Inflation pushes up costs for Iowa schools

As inflation remains high across the U.S., costs for nearly everything have gone up, according to superintendents and executives at several Iowa schools.

Fuel, heating

Transportation and natural gas costs have seen a major increase.

At Pleasant Valley Community School District, with schools in Bettendorf and LeClaire, the buses shuttling students to and from school came at a 16 percent increase in cost over last year, district Chief Financial Officer Mike Clingingsmith said. The school contracts with Durham School Services for transportation, and Clingingsmith said the increase is due in part to the company raising pay to retain drivers, who are in high demand across the state.

Energy is also a source of increased cost, Clingingsmith said. The cost of natural gas to heat buildings at Pleasant Valley has been locked in for close to three years at about $3 per thousand cubic feet, but the cost of the same volume was more than $8 in May, though prices are expected to fall through the year.

The school’s contract ends in October, and Clingingsmith said they’re hoping to see prices fall more before having to lock in a new contract.

In Mason City, Superintendent Pat Hamilton said the school district is seeing similar increase in costs, which could lead to slower maintenance, but they haven’t made major budget cuts.

“That natural gas price being as high as it was, you might have back off doing some of the maintenance work you wanted to do on buildings, just because of the cost of the fuel and the natural gas it takes to keep the buildings warm and keep the buses running,” he said.

Clingingsmith also noted construction costs for planned additions to two schools in the district have nearly doubled. When the district initially drew up plans to expand an elementary and a junior high school, the cost estimate was around $9 million. Now, bids are coming in at around $17 million.

He said the school will have to borrow against future sales tax and other taxes to make up the cost.

“In order to complete these projects and other future projects we’re gonna have to borrow again sooner than we thought we’d have to borrow because of the estimated construction costs,” he said.

Food

Food is another area where schools are seeing increased costs, as pandemic aid that provided schools with funds to feed students for free has ended.

Schools are getting some federal assistance through programs such as the Keep Kids Fed Act, but most schools still have had to raise their prices as much as 25 cents from pre-pandemic levels, said Coni Dobbels, School Nutrition Association of Iowa president-elect.

At the Davenport Community School District, where Dobbels is the supervisor of food and nutrition services, meal prices were raised by 10 cents.

School nutrition programs are generally self-funded, pulling in money from federal assistance and the cost of meals. But if the cost to produce the meal ends up outweighing how many meals the school is selling, the deficit would need to be made up by the school’s general fund.

“We want to focus the general fund on education and getting kids what they need in the classroom, not worrying about the food program,” Dobbels said. “So my goal is to stay positive or neutral so we don’t have to ask the school board for funding for our program.”

School officials said cost increases are also a concern for families, who haven’t had to pay for school lunches for the past two years. Some schools, including schools in the Des Moines district and the Davenport district, qualify for universal free meals under a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule based on the portion of their students that are low-income.

“The biggest increase there goes back to the families,” Hamilton said. “So that’s the biggest change there. It’s like anything else, some of the commodities are higher than they would have been previously.”

Hiring pressure

Schools are also grappling with shortages of teachers and other staff, and the cost of labor for non-certified staff has increased significantly, said Kyle Grimes, Sibley-Ocheyedan Community school board president.

For jobs like bus drivers, custodians and paraeducators, schools have to compete with a private sector that is increasing wages for an ever-smaller pool of workers. Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped below pre-pandemic levels this summer, and was sitting at 2.5 percent in July.

“When you’re trying to compete with other businesses that have had to raise their wages, that's probably impacted us as far as budget,” Grimes said.

More state aid can help schools recruit and retain teachers, Iowa State Education Association President Matt Beranek said. While he said salary isn’t the only reason schools are finding it hard to hire teachers, more state funding would allow schools to pay more competitive teacher salaries.

“We are also witnessing underfunding by the state of Iowa to our public schools, which then of course help pay our educators’ salaries and benefits,” he said.

Education focus of gubernatorial election

Education has emerged as a central issue in the Iowa governor’s race, with Democrat Deidre DeJear promising to increase funding for Iowa’s public schools.

In an education policy plan released Thursday, DeJear said she would give an immediate $300 million injection to Iowa’s K-12 schools from the state’s budget surplus to cover temporary costs, and she also called for a yearly 4 percent increase in supplemental state funds for education.

That rate matches the amount requested by the Iowa State Education Association, which requested a minimum of a 4 percent increase in state aid to schools during the legislative session this year.

If elected governor, DeJear said she would respond to requests from groups like the ISEA and allow them to guide the funding decisions.

“Our challenge right now is in government is deciding what people use their money for rather than allowing the professionals who are committed to this field to tell us what they need the resources for,” DeJear said in an interview last week.

Gov. Kim Reynolds has defended her education funding priorities, noting that the state has increased education funding every year she’s been in office. State aid to education has increased between 1 percent and 2.5 percent since 2017, when Reynolds became governor.

The governor told reporters at the Iowa State Fair last week that in addition to funding schools, she’s been focused on STEM education, work programs and registered apprenticeships.

She criticized Democrats for voting against a law passed by state Republicans in 2021 requiring schools to offer 100 percent in-person instruction as some remained in hybrid or remote instruction formats because of the pandemic, pointing to learning losses students suffered during the pandemic.

“I support our educators, I support public education,” she said. “I have since I've been a lieutenant governor, since I've been a state senator. I'm committed to that.”