Prairie sets vote on new elementary

CEDAR RAPIDS - Voters in the College Community school district will decide on April 3 whether to build a new elementary school.

The school board Monday night set the date for a vote on a $15 million bond that would fund a fifth elementary school on the district's southwest Cedar Rapids campus. If it passes, the plan calls for the facility to be ready for its prekindergarten through fourth-grade students by 2015.

The additional school was recommended by a committee of local parents and residents, who presented the board with a petition calling for the vote. It had been signed by 564 district residents; only 93 are required by law to call an election.

College Community has been dealing with steady enrollment increases for more than a decade, adding an average of 110 students per year for the last ten years. During that time it has opened two new schools - Prairie Ridge Elementary, and Prairie Point Middle School and 9th Grade Academy - while class sizes at the elementary level have gone up to an average of about 25 students.

The new elementary is the final piece of a long-range plan that was developed nine years ago when Superintendent Dick Whitehead was hired. Whitehead, who recently announced he'll retire at the end of this school year, said he was glad the proposal would come to a vote.

“We're very blessed to have a growing community, but there are problems you have that are unique to that,” he said.

Gathering the excess petition signatures was not difficult, said committee member Megan Hughes of Fairfax. Her 4-year-old attends early child care at the district.

“It's well-known in the community that this is the next step,” she said. “Most of the people we visited were expecting us.”

District officials will spend the next few months reaching out to community groups to provide as much information on the vote as possible.

The full resolution calling for a special election can be found on the

College Community website, as well as the

committee's report recommending the new school.