Cedar Rapids school bond could head for ballot in September

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids school board next month is expected to approve moving forward with a $312 million general obligation bond that would go to district voters in a September referendum.

The fall referendum gives district officials time to create a detailed timeline of the plan, which hinges on voter approval, school board President David Tominsky said in a meeting Monday evening. District leaders are not recommending the district consider moving forward with a referendum this March as originally considered, he said.

School board member Cindy Garlock said she puts “full faith and confidence” in the district’s plan to improve its middle and high schools. “Our facilities need improvement and our kids deserve that,” she said.

Board member Marcy Roundtree said she is grateful the board is giving the public more time to get “a clearer picture” and learn about the plan.

The plan includes building a new aquatic center to replace three pools in the district’s high schools and a 1,200-student middle school. District officials are proposing reducing the total number of middle schools in the district from six to four, renovating and adding additions or new construction, and making improvements to the district’s four high schools over the next seven to 10 years.

The new middle school, proposed to be built on the north side of Cedar Rapids, would have capacity for 1,200 sixth- to eighth-grade students — an increase of the 500 to 800 students now at each middle school. Land acquisition for a new middle school is estimated to cost $2.25 million and construction of the school is estimated to cost $88.9 million, according to board documents.

District officials propose Wilson Middle School, 2301 J. St. SW, be demolished and a new middle school built in its place.

Renovations are planned for other Cedar Rapids middle schools. Taft Middle School, 5200 E Ave. NW, could be renovated and an addition would add capacity for up to 1,200 students. Renovations would also be made at Franklin Middle School, 300 20th St. NE.

Under this plan, Franklin and Wilson middle schools would feed into Washington High School; Taft and Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy would feed in to Jefferson High School; and the new building on the north side would feed into Kennedy High School.

McKinley STEAM Academy, 620 10th St. SE, would be repurposed as City View Community High School, the district’s first magnet high school to be opened by fall 2023 for hands-on learning. Magnet schools are a program in public schools that create a special area of study. It also could house the district’s alternative high school Metro, currently at 1212 Seventh St. SE.

The bond referendum does not include the cost of repurposing McKinley STEAM Academy into a magnet school.

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