Save Harrison Elementary, speakers implore Cedar Rapids school board

CEDAR RAPIDS — Community members are imploring the Cedar Rapids school board to reconsider a decision made last month to demolish Harrison Elementary School.

In a 6-1 vote — with school board member Dexter Merschbrock opposing — the school board had decided to build a new school on the site of Harrison Elementary and demolish the existing structure as part of a larger facility plan for elementaries.

On Monday, a large attendance of about 50 people appeared at the school board meeting, with 10 speaking during a public comment period advocating for the preservation of Harrison Elementary.

Mary Stubblefield, mother of a fifth-grader at Harrison and one of the school’s 2022-23 Outstanding Building Volunteers, said officials have “broken promises” by deciding to tear down the school. “I would like you to reconsider your decision,” she said.

The new concept approved last month deviates from two recommendations made earlier by a volunteer focus group, based on an assessment of both schools from Legat Architects, an architecture firm in Iowa City.

“Stop participating in a fast-fashion society,” said Ashley Vanorny, a Cedar Rapids City Council member and volunteer on the focus group that had recommended renovating Harrison and building an addition to the school.

Vanorny said there was a “lack of knowledge about historic preservation” from school leaders. There also is an “unwillingness” on the school board’s part to work in partnership with the city of Cedar Rapids on its facility plans, she said.

"Very dedicated, unpaid volunteers” were not involved in the final decision made by the school board about Harrison, Vanorny said.

“The newest buildings lack a lot of historic character and you can do better,” she said, referring to the two newest elementary schools in the district — Maple Grove and West Willow.

Under the plan approved by the school board, Madison Elementary School, 1341 Woodside Dr. NW, would close and the attendance zone combined with Harrison Elementary, 1310 11th St. NW. No decision has been made about the future of the Madison Elementary building or land.

The plan includes salvaging and reinstalling historical elements of Harrison in to the new building for $400,000. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $28.9 million.

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The decision is part of a 2018 facilities master plan that included building 10 elementary schools and renovating three over the next 15 to 20 years in the Cedar Rapids district. This process included the closure and repurposing of eight schools.

Maura Pilcher, a community member on the focus group and director of the Grant Wood Art Colony at the University of Iowa, said the proposal to renovate Harrison — not tear it down — was not a “Band-Aid” fix.

“Every student deserves a state-of-the-art classroom,” Pilcher said, asking the board to reconsider demolishing Harrison Elementary.

Sylvia Popelka, a retired teacher who taught in Cedar Rapids schools for 30 years, including at Harrison, said she was “blown away with how beautiful the building” is. Last month, Popelka said she was at Harrison to donate “boxes and boxes” of children’s books to free little libraries — outdoor book-sharing boxes that improve access to books.

“It’s very hard for me to understand why it has to be torn down,” said Popelka, whose husband and sister-in-law attended the school as children.

Harrison is one of seven schools in Cedar Rapids built before World War II, opening in 1930. The school contains a mural painted by a William Henning, a contemporary of Grant Wood, who is known for his depictions of the rural Midwest. School officials have said that mural will be preserved.

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