Cedar Rapids schools to get an extra $500,000 after state funding error

The Cedar Rapids Community School District will get another $544,000 in state sales taxes for infrastructure projects to rectify the state's misallocation of money caused by a computer-programming error.

The Iowa Department of Revenue misallocated more than $9 million in sales taxes from the year that ended June 30. School districts in high-retail, metro areas were shorted dollars, while rural districts got extra money through the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) fund.

The Iowa Association of School Boards sent districts and email Wednesday with a list of districts that will get more money and the districts from which the state must recoup payments. More than 100 districts are on both lists because their boundaries cross lines between high-retail and low-retail counties.

In the Corridor, the Iowa City Community School District will get $417,823 more, Linn-Mar will get $225,027 and Clear Creek-Amana will get $10,117. College Community is owed $141,556 more, but they also are on the list of owing money, for $11,858.

Des Moines Public Schools will get the state's largest payment of just over $1 million. Marshalltown will have the most to repay with $262,277.

Districts owed money are posted here.

Districts that must repay money posted here.

Districts shorted money will receive payments as soon as next week, the school board association said. For districts that received too much money, the DOR will reduce future monthly payments through June.

The misallocation occurred because the revenue department's computer system used to calculate the SAVE distribution wasn't programmed to handle a situation in which the actual per-student payment exceeded an estimated payment, Department Spokeswoman Victoria Daniels said earlier this week.

School districts were alerted to the error Jan. 2 by Matthew Gillaspie, an employee with PiperJaffray, a financial services company that advises school boards on bond issues. Gillaspie was doing some work for Northeast Community School District in Goose Lake when he discovered the error, he wrote in an email to districts.