Volunteers rally support for $220M Cedar Rapids’ schools bond vote

CEDAR RAPIDS — Retired Cedar Rapids schools’ staff member Slayton Thompson is showing up at high school football games and community events to ask eligible voters to sign a petition that would enable the school district to put a $220 million bond referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot.

About 40 volunteers like Thompson have joined a volunteer “yes committee” with a goal of collecting 6,319 valid signatures from district voters by Sept. 22 — about three weeks from now — to get the question placed on the ballot.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” said Thompson, who began working for the Cedar Rapids Community School District as a custodian in 1973. Later, he became a community liaison and worked with families facing housing insecurity. “After 50 years, I want new. It’s easier to maintain new schools that are well maintained.”

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The bond would help fund a facility plan that ultimately would reduce the number of middle schools in the district from its existing six. This would create a stronger feeder system for students in K-12, ensuring students stay together as they move from elementary to middle to high school.

School leaders have said they believe this would provide more equitable services to all students while reducing the district’s operational and maintenance costs.

Yes committees can be vital in getting taxpayer approval for general obligation bonds — which are backed by property taxes — for Iowa school districts, since district themselves cannot legally advocate for them. Thompson said he has no problem stopping strangers and asking them to sign the ballot petition.

“I’m retired, so why would I want my taxes to go up?” Thompson asked, and offered an explanation: “The teachers and students deserve the best. You should never have to turn a closet into a classroom because you don’t have the room.”

‘Race’ to get signatures

Scott Drzycimski, a Jefferson High alum and parent to children in the district, is leading the yes committee. He said it’s been a “race” to get signatures since the Cedar Rapids school board on Aug. 7 approved ballot language.

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As schools hosted open houses last month for families before the first day of classes, yes committee members were there gathering signatures.

Ballot language is due to the county auditor 46 days before city and school elections. At least 25 percent of the number of registered voters in the school district voting in the last election of school officials must sign the petition, according to Iowa Code.

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In Iowa, school bond issues — basically, loans that schools take out, typically for 10, 15 or 20 years — require a supermajority of 60 percent to pass. In passing bond issues, voters agree to repay the loan, with interest, through their property taxes.

If enough signatures are collected to put the bond issue on the ballot, the yes committee will pivot to campaigning to get the measure passed. This would include distributing yard signs, mailing information to voters and getting the message out on social media, Drzycimski said. The committee is working on creating a budget for this work and will begin fundraising soon, he said, but did not share how much money he thought would need to be raised.

When Drzycimski volunteered on a campaign in 2014 that ultimately led to voters approving a 10-year extension of the district’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL), he said the campaign raised $15,000.

“We’ll need more than that this time,” he said. “Mailing can get expensive. Printing isn’t always cheap. One thing I’ve found over my time helping with different campaigns is that yard signs are much more expensive than anyone realizes. It adds up quickly.”

PPEL is a capital projects fund for the purchase and improvement of grounds, construction and remodeling of buildings, major equipment purchases and rental of land and equipment funded by property taxes levied and collected by the school district.

Cost to voters

If the bond is approved, the district’s property tax levy would increase by $2.70 per $1,000 of assessed taxable valuation. The owner of a house in the Cedar Rapids school district assessed at $200,000, for example, would see a property tax increase of about $282 a year for 20 years, according to board documents.

Even with the increase, Cedar Rapids schools property tax rate would remain comparable or less than many neighboring districts at $17.33.

Cedar Rapids district voters last approved a bond issue in 2000 — $46 million to fund construction of Viola Gibson Elementary, which opened in 2002, and to pay for infrastructure upgrades to other schools.

In that December 2000 vote, 73 percent of voters in the district approved the $46 million bond issue — described as the largest school referendum in state history at the time.

Drzycimski said now is the most “financially efficient” time for voters to approve another referendum. “It only gets more expensive for taxpayers in the future,” he said.

Volunteers ‘passionate’ about improving schools

Todd Joslin said he is “passionate” about improving schools in the Cedar Rapids district even though his daughter, an eighth-grader at Taft Middle School, won’t get to experience the majority of the improvements.

“She might get a turf field in high school,” said Joslin, who is treasurer for the yes committee and a financial planner at Hills Bank.

Joslin said he decided to get involved in the committee because he thinks the facility plan is important. “Schools are the heartbeat of the community,” he said. “Without strong, good schools, it’s hard to have a good community of people want to move and live here. ”

Joslin said collecting signatures at Taft’s back to school open house last month was “easier than I expected.” He and another committee member gathered 300 signatures.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever done something like this,” Joslin said. “People are pretty receptive. I anticipated more push back.”

There isn’t a lot of time for committee members to chat with people whose signature they’re asking for. Joslin said they have to be “efficient.” His talking points include how the bond referendum would fund improvements to every school in the district.

Mitchell Kelchen, who works for the Cedar Rapids-based architecture and engineering consulting firm Shive-Hattery, said he is very familiar with the conditions of Cedar Rapids schools — and what improvements are needed — as a former building consultant.

His children are in third and fourth grade at West Willow Elementary School, a new school that opened two years ago under the district’s facility plan.

The new elementary schools and upgrades to existing elementaries are being paid for through an existing statewide school sales tax. That tax — called SAVE, for Secure an Advanced Vision for Education — is allocated to school districts based on enrollment.

The bond referendum will “bring Cedar Rapids facilities up to par with surrounding school districts” with the SAVE money now being exhausted, Kelchen said.

The facilities plan

The $220 million bond referendum would fund the district’s purchase of land for and the construction of a 1,200-student middle school. School officials have not yet disclosed possible locations for this school, although it likely will be on the northeast side.

It also would fund new turf fields and career and technical education classroom additions at Kennedy, Jefferson and Washington high schools.

Kennedy High’s cafeteria and kitchen and Metro High School’s gymnasium would be updated under this plan.

Franklin Middle School would be renovated and turned into an 800-student school for seventh- and eighth-graders. Sixth-graders in the Franklin school boundary would attend McKinley, which would be converted into a school for 400 sixth-graders.

Wilson, Roosevelt and Harding middle schools would be closed under the initial plan. The idea is that developers could repurpose these buildings into some other use.

A second $225 million bond referendum — proposed to be taken to voters in 2029 — would address the remaining middle schools.

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