The Grinnell-Newburg Community School District has launched its campaign for the rebuilding of its middle and elementary schools. Grinnell residents will vote on school bonds to finance these projects on April 7, 2015. Currently, the school district includes four schools for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and a separate high school. If the bond referendum passes, the new elementary and middle school buildings will include updated structures to meet new building codes and design needs.
“As enrollment, demographics, programming resources and those lack of efficiencies that has increased our operating costs, the board came to a decision after months and weeks and even prior years of research that the best option was to consolidate elementary schools and to build a new middle school as well,” said Grinnell-Newburg Superintendent Todd Abrahamson.
The proposed new buildings were designed to meet the current needs of teachers and students as opposed to the outdated facilities the school district currently uses. The new designs feature more space for tables, instead of desks, for elementary students and more rooms designated for teacher collaboration and discussion. Teachers requested these changes during the design process when they met with the architecture firm to provide feedback on various drafts.
“A lot of our teachers are seeing themselves more as facilitators, but a big part of their job is how to provide choice for my students and then work with them in a small group to facilitate or foster that growth or that thinking,” said Grinnell-Newburg Middle School Principal Sara Hegg-Dunne.
If the bonds pass in the April referendum, they will create revenues for the schools through sales taxes and property taxes. The vote determines $28 million of the $42 million project. If the vote passes, the average Grinnell family living in a $200,000 home will pay an additional $52.24 in taxes for the year, which comes to $4.35 per month, Abrahamson said. The school board plans on levying the additional $18 million from sales tax increases.
Many faculty members in the school district consider these tax increases to be an investment because the new building designs along with the consolidation process will save the school district money long term.
“Just this past month … our utility bill was $52,900,” Abrahamson said. “To me that’s [the salary of] a teacher, a teacher and a half, so maybe you channel those dollars with a new building project to a foreign language program … but when you have those type of operating costs it’s hard to incorporate some of those because those costs go to a utility company and not into a classroom or into a program.”
Some Grinnell citizens oppose the school bond referendum because they believe the school district has spent their money irresponsibly in the past. Abrahamson, however, said he believes that the school district has positioned itself well in developing these plans as an investment that will allow the school, in the future, to spend money on educational programs rather than utility bills.
The school board plans to make people aware of these issues by mass mailing information to Grinnell homes in preparation for the vote. A group of parents and grandparents of Grinnell-Newburg students have organized in support of the bond, forming the Citizens for Building Schools for a Better Future Committee.
Abrahamson is excited to see community members reacting positively to the proposed designs.
“We really need to get this building project process moving forward. We’ve been working on this for quite some time … we can become more efficient under one roof. It’s exciting.”
