I’m switching hats with this month’s column, from marketing to community and economic development — through the lens of education.
Two districts in the ICR Corridor will ask voters in November to approve bond referendums. The Cedar Rapids and College Community school districts are seeking funding to improve facilities and provide secure and optimal learning environments. Beyond our region, Mid-Prairie, Durant, North Polk and Waukee also have funding questions on the ballot.
What’s the rush?
The Iowa Legislature passed a law this year restricting school bond referendums to the November general election. Previously, elections could be held throughout the year, with various restrictions on when and how often. But generally, the change in legislation now means that a school district has one attempt in the general election and then will need to wait a year if the measure fails to bring it to a vote again.
Additional restrictions on how schools finance improvements and what they can ask for in bond referendums could be on the Legislature’s docket next year, so schools are feeling some urgency to move now with needed investments to their district facilities and programs.
School bond referendums are used to fund necessary capital improvements, not just for public schools to stay competitive but to address safety and security, meet current and future technological needs, and offer the learning environment and programming that help students find a path to success after high school.
Investing in our schools is an investment in our future workforce and our community. Whether a student goes on to college or into an apprenticeship, certification program or on-the-job training or directly into the workforce, it is important we prepare them for success.
So much about our world has changed. Seniors graduating in 2024 will be seeking jobs and degrees that didn’t even exist when they entered kindergarten, and the pace of change will not slow down. Passing bonds to support our schools is far less about buildings than it is the programs that go on inside them and the ability for those facilities to house them successfully. ADA accessibility has become urgent, while our buildings lack access and students with disabilities and challenges are denied the ability to participate.
As our regional demographics change and current generational projections show a dip in the number of students, the buildings we keep, and the ones we build, need to be appropriate for the generations to come in effectiveness, efficiency, meeting modern needs, and location.
Our schools face a lot of challenges. In the Cedar Rapids district, enrollments fill just 67% of the capacity of our middle schools, creating expensive and inefficient operations. Because districts have very few revenue streams and funding used for staffing is based on a per-pupil allocation, it means that schools sometimes have to share teachers across buildings, or there aren’t enough students to be able to hire a coach for activities or sports. It creates inequities across schools and tremendous stress on educators. Passing a bond to invest in our facilities directly improves our student outcomes.
A skilled and trained workforce will keep our region and our state vibrant and growing. Why would any community settle for anything less than modern schools that are efficient, effective and right-sized for funding, and offer a safe, optimal and accessible learning environment?
Passing school bond referendums this fall is critical to our future success as a region and a state. The time is now for these investments, as voting laws and the ways local communities can choose to finance school projects may become even more restricted in the future. A ‘yes’ vote to invest in schools, no matter what district you’re in, is a vote to invest in our future.
Jen Neumann is the owner of de Novo Marketing and serves as an at-large director on the Cedar Rapids Community School District Board of Education. Opinions expressed here are her own.
