Historic preservation group to host CR school facility forum

CEDAR RAPIDS - A local historical preservation group plans to discuss the Cedar Rapids school district's sweeping facilities proposal at a public forum Tuesday.

The meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. in the Whipple Auditorium of the downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library, 450 Fifth Ave. SE.

The group, Save CR Heritage, has advocated against the school facilities plan, which would close eight elementary schools and demolish and rebuild 10 others over the next 15 to 20 years.

School board members are set to vote on the plan at their Jan. 22 meeting.

The board's vote 'determines the fate of the city's neighborhoods for generations to come,” according a Save CR Heritage news release, and Tuesday's 'community conversation” is meant to facilitate a dialogue 'at a neutral, centrally located site.”

None of the seven school board members or Cedar Rapids Superintendent Brad Buck have agreed to attend. However, members of the district's master facilities committee, which developed the facilities plan over a yearlong planning process, have agreed to be panelists.

Other panelists include Cedar Rapids City Council members and representatives from Save Our Cedar Rapids Neighborhoods, a group that formed in opposition to the facilities plan, Corridor Urbanism, which advocates for walkable urban planning, the Sierra Club and Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter.

'We're not trying to create controversy but hope to have a community conversation, as the decision will affect the entire city,” organizer Cindy Hadish said in an email. 'Even if they choose not to serve as panelists, we are continuing to extend an invitation to the school district representatives and school board to listen.”

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