116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids schools’ committee considers challenge to $220M bond petition
The board OK’d a vote after the district said it received 6,909 valid signatures
Sep. 29, 2023 2:49 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — A committee of Cedar Rapids school officials is meeting Monday after the district received a challenge to 1,333 of the signatures collected to put a $220 million general obligation bond issue on the ballot Nov. 7.
The Cedar Rapids school board unanimously approved a resolution Sept. 21 ordering an election after the district received 6,909 valid signatures. The district needed about 6,300 signatures from eligible district voters to place the issue on the ballot.
Volunteers with a “Vote Yes to Invest” committee collected 7,624 signatures — about 700 of which were considered invalid because signers did not include the date they signed or an address within the school district boundaries. Signatures were verified by school board secretary Ryan Rydstrom and two other district officials.
The challenge, if upheld, would leave the district short 28 valid signatures to call the referendum.
A meeting of an election objection committee is set for 3 p.m. Monday at the Educational Leadership and Support Center, 2500 Edgewood Rd. NW, Cedar Rapids.
To take a school bond referendum to voters, at least 25 percent of the number of registered voters in the district voting in the last election of school officials must sign a petition, according to Iowa Code. Notice and language of the measure was due to the county auditor by Sept. 22.
The challenge to the bond petition was emailed Thursday to school officials and The Gazette by Richard David, who is running for a Cedar Rapids school board at-large seat this fall. In his email, David said the petition was reviewed by “a group of concerned voters” who live in the district.
The group asserted some signatures are invalid for the following reasons:
- No house number is listed,
- No street address is listed
- No city, state or ZIP code is listed
- The signer lives out of district
The election objection committee will be made up of Cedar Rapids school board President David Tominsky, Rydstrom and one other board member to be chosen by a vote by the board Monday.
An election objection committee also was convened Thursday after objections were made to nomination paperwork for candidate Kaitlin Byers. The committee rejected the objections, allowing Byers to continue her run for school board District 4.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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