
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Voters in the Cedar Rapids Community School District will receive a survey in February regarding one option for a potential bond referendum next November.
Just three school projects are included in the $198.6 million bond proposal, more than half of which would go towards a $104 million new middle school on land the Cedar Rapids School Board voted last night to purchase, outside of the Cedar Rapids city limits.
Among other questions, the survey would ask whether or not voters would support the bond referendum.
Read more: School Board approves $7.5 million land purchase

McKinley Middle School would be renovated to accommodate Franklin students under the bond proposal. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Other projects would renovate McKinley Middle School to accommodate students from Franklin Middle School, both on the east side, at a cost of $58.9 million, and renovate Wilson Middle School to become an elementary school for students from Grant and Taylor schools, all on the west side, for $35.7 million.
Wilson students would attend Roosevelt and Taft would remain open, all on the west side of Cedar Rapids.
Franklin Middle School would house Metro High School, the district’s Transition Center and other district programming. The task force examining bond options did not discuss what would happen to the current Metro school, or Grant and Taylor schools.
The survey, to be mailed to 60,000 Cedar Rapids Community School District voters next month, will also include an optional add-on project at Kennedy High School, for a $12 million freshman academy and commons renovation.
That additional cost would put the total bond ask at $210.6 million, above the threshold of $200 million district leaders deem palatable for voters to support.

Wilson Middle School would be among schools affected by a bond proposal to go before Cedar Rapids School District voters next fall. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The information was presented Jan. 14, 2025, to about 25 members of the school district’s task force, which has been meeting since August to examine bond options.
Voters resoundingly rejected a $220 million school bond referendum in November 2023, which included a $127 million middle school in an undisclosed location.
Read more: Panelists say developers will win with new middle school
This time, school officials revealed the site, but only days before the School Board unanimously approved the land purchase from Tauke Properties LLC, outside of the city limits, between Cloverdale Road and Ushers Ferry Road, north of busy Collins Road/Highway 100.
Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) funds, a tax on property owners, will be used to pay the $7.5 million for the 50.8 acres of land.

An audience member looks at images of flooding on Ushers Ferry Road during the Jan. 13, 2025, School Board meeting. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
District leaders have said they already have two more middle schools than needed for the number of students enrolled in the six current schools. Building a new middle school on the undeveloped land would replace one of those: Harding Middle School, 4801 Golf St. NE, built in 1965.
Task force member Dorothy de Souza Guedes objected to proposed wording in the survey that indicates the committee came up with the recommendations in the bond proposal.
“I can’t find that anywhere, where we said we need a new middle school at the far west end of Cedar Rapids,” she said, referencing past meetings of the task force.
Consultants from MA+ Architecture and Shive-Hattery, who are leading the facilities planning process, said there would be cost savings associated with closing Harding of about $1 million annually in operating costs.
They also noted that the initial $90 million estimate for the new school had already increased, and would likely increase again before the new school would be built in 2027, if the bond referendum passes. Those expected increases are included in the $199 million bond proposal.
See photos from the 50th anniversary of Metro High School

Every person in Cedar Rapids needs to pay for it. As a home owner we are tapped out on these dang taxes. People living in mobile homes (pay a little property taxes) and people in apartments need to suck it up and help pay for these bonds.
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