Bond issue won’t help CR Schools where help is truly needed

If you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always got. Cedar Rapids schools need to creatively plan for the future, not fall back on the same old way of doing things.

We need to save significant buildings like beautiful schools. Rather than tear them down, sell them and convert them great housing like like the Water Tower and Bottle Factory homes downtown. We should learn from Savannah, Georgia, which lost some of its historic squares until community activists saved the rest.

We need a complete school bond proposal, not one that promises to “get to you next time.“ We should vote no on the proposed school bond. Not because the district doesn’t need help. Rather, because the proposal doesn’t address the whole district. Our schools need a plan that improves academic outcomes for all students, not primarily one side of town. Practice fields for the football team and marching band should be on a later proposal, if not one complete, comprehensive plan.

This proposal doesn’t describe how student success will be measured. Questionable tactics used to obtain the needed signatures must be addressed on all future proposals. School officials “recruiting” staff to collect signatures on their personal time and using official communication methods to obtain signatures should not be tolerated or repeated.

Save the historic schools. Vote no for the bond proposal that fails to address academic issues for the whole district. We deserve better! We don’t want what they’ve always given us!

Tammy Lutz

Cedar Rapids