Roosevelt could become sixth grade academy under proposed changes to Cedar Rapids facility plan

CEDAR RAPIDS — Roosevelt Middle School could remain as a sixth-grade center and a new seventh-and-eighth grade school would be built to replace Taft Middle School under proposed changes to a combined multimillion dollar facility plan in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

The change would increase a combined $445 million in school bond referendums an additional $56 million — a number Cedar Rapids school board members said they are unsure about bringing to taxpayers.

The decision, however, may not need to be made for another six years since Roosevelt and Taft are not a part of the facilities addressed in the first half of the bond referendum — $220 million — that could go to voters as soon as this November.

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The second bond referendum — currently proposed to be $225 million taken to voters in November 2029 — includes replacing Taft Middle School with a 1,200-student building and renovating McKinley.

Under this plan, Wilson, Roosevelt and Harding middle schools would be closed and the hope is the buildings would be repurposed into some other use by developers.

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New changes proposed Monday night, however, address concerns Cedar Rapids City Council members expressed last week in a joint meeting. City leaders said the original proposal would close too many middle schools on the west side of the city.

While the new proposal still includes plans to close Wilson and Harding, Roosevelt would be kept and converted in to a 400-student sixth grade academy. Taft would be built for 800 seventh- and eighth-graders.

Projects under the first bond referendum proposed by the district include:

Ballot language for the first bond referendum is expected to go to the Cedar Rapids school board next Monday, Aug. 7, at 5:30 p.m. at the Educational Leadership and Support Center, 2500 Edgewood Rd NW, Cedar Rapids.

If approved, volunteers can begin collecting signatures required to get the item on the ballot. At least 25 percent of the number of registered voters in the district voting in the last election of school officials must sign the petition, according to Iowa Code. This would require almost 6,400 signatures needed to qualify.

A call for an election can be done at the same meeting where the board receives the petition. If the district plans to take a bond referendum to voters this November, notice and language of the measure is due to the county auditor by noon Sept. 22 — 46 days before city and school elections.

Under a new state law, the district would have to individually notify every voter within its jurisdiction of the upcoming referendum vote. And if the referendum failed, the board would have to wait a year before going back to voters again.

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School leaders believe the facility plan would provide more equitable services to all students and reduce operational and maintenance costs for the district.

Since 2018, the district has seen a 6 percent decline in enrollment while surrounding school districts are stagnant or growing enrollment by more than 20 percent, Superintendent Tawana Grover said.

Schools not operating at capacity is costing the district “millions of dollars each year,” Grover said.

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The capacity at schools in the district is:

Once the facility plan for elementary schools is completed — reducing the number of elementary schools from 21 to 13 — the buildings will be at about 95 percent capacity, said Jon Galbraith, the district’s director of operations.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com