Voters resoundingly defeat Cedar Rapids school bond

CEDAR RAPIDS — Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly defeated a $220 million bond referendum that would fund improvements to schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, leaving officials to find other ways of addressing needs they say won’t disappear despite the failure.

The referendum was “designed to address critical infrastructure and educational needs” in the district, which serves 15,700 students, Superintendent Tawana Grover said.

According to unofficial results, about 38 percent of voters in the district were in favor of the measure — far short of the 60 percent needed to pass it. There was an almost 24 percent voter turnout for the school and city elections in Linn County, with some voters turning up at the polls to vote only on the Cedar Rapids bond referendum.

“The current challenges of our facilities — they’re not going away,“ Grover said during a news conference Tuesday night in a gym “built for elementary school students” at Metro High School.

“We still need to take a look at safety and security within our schools, (Americans with Disabilities Act) updates, heating and cooling systems and technology, and continue to research best practices and ways to ensure our students are career and technical education ready,” Grover said.

She said contributing to the failure of the referendum was the limited amount of time the school district had to educate voters under a new property tax law signed earlier this year by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. The new law requires bond referendums to be held on the same day as city, school or general elections in November — rather than holding a special election on other dates as had usually been the practice for school bond votes.

Even so, Grover said has “no regrets.”

“It gave us the opportunity to reengage our community,” she said. “We have more people engaged at the table, and we are having conversations with them.”

The district will continue to work toward other goals set forth in a strategic plan approved by the school board in September, including building trust and credibility with the community, Grover said. With each conversation school officials had with community members about the bond, “we gained a greater level of confidence from our community,” she said.

“Some may consider this to be a discouraging moment for us,” Grover said. “This was an opportunity for us to take on a bold challenge.”

Scott Drzycimski, who was campaign chair of a “Yes to Invest” committee advocating for the passing of the bond, said the referendum process is “valuable” information district officials can use in determining its next steps in facility planning.

“The idea of pulling off a large and complicated Vote Yes bond campaign by a group of parents, teachers, retirees, community members and business leaders and to do so in just a few months was always understood to be a daunting task,” Drzycimski said. “While the bond failed, the critical needs of our buildings and the pending fiscal challenges of building maintenance only get bigger, more urgent and much more burdensome for taxpayers.

“There’s no victory for our community tonight, but rather an urgency to get together a plan that can garner greater support at the polls next time. The amazing efforts of our campaign volunteers and the connections and friendships made during this time take away the sting of the loss a bit,” Drzycimski said.

Ultimately, the district’s facilities master plan would have reduced the number of middle schools in the district from its existing six. This is intended to create a stronger “feeder system” for students in K-12, allowing students to stay together with classmates as they move from elementary to middle to high school.

Projects under the plan included:

The bond, if approved, would have raised the Cedar Rapids school property tax rate from $14.67 to $17.37 per $1,000 of taxable value. For an owner with a home assessed at $200,000, the property tax increase would be $282 a year, or $23.50 a month.

In Iowa, at least 60 percent of voters in the district must vote to pass a school bond issue — basically, loans that schools take out, typically for 10, 15 or 20 years. The voters, in passing bond issues, agree to repay the loan with interest through their property taxes.

What did voters say?

At the Northwest Recreation Center in Cedar Rapids, Jamie Lentz voted "yes" on the bond issue. Lentz has two kids at Harrison Elementary School — neighbor to the recreation center — and a son at Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy.

"It's important to me to make my voice heard," she said.

Lentz said she voted in favor of the referendum because the school district is in dire need of updated facilities. Take, for example, the infrastructure challenges at Taft and Harding middle schools, Lentz said.

On Oct. 11, school officials announced the evacuation and closure of Taft’s east dome after an inspection found it was unstable. Later that month, the district announced it was closing the second dome at Taft and both domes at Harding. The two middle schools were constructed in 1965 using the same design that features two domes.

The district is in need of new and renovated schools with safe learning environments, Lentz said.

Last month, the school board upheld a decision to have historic Harrison Elementary demolished and a new building built on its site. The project would not have been funded by the proposed bond.

Lentz said that while she understands people's concern about historic preservation, it's more important to her to have a neighborhood school that students could walk to. She also is a part of a carpool where a group of families take turns driving their kids to Roosevelt. The state requires schools to bus elementary and middle school students who live more than 2 miles from their school and to bus high school students who live more than 3 miles from their school.

Kennedy High School football coach Brian White voted in favor of the bond, even though he thought correctly that it would fail.

"I don't think this has a chance to pass," White said, adding that there's a lot of negativity surrounding the issue. For White, it's more than paying for turf fields — which a portion of the bond would fund at each of the high schools, allowing athletes and marching band students to practice and avoid a muddy field.

"An all-weather field is an advantage," he said. "We can't compete with Band-Aids and pennies." But White said residents also need to invest in education and kids' futures.

"I can't fathom why the people of Cedar Rapids won't invest in our youth," White said. "Generations before us invested in our schools. Why can't we do that now?"

At the Northwest Recreation Center, Karen Weber cast her ballot — but she didn't vote for any Cedar Rapids school board or Cedar Rapids City Council candidates, she said.

Weber showed up at the polls to vote "no" on the bond referendum because she didn’t want to see her property taxes increased, she said.

Matthew Guyer, voting at the Ladd Library, also said the bond was what drew him to the polls — and didn’t vote for any city or school board candidates

"My property taxes keep going up," said Guyer, whose kids graduated from the district.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com