Mid-Prairie seeks to hold another bond vote

KALONA — While construction is underway at both East Elementary and Mid-Prairie Middle School for classroom space, the Mid-Prairie Community School District is poised to take another step in addressing facility needs throughout the district.

Represented by facility advisory committee members Matt Gent and Ryan Schlabaugh, the first step toward what is intended to be a long-range facilities plan was presented at the Mid-Prairie school board meeting on July 10.

The plan will address several immediate needs, including multiple issues at West Elementary through additional classroom space, a new HVAC system, and paving and parking improvements. Safety issues at East and West Elementary schools caused by traffic and parking challenges also will be addressed. The proposal also includes a new district multipurpose wrestling and activity center that will be designed for future flexibility.

The total cost for the plan is $8.7 million. The district will not need to increase its current property tax levy to generate this amount, which was a core goal of the committee.

Ultimately, the committee was unanimous through discussion, Schlabaugh told the board.

“We listened. We dialed it in. We came to a consensus. At the end of the day, $8.7 million was the dollar amount that everybody had consensus that it was palatable that we could go to the voters on with a tax neutral plan,” he said.

In order to fund the plan, the committee is asking the board to call a special election for Nov. 7, 2023. Committee members are currently circulating a petition throughout the community. Residents of the Mid-Prairie Community School District who are eligible to vote can sign the petition. Signing the petition is not voting for the proposal. It is a step toward calling the election, which would be held in November 2023.

Once 272 signatures (25% of all voters in the last election) have been secured, the community members will present the petitions to the school board and the board will call the election.

The petition currently circulating the community includes the bond language that will appear on the ballot in November. It will read:

Shall the Board of Directors of the Mid-Prairie Community School District in the Counties of Washington, Iowa, and Johnson, State of Iowa, be authorized to contract indebtedness and issue General Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed $8,700,000 to provide funds to build, furnish and equip a wrestling / activity center at the high school, including related site improvements; to improve the East Elementary and West Elementary sites, including improved pickup and drop off routes and parking improvements to address student safety concerns; and to build, furnish, and equip additional classroom space at West Elementary with related remodeling and improvements, HVAC improvements, and site improvements?

The committee, which includes 45 Mid-Prairie community members, parents, business owners and school employees, met five times between March and June of this year.

"I am grateful that Mid-Prairie continues to have community members who strive for the betterment of our students,” said Superintendent Brian Stone. “This was apparent during the various meetings held for the facilities committee, with 80% average attendance over the course of our meetings."

The committee came to its final recommendation after considering input from multiple sources, including facility assessments, past planning work by prior committees, district staff and the results of the communitywide survey circulated in April.

“There were a lot of things that were brought up in the discussion that didn’t stick, and that’s OK,” Schlabaugh said.

Ultimately, the plan that he and Gent proposed on behalf of the committee is what the group determined would best address immediate needs without increasing property taxes and allowing the district the ability to pay off the $8.7 million bond early in order to begin to address other larger items in the near future.

“There was a consensus that when we bond, we didn’t want to spend all the money now so we can start a nest egg for something large some day, and that’s going to take some serious planning,” Gent said. “That’s where the tax neutral came in right now, and only spending $8.7 million of that so we can pay down our debt and get ready to have a large project in the near future whenever that is, five, 10, 15 years. The committee realizes there are additional needs and hopes to continue proactively meeting to plan for that next step.

“We just don’t want to see the momentum drop. It was a group consensus that we need to develop a long-range master plan.”

Ongoing renovations at East Elementary and the Middle School were funded by bonding against the district’s allotment from the state sales tax fund, also known as SAVE. These renovations, which will be complete for the 2024/2025 school year include:

Middle School:

East Elementary

The district is also addressing safety issues at the high school track and the softball field in Kalona. The current lights at the softball field are below the state’s standard and have been replaced with brighter lights. The six-lane track at the high school, which is currently uneven and unsafe, is being reconstructed and should be complete by August 2023.

“That’s a lot of momentum,” Schlabaugh said. “That’s a lot of positive things that are happening in the school district.”