CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Cedar Rapids Community School District is considering the purchase of 50 acres of land to build a new middle school.
Chad Schumacher, the district’s director of operations, said the land would have to be annexed into the city, but would be in northeast Cedar Rapids. He didn’t cite the cost, as negotiations remain underway.
“We do have a location,” Schumacher told the task force that is examining bond referendum options during its meeting Dec. 10, 2024, at Harding Middle School.
The group was told that the district already has two more middle schools than needed for the number of students enrolled in the six current schools, but building a new $90 million school would replace one of those — Harding Middle School — and be more centrally located to where the district’s population is growing, he said.
Other cards would have to fall into place to reduce the number of middle schools, which Schumacher said is the district’s goal.
Harding Middle School is shown in 2023. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
While the task force was presented with five different options for a potential bond referendum to go before voters next fall, a new $90 million middle school was included in each of the proposals.
To reduce that number, Franklin Middle School could be combined with McKinley on the east side, and Wilson combined with Roosevelt on the west side of Cedar Rapids, among the scenarios presented to the group.
Franklin could then potentially house Metro High School and Wilson could potentially be used as an elementary school to replace Grant Elementary and Cedar River Academy at Taylor Elementary, according to the proposed plans, which have yet to be finalized.
Franklin Middle School is shown in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Harding, at 4801 Golf St. NE, sits next to the city-owned Noelridge Park, but school Superintendent Tawana Grover said the district has not approached Cedar Rapids officials about possibly purchasing the property.
“That’s still under discussion,” Grover said about the future of the current Harding building.
Taft Middle School, in northwest Cedar Rapids, would remain open under the options presented to the task force.
Both Taft and Harding were built in 1965, making them the newest of the six middle schools. Both have the same double-dome design, which underwent repair after inspections in 2023 showed the deterioration of wood support beams.
Metro High School, shown during its 50th anniversary celebration in May 2024, would potentially be moved to Franklin Middle School under preliminary bond referendum plans. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The task force has been meeting for several months to devise a bond referendum proposal to be voted on in November 2025, after the last referendum failed. Less than 30 members attended this Tuesday.
In 2023, nearly 61 percent of voters turned down the $220 million Cedar Rapids School Bond referendum, which needed 60 percent to pass and would have built a new $127 million 1,200-student middle school at an undisclosed site as the most costly expense in the plan. While that site was not made public, officials have said privately that it would have been in Robins.
Schumacher said he did not know the size of the proposed new middle school.
By January or February, he said, the options for the next bond vote will be winnowed down and a survey will be sent to registered voters in Cedar Rapids, who will help decide which option they would support.
An option supported by a majority of the task force members would include renovating McKinley Middle School to house Franklin students at a cost of $51 million; add a freshman academy at Kennedy High School for $12 million; renovate Wilson to be used for the combined two elementary schools for $36 million and the new middle school for $90 million, for a total of $189 million.
Any bond approved by voters would raise property taxes for all in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
More: See photos from Metro’s 50th anniversary celebration
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