Grundy Center school measures will face voters

Supporters are hoping voters back a bond issue and levy for the Grundy Center Community School District with a pair of forums helping to get out information ahead of the vote.

Voters will be asked to approve a bond issuance up to $12,990,000 as well as a tax of $1.34 per thousand dollars of valuation when they head to the polls.

The tax would be authorized for 10 years.

Additionally, a revenue purpose statement is also on the ballot with all three measures going before voters Nov. 2.

HVAC, plumbing, bell system and other work would be included if voters give their assent to the matter.

Additional classrooms are also needed as the district’s class sizes have made for a tight fit at the elementary level.

Rooms used for other purposes such as storage, for example, would be converted to classroom instructional use.

A community needs assessment earlier this year saw 73 percent of respondents in the district supporting of pursuing this type of move, an outcome that had organizers excited to pursue the idea.

A pair of community forums last week outlined details for the measures to members of the community.

Among data presented during the forums was that during the community assessments, residents were asked about two different options, one with the current $12,999,000 measure and another with a measure up to $17 million.

Response to the latter was more tentative, so supporters opted to go forward with the lesser amount.

One finding of interest is that the current site does not support major additions.

Instead, it might be possible that down the road some students are moved out of the current elementary facilities and moved over to the secondary site.

One audience question raised involved confusion over whether a new gymnasium would be part of the project, especially given the relative youth of the current facility.

Air conditioning is the intended area of change, residents heard. The gymnasium is not slated for complete replacement.

An area of potential concern is having students from the lower grades in a portion of the same building as older students. By way of comparison, this might be seen as akin to what earlier generations saw with a single k-12 building, a fact of life for many generations.

Younger students would be segregated in their own area without much Matt Gillespie, with Piper Jaffray, of Des Moines, addressed the financial bottom line for the idea during a community forum.

Some means of funding are available for districts, within certain limits, for district officials.

“However, they don’t have the capacity to fund something of this size,” said Gillespie.

If approved, the tax levy would see assessed value of $150,000, for example, see an additional $215.36 per year or $17.95 per month.

Gillespie noted that district officials could have requested a greater levy, but that would have involved a fourth question put before voters with 60 percent approval required, a much more difficult threshold to meet.

Grundy Center’s measures parallel moves by other districts including similar levies in both AGWSR and Eldora-New Providence at the same amount of $1.34 per thousand dollars of assessed value.

Regionally, a greater bond amount, asking voters for $19.155 million, is going before voters in the Southern Winneshiek Community School District, topping Grundy Center’s asking.