CRCSD bond issue puts board on path to future school closures

In an Oct. 14 Gazette guest column, five area lawmakers (Scheetz, Gjerde, Staed, Wilson, and Cooling) said, with regard to the $220M school bond on the November ballot: “Let us be clear: zero schools on the west side of Cedar Rapids will close under this proposal.” That statement is, at best, terribly misleading.

One of the goals of the school board is to reduce the number of middle schools from six to four. The four middle schools would include a new one to be built on the far northeast side, a renovated McKinley, and a renovated Franklin. These three projects are included in the $220M bond proposal. The fourth middle school would be Taft, part of which is now structurally unsound and closed. (The Taft situation itself should be cause to rethink the whole plan.) So the school board’s path to their goal, which was clearly stated in their July 31 work session, is the closure of Wilson, Roosevelt, and Harding.

So passage of the $220M bond does not, literally, close Wilson and Roosevelt. But it will start the school board on the path to its goal of closing those schools. If you want to preserve those two structurally-sound neighborhood schools, vote no on the $220M bond on the November ballot.

Phil Krejci

Cedar Rapids