February 5th, the Iowa City School District is asking voters to go to the polls for what's called a Revenue Purpose Statement. Basically, they want to be able to borrow some money, taking advantage of the extremely low interest rates to help finance any number of projects for the School District.
And therein lies the problem for a lot of people, I think. There's no plan. There's no specifics. And there doesn't appear to be a lot of trust out there that the Board is going to do what they say they could do. Two East Side Elementary Schools, a new North Liberty Elementary and a New Comprehensive Third High School seems to be on the menu but the lack of specifics seems to be concerning a lot of people.
This being a School District issue, it's getting heated and there's a lot of east versus west, North Liberty/Coralville versus Eastside Iowa City rhetoric being flung around and I'll freely admit that not having kids in the school district I don't really have a lot of skin in this game, but being a product of Iowa City schools, I have a passing interesting in making sure they maintain their high standards and quality of public education. So I sort of care about this and will probably roll on down to the polls and cast a vote on it.
Supposedly:
1. This won't raise property taxes.
2. This will allow for the development of a long term plan for new schools/facility upgrades. (Basically School District is saying, give us the cash money and we'll give you the plan. Hmmmm...)
3. This will allow the School District to borrow on state sales tax revenue through 2029.
My concerns:
1. The lack of specifics.
2. The whole 'blank check' thing. Not really down with that...
3. Two new elementary schools on the East Side? Where? (This could be interesting to watch-- The Quiet Man and I discussed this a little on the drive back from Minnesota. There are periodic rumors that Hoover is going to close due to low enrollment- but I don't understand why you'd close one school and build two more. Surely you'd dicker with the boundaries to bring Hoover back up to full enrollment first? Anyway- we seemed to agree for sure that one would be out on Lower West Branch Road near St. Pat's somewhere. The other? That's trickier. I think the City wants to develop the areas south of American Legion between Taft and Scott Boulevard so a new school could be the ideal kick starter for that but putting it there would be really close to Lucas unless you pushed it further south towards the Highway- but there's a lot of industrial development already out there. The other possibility would be maybe more on the north side between Shimek and Lincoln- since a lot of growth is going to be coming out there. Either way, it'll be boundary hell.)
Normally, I'd be deeply suspicious of the School Board asking for a blank check but I think we're in something of a pickle here. East Side Elementary Schools need some love and some more space but we also need to at least start looking at land for a 3rd High School or something. Why the School Board hasn't been proactive on long term planning, I don't know- but it seems like we had triggers for a Third High School, they got thrown out and now suddenly we're building elementary schools, facility upgrades AND THEN a Third High School- which has some parents- especially on the West Side/North Liberty/Coralville Area understandably pissed off.
Separate from this- though sort of tied into it given the plans for new buildings is the scrap over the District's Diversity Policy. This, more than the RPS is going to be a lot more heated and a bigger scrap in the long run than anything else I can think of- but I tend to come down in favor of it. Maintaining some semblance of balance when it comes to kids who receive free/reduced price lunch (the marker de jour for measuring socio-economic status, I guess) is going to be gigantic pain in the ass but it must be done. Gotta try and find a balance to make sure some schools don't get short changed in resources/funding/parent involvement/teacher support- any number of things. Finding the right ratio is going to help everybody overall- I'll keep an eye on this and see what they decide, if anything.
But overall, reluctantly, with a disapproving eyebrow raised at the School Board's piss-poor lack of long term vision and planning, I'll vote yes for the RPS. Time to stop talking about projects and start doing some of them.
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