Opposition group forms to fight closure of Cedar Rapids schools

CEDAR RAPIDS - With fewer than two weeks until the Cedar Rapids school board hears a facilities proposal that would close eight elementary schools, a campaign against the proposal is taking shape.

About two dozen people met in the Cedar Rapids Public Library on Tuesday night to discuss how best to register their dissent against the facilities plan, which is set to be presented to the Cedar Rapids Community School District's school board on Dec. 11 and voted on in January.

The proposal, developed by a facilities committee over the last year, calls for razing and rebuilding 10 elementary schools and remodeling the remaining three.

While the oppositional group signed a petition to keep Grant Wood Elementary School, 645 26th St. SE, open, an organizer of the event, Corey Chestnut, told attendees they need to stand against the closures of any schools.

'To me, the petition is: Say ‘no' to closing Cedar Rapids schools,” said Chestnut, a parent who, as with most attendees, lives in Grant Wood's neighborhood. 'That's how we get out of the Grant Wood district and have our voices heard. … Grant Wood's not alone in how this will negatively impact us.”

The facilities proposal would affect each of the 21 elementary schools in the district.

According to presentations made to the public this month, the plan would close Garfield, Grant Wood, Kenwood, Madison, Nixon, Taylor, Truman and Van Buren schools.

It would raze and rebuild Arthur, Cleveland, Coolidge, Erskine, Harrison, Hoover, Jackson, Johnson, Pierce and Wright schools.

Viola Gibson, Hiawatha and Grant schools would be remodeled.

Two candidates in Cedar Rapids' Dec. 5 city runoff election - Monica Vernon, who is running for mayor, and City Council District 5 candidate Ashley Vanorny - expressed concerns about the facilities proposal at the meeting.

'What makes a good neighborhood? Right at the top of the list - boy, you got it - neighborhood schools,” Vernon said, questioning why the facilities committee chose to close, not remodel, so many schools.

' … There are neighborhoods all over the world that say we're going to keep these schools and we're going to reinvest.”

Vanorny said the development of the plan - which involved a committee of about 80 district employees, residents and the education firm RSP - seemed to take place behind 'closed doors.”

'That's why all these citizens are saying, ‘Well, wait a minute, we haven't been involved,' ” Vanorny said.

District administrators already seem in support of the plan, Chestnut said, so the group plans to appeal to the school board Dec. 11 at its next meeting. School board meetings are held at 5:30 p.m. at the Educational Leadership and Support Center, 2500 Edgewood Rd. NW.

'The school board is the only chance we have to get this thing slowed down or stopped,” Chestnut said.

The group - after Vernon and Vanorny left - discussed how board members could modify the plan in the future, even if it wins approval from the seven-member board in January, before work is slated to begin in 2020.

'We need four no's” if it comes to a vote, said Caleb Gates, who has three young children. ' … And if they vote yes, they're out of there.”

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