School bond committee fires up for April bond

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - If at first you don't succeed....

The Kids Committee is back up and running, and aiming at an April bond issue for a new prek-3rd grade elementary school to replace Richardson and Lincoln elementary schools in the Fort Madison School District.The price tag on the new building will be slightly higher than the $27 million when the bond was proposed in December of 2016 and again in June.

About 18 people from the committee met on Wednesday night at Hillview Village in an initial brain-storming session on how to approach the referendum going forward.

The referendum in June fell 4.4% short of the required 60%-plus 1 needed for approval with 1,517 registered voters in the district supporting the measure.

Nick Hanson, business development leader from DLR Group, the firm retained to help plan and design the new building, unveiled some eye-popping numbers from the previous attempt.

He said the turnout for the last election had more yes votes than those that voted in total in the December effort. So the effort to get more people to the polls was successful.

"Within the district, we have 2,300 parents and, of those, 1,500 are registered to vote. So 66% are registered which, really isn't too bad," Hanson said. "However, of the registered voters in the district only 28% of our parents voted in that election. That's the problem right there. Now, I don't know how they voted, but only 423 of those registered voters, voted in that June election. And only 203 voted in both elections. And I just don't know why that is."

Hanson said typically in bond elections, 20% of the people will vote yes and 20% will vote no, and the committee needs to figure out how to get at the other 60%.

The decision to launch the referendum lays in the hands of the Fort Madison School Board, and the board has not taken action on the referendum, but a vote could be coming on that in the near future.

Several committee members said some reactions after the election pointed to the idea of building a new high school and moving the elementary students into the current high school.

Hanson said that idea isn't feasible physically on the land available and would cause the bonding amount to skyrocket.

"The cost of a new high school would raise the cost astronomically," Hanson said. "They're doing some things right now including HVAC and windows. The site would fit the school but it won't fit a stadium which would run you an additional $10 million just for that. It just doesn't make sense at this point to move in that direction."

Hanson said renovating the two current elementary schools will cost more than $34 million when all code improvements are implemented.

Ideas being discussed by the committee are internet-based surveys, parent groups, register to vote campaigns and other efforts that will help energize the base of parents in the district who are not coming out to vote according to the data.

The group will be meeting again in December to continue to work on plans.

Fort Madison School District, Kids Committee, new elementary school, Pen City Current, referendum

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