College Community considers options after school bond vote fails

CEDAR RAPIDS - After a vote to fund renovations of five schools failed narrowly Tuesday, officials with the College Community School District said they'll reconsider the construction plan and likely return it to voters next school year.

The vote on a $49.5 million bond issue, which failed by 58 votes, would have funded renovations at Prairie High School, Prairie Creek Intermediate School and Prairie Crest, Prairie Heights and Prairie View elementary schools. It received 57 percent support, according to unofficial results from the Linn County Auditor's Office - less than the 60 percent needed to pass a bond vote.

School district officials said Thursday it was too early to discuss any specific changes to the renovation plans. But superintendent John Speer said the district's enrollment growth means it will have to return to voters with another bond issue.

'The need for more space won't go away,” Speer said. 'We would certainly like to be building classrooms in the summer of 2016.”

The next date the district would be allowed to hold a bond election, under state law, is this November, officials said. Other possible dates are February 2016 and April 2016.

School board president Randy Bauer said he had heard some concerns from community members before the vote about the cost of the project, but he said people generally supported the plan.

Speer said the support the measure did receive was encouraging. He said the district would go back to parents, staff and other community members for their input.

'If the governor or the president was elected with 57 percent, you'd call it a landslide,” Speer said. 'That's just not the landscape with bond issues.”

The renovation project represents the first phase of the district's 10-year facilities plan. It would initially raise property taxes in the district by about $2 per $1,000 of taxable valuation, under the plan voters rejected Tuesday.

The district's property tax rate then would decrease by about $0.20 per year to return to about its current level in 10 years.

'What we're trying to do is find a plan that works and alleviates our space problem,” Bauer said, 'and then get back to voters reasonably soon so it doesn't put us behind very far on the original timeline.”

The second phase of the district's 10-year facilities plan would involve a second, $20 million bond referendum, possibly in 2019.

Bauer said in the short term, the district will have to find space for classrooms at Prairie High School, where he said the renovations would have added 18 classrooms.

'You're looking at every little nook and cranny that you can find for classroom space,” Bauer said. 'We have a space issue today, and it's only going to get worse the longer this delays.”