Cedar Rapids school board candidates look to future of facilities

CEDAR RAPIDS - When an enrollment report last November showed that the number of students in Cedar Rapids schools had reached its lowest point since at least 2001, some school district officials nonetheless were optimistic.

'The city's done a lot (since the flood), and I think people are coming back,” school board member Keith Westercamp said at the time.

Former Superintendent David Benson long was optimistic about future growth in the district, in part due to the planned Highway 100 expansion. That project could lead to two new schools in the district, Benson said in June.

That potential growth, combined with the district's aging buildings, has made facilities planning a recurring issue in candidate surveys and a forum leading up to Tuesday's school board election. Seven candidates are running for four seats on the Cedar Rapids board.

Many Cedar Rapids schools were built decades ago - including two that celebrated their 100th birthdays this year. Incumbent school board members have said the board will have to continue to plan for keeping district facilities up to date.

The size of updated or new elementary schools is one question, incumbent at-large board member John Laverty wrote in response to a Gazette candidate survey.

'It's clear the community values neighborhood elementary schools, but we need now to better understand what the community feels is most important,” Laverty wrote. 'What distance from homes makes a school a ‘neighborhood school?' ”

'Would they prefer a new facility that was slightly larger (such as Viola Gibson Elementary) if it meant the ‘neighborhood' it served expanded by a few blocks?” he added.

From a personnel standpoint, elementary schools with three class sections per grade level are ideal, incumbent at-large board member Ann Rosenthal said.

'That's a good size for an elementary building as far as staffing for art, music, (physical education), library, those parts of the program,” Rosenthal said. 'Right now we have a lot of music, art and PE teachers that are splitting between buildings. If we build a new school, I would expect it would be at least a three-section school.”

New school buildings also are more energy-efficient than older ones, possibly freeing up more money for instructional costs, Rosenthal said.

If a larger school led to larger class sizes, however, it could be more difficult and costly to educate students, said Todd Cohenour, an at-large candidate.

Investing in school facilities also can help reduce the number of families who choose to move their students to other districts, said Rosenthal and Rafael Jacobo, a candidate for the board's District 4 seat.

Understanding demographic changes also is important to facilities planning, Kristin Janssen, an at-large candidate, said in the survey.

The board should regularly update facilities plans, in part based on such changes, said incumbent board members Allen Witt (District 4) and Mary Meisterling (District 1) in the survey.