School board elections were held Tuesday, plus voters in one eastern Iowa district approved the largest school bonding plan in state history.
Iowa law requires 60 percent of voters to approve any district’s plan to issue bonds and raise money for school construction. In the Iowa City School District, a record 20 percent of eligible voters cast ballots and 65 percent of them voted “yes” on a massive bonding plan. Iowa City officials now have the go-ahead to spend $191.5 million on school facilities in the district. A new elementary school will be build in North Liberty and existing school buildings throughout the Iowa City district will be upgraded.
Nearly 53 percent of voters in the Linn-Mar School District supported an $80 million bonding plan for the district, but that was short of the 60 percent threshold needed. The plan would have financed construction of two new schools as well as upgrades to four existing schools.
In the Clear Creek Amana School District, 71 percent of voters approved a nearly $34 million bonding plan.
The mere existence of a small eastern Iowa district was on yesterday’s ballot, too. Nearly 70 percent of voters in the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District opposed a plan that would have dissolved the district and enrolled students in five neighboring districts.