Cedar Rapids elementary schools on Iowa’s ‘most endangered’ historic properties list

CEDAR RAPIDS — As the Cedar Rapids Community School District revisits the future of some of its historically significant elementary schools, the district’s elementaries have been added to this year’s list of the most endangered properties in Iowa by a historic preservation group.

A 2018 facilities master plan included building 10 new elementary schools and renovating three over the next 15 to 20 years in the Cedar Rapids district. This process included the closure and repurposing of eight schools.

The district put a “pause” on the facilities master plan last year and is now revisiting its options with the help of a task force, which includes members of the community.

The elementary schools are now on the 2022 most endangered properties list by Preservation Iowa, which brings to the public’s attention the risks to a designated historic property and advocates for preservation.

Preservation Iowa has designated over 200 homes, churches, archaeological sites, landscapes, commercial buildings and a variety of other properties as most endangered properties in the last 25 years.

The schools were nominated for the list by Cindy Hadish on behalf of Save CR Heritage, for which she is a board member and volunteer. Hadish also serves on the Cedar Rapids schools’ facilities master plan task force.

“We are pro-teacher, pro-student, pro-neighborhood, but what’s best doesn’t have to be at the cost of our oldest schools,” Hadish said, speaking on behalf of Save CR Heritage.

There are 16 elementary schools in the Cedar Rapids district, all but one of which are over 50 years old.

As a part of the 2018 facilities master plan, the Cedar Rapids district constructed and opened West Willow Elementary School this year, which replaced Coolidge Elementary School. Maple Grove Elementary School will open to replace Jackson Elementary School in the fall. Coolidge was demolished during the summer of 2021, and Jackson will be demolished this summer.

Students at Truman Elementary School will attend either West Willow or Maple Grove beginning in the 2022-23 school year, and Truman Elementary School is being repurposed as Truman Early Childhood Center, which will offer preschool and before- and after-school care.

The next schools on the list for facility upgrades include Arthur, Garfield, Harrison and Madison elementary schools.

District officials are considering building new on the annex area of Arthur Elementary, 2630 B Ave. NE, and Arthur and Garfield school attendance areas would be consolidated.

“What that wouldn’t mean is we’re looking to demolish Arthur the current building,” Superintendent Noreen Bush said during a school board meeting last Monday. “Arthur the building has some historic significance. We know for these kinds of buildings we have to work with our community on how to repurpose the use of Arthur.”

Arthur and Garfield are two of the oldest school buildings in the district, both of which opened in 1915.

District officials are also exploring the possibility of combining Harrison and Madison school attendance areas. Some options being considered include renovating and adding an addition on to Harrison or building a new school on the Madison site.

Harrison Elementary opened in 1930 and is “architecturally significant” with its two-story red brick exterior, according to Preservation Iowa. An interior mural in the foyer was created by artist William Henning, a student of the artist Grant Wood.

Additional projects being considered for after the 2024-25 school year include:

Kenwood, Cleveland and Grant Wood were the first new schools built after World War II, and opened in 1951.

Erskine, Wright and Hoover opened in 1955. Wright Elementary acknowledges the legacy of the Wright brothers — who invented, built and flew the world's first successful motor-operated airplane — and their connection to Cedar Rapids, where they grew up for several years.

District officials will make a recommendation on facilities plans for Arthur, Garfield, Harrison and Madison elementary schools to the school board during a meeting on March 28.

The elementary school work has been funded by SAVE — Secure an Advanced Vision for Educators — an existing statewide sales tax allocated to school districts based on certified enrollment.

Each new elementary school will serve between 500 to 600 students. Right now, elementary schools vary in student population, serving between 200 to 500 students, creating an inequitable distribution of resources, Bush said during a facilities master plan update in February.

“We can’t afford to have really small schools,” Bush said Monday. “Instead of having a facilities master plan that’s reactive, we’re going to be proactive.”

The cost per student in a small Cedar Rapids district school is $11,000, versus a larger school where it is $7,000 per student

Cedar Rapids school officials declined to comment for this report.

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