Kirkwood calls on community to expand

CEDAR RAPIDS- Kirkwood Community College is growing, and it needs voters to help it make more room.

Three years ago, Kirkwood Community College added the Jones Regional Education Center in Monticello. Now it wants to add three more centers just like it. To do that, the college district needs voters to extend its current bond authority (15 years) to 20-30 years. That bond authority already costs homeowners 20 cents for each one thousand dollars for assessed value.

The issue is one of a couple on the ballot for a September 13th vote. A yes vote does not increase property taxes, it merely extends what is already there. But if it passes, Kirkwood says high school students would be the big winners.

The new centers would be in the Washington area, Marion/Hiawatha area, and a Coralville location that would be in connection with the University of Iowa.

Todd Prusha, the Dean of Distance Learning at Kirkwood, said they are hoping voters will get on board. "It's not a tax increase, it's a continuation of a tax that's already there. I believe if you own a house that's 100,000 dollars it's less than 10 dollars a year you would see on property tax," Prusha said.

In 2005 voters approved the initial tax, allowing Kirkwood to modernize and expand, eventually opening the Jones Regional Educational Center. That center allows high school students from 8 different districts to earn both high school and college credit for free. "The first year we reached our goal of 200 students. The last two years its been 230, 240. We can't add on but the center is full, and it's been very successful," Prusha said.

One big advantage Prusha adds, is pooling many of their resources to one of three new central campuses for students. "By combining, and having this one lab that seven or eight districts could attend, we could have the best equipment," Prusha said.

Courses offered at the locations would vary from pharmacy to pre-engineering. Prusha said with the cost of tuition on the rise, voting for the extension could save parents money.

Participating high schools have to pay the cost for any student attending. But those high schools receive incentives through the state for student participation.