal

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Cedar Rapids Community School District’s survey, hitting mailboxes this week to garner feedback on the district’s proposed bond referendum, includes one glaring omission.

While nearly half of the bond costs would go toward a new school outside of Cedar Rapids city limits, the survey’s list of projects disregards those details.

After the task force that has been convening monthly since August was told the proposal would be under $200 million, projects were added to escalate the cost to $210.6 million; just short of the $220 million referendum that voters resoundingly rejected in November 2023, which also included a new middle school.

More: New middle school, other projects revealed in bond proposal

While leaders have said the district has two more middle schools than needed for the current enrollment in six schools, the School Board recently voted to spend $7.5 million on land to build a new middle school in an undeveloped area outside of the Cedar Rapids city limits.

Task force meetings did not identify a new school as a priority until committee members were provided with the list of proposed projects at the last meeting in January 2025.

“This committee reviewed our facility needs and prioritized projects based on the feedback garnered on last year’s community survey,” the survey states. “At this time, we are seeking taxpayer feedback on the task force’s recommendation.”

The survey highlights the projects that would be included under the plan:

— Building an addition for Kennedy High School in northeast Cedar Rapids for a freshman academy, as well as expansion of Kennedy’s cafeteria;

— Renovating Wilson Middle School in southwest Cedar Rapids to serve students from Grant Elementary and Taylor Elementary, now known as Cedar River Academy (Wilson students would attend Roosevelt Middle School);

— Renovate and expand McKinley Middle School in southeast Cedar Rapids to accommodate Franklin Middle School students (Franklin would serve Metro students and other programs);

— Build a new middle school on land the district recently purchased to replace Harding Middle School in northeast Cedar Rapids. Harding would be demolished, with that land used as “green space.”

Read more: School Board approves $7.5 million land purchase

The task force was told both Kennedy projects would total $12 million; the Wilson project would be $35.7 million; McKinley’s project would be $58.9 million and constructing a new middle school would cost $104 million, nearly half of the total cost.

That cost breakdown was not included in the survey, which offers open-ended questions and a few questions about respondents’ personal information.

The forms need to be returned before March 5, 2025. The bond vote would be in November 2025.

During their last meeting in January, the committee was told the Kennedy projects would not be included in the bond proposal to keep total costs under $200 million.

The task force was not informed during their regular meetings that Harding would be demolished and no reason was given.

Superintendent Tawana Grover said in December that the future of the building was “still under discussion.”

The district invested a considerable amount of money in both Taft and Harding middle schools in 2023, after structural deficiencies in the 1965-built buildings were detected.

Officials of a private school asserted that the school district sold Garfield Elementary School for a lesser sum than their offer, just before a new Iowa law went into effect that requires sales of school buildings to an educational institution if it is the highest bidder.

Demolishing school buildings, rather than selling them, would serve the district’s position that the buildings are going to “competitors,” such as charter schools, but demolitions would incur considerable costs, including environmentally, while offering nothing for the district to offset the expenses with no income from selling the buildings.

The survey touts cost “savings” of $130 million over the next 20 years under the bond plan.

Residents who own a $200,000 home would pay an estimated $15.45 monthly increase in property taxes.

More: School Board rejects offer of more than twice the selling price of Garfield Elementary