Cedar Rapids school leaders aren’t allowed to appeal directly to voters to approve a massive bond issue next month, but the state’s second largest district is offering unprecedented public tours of its aging — and in many cases century-old — facilities.
Superintendent Tawana Grover says residents are being shown muddy football fields, tiny cafeterias, and popular Career and Technical Education facilities that are bursting at the seams. “That is underserving this population over here where the kids that have the interest, they have the passion, they want to be enrolled,” Grover says, “but due to the lack of space and the programming that’s needed, we’re not able to grant that to them.”
Robert Johnson, an associate principal at Cedar Rapids’ Kennedy High School, says the district wants students to try out career-oriented classes like welding, but the slots go quickly. Johnson says an interested freshman likely won’t get a chance until they’re an upperclassman. “They hear it word of mouth and then they’re excited, but then, we only got space for 20 kids,” Johnson says. “Seniors are going to get priority. By the time it comes down to freshmen, it’s not there.” If residents say yes to the bond, the district would get Career and Technical Ed additions to three buildings, a new middle school and more.
The bond issues are divided into two phases totaling $445 million, making it the largest school bond in Iowa history. Cedar Rapids is asking voters to approve the first $220 million this November. With it, all buildings in the district would be new or recently-renovated by 2037. The second portion of the bond issue would come to voters in 2029.
(By Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)