This Iowa architect believes every student deserves ‘a stage to perform on’

CEDAR RAPIDS — One of the architects working with the Cedar Rapids Community School District in creating a new facility plan found his passion for architecture as a high school student in small town Iowa.

Michael Kleene, who works for Shive-Hattery, an architecture and engineering firm based in Cedar Rapids, believes every child deserves a “stage to perform on.”

“Whether that’s an auditorium, football field or classroom — and that’s because it was my school district superintendent who inspired me to become an architect. Students need to be given a place to excel and someone who inspires them,” Kleene said.

As a freshman at Spirit Lake High School in Northwest Iowa, Kleene was given an assignment in his Language Arts class to write a letter to someone about a problem and propose a solution. He wrote to the superintendent at the time — Tim Grieves — about how the high school’s music wing lacked adequate storage. He proposed having students in the school’s architectural drafting and construction classes create a space.

“He couldn’t do that, but he wanted me to be a student liaison on the district’s facilities committee. I did that for three and a half years, spending a lot of time with educators, architects, interior designers and construction managers,” said Kleene, who graduated high school in 2002.

November 2025 bond referendum possible

Today, Kleene, who lives in Indianola, is an architect at Shive-Hattery primarily working in Des Moines. However, he’s getting to know the Cedar Rapids community through the school district’s facility planning work that could lead to a possible general obligation bond referendum taken to voters in November 2025.

Shive-Hattery was hired in February by the Cedar Rapids school board under an agreement with other consultants to review research on the district’s infrastructure, create a facility plan, engage the community, lend assistance in the bond issue campaign and create conceptual plans of the school projects.

Kleene is part of a facility planning task force created by the Cedar Rapids district that is led by Shive-Hattery and includes about 80 community members and school officials to develop the new facility plan. It began meeting in August.

Two or three proposed facility plans created by the task force could be presented to the Cedar Rapids school board for consideration between March and May 2025. From there, the district would send a survey out to the community to gather feedback and gauge interest in supporting a plan with a possible bond referendum in November 2025.

A new facility master plan could include closing buildings to reduce operating costs and eliminate future maintenance expenses. It also could include renovating existing schools and building new ones.

The plan also will focus on career and college education programs by building spaces that those programs require at Kennedy, Jefferson and Washington high schools.

This would be a new plan after district voters rejected a $220 million school bond issue in November 2023.

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“We’re focused on listening to what people are saying, so we can align that with a future plan for the district,” Kleene said. ”It’s a great opportunity to build relationships and help everyone find common ground so we can move forward.“

Looking into the future

Chad Schumacher, the Cedar Rapids district’s operations director, said Kleene brings expertise to the multiyear facility planning process.

“He allows us to look into the future and anticipate needs we have in our facilities from a safety and educational perspective.” Schumacher said.

“Michael not only is very knowledgeable, but he’s really great at getting things done,” said Schumacher, noting that Kleene even sets up tables and brings in water bottles for those who need them at task force meetings. “He’s a very positive, outgoing person who has the district’s best interest at heart.”

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Kleene has degrees in architecture and environmental studies from Iowa State University.

He is possibly the only architect in Iowa to have an additional certification in crime prevention through environmental design, which he earned through a 40-hour course in a class primarily with law enforcement officers.

The idea behind the certification is that the physical environment can influence offender behavior and deter crime. This can be applied to about any physical space — homes, office buildings and schools, Kleene said.

Kleene has worked with school districts, including Iowa City and West Des Moines, to create more secure entrances to buildings.

Whenever a building is “hardened” to protect students inside, Kleene said the certification training suggests doing something to make the inside environment feel more welcoming.

One of Kleene’s first internships was with a firm that designed public schools.

“I quickly realized how privileged of an educational environment I grew up in compared to other schools across Iowa,” he said. “Learning environments vary so much school by school. It’s what inspires me to uplift kids that are learning in a 100-year-old building that doesn’t have air conditioning.”

Kleene continues to be inspired by wanting safety for his own three children and the family members who are educators, including his wife.

Schools are more than places for kids to learn, Kleene said. A school district often is the largest employer in the community and has the largest transportation and food service systems, he said.

Kyle Copelin, vice president of Shive-Hattery and mentor to Kleene, said Kleene builds a balance between the “nuts and bolts” of being an architectural engineer and the needs of a community.

“He cares so deeply about how it affects students, educators and the community because of the cost to the taxpayer,” Copelin said.

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