By Roz Weis,
The Decorah Community School District Board of Directors formally accepted a petition from the public during a special session. (Photo by Roz Weis)
A $38 million bond issue will officially be on the Nov. 5 ballot for voters in the Decorah School District.
The Decorah Community School District Board of Directors formally accepted a petition from the public during a special session August 26 and passed a resolution to hold an election on the issue. The proposed general obligation bond — which will be in an amount not to exceed $38 million — would fund the construction of a new elementary school to replace John Cline Elementary School.
School board members Cindy Goodner, Ron Fadness, Carole Sand and Aaron Zander unanimously accepted the petition. Iowa law requires such petitions to gather signatures equal to at least 25 percent of the total number of voters in the previous election. Based on voter turnout in the last election, 673 signatures in support of the bond election were required to pose the question at the polls — Monday’s approved petition included 1,145 signatures. DCSD Superintendent Tim Cronin said arduously verified all 1,145 collected signatures included valid residential addresses.
Following the board’s approval, the final paperwork will be filed with the Winneshiek County Auditor Ben Steines this week. Prior to the Nov. 5 bond election, voters will also be asked on Sept. 10 whether to renew the district’s plan for using money collected through the statewide one-cent sales tax fund.
“This is a rather complex issue,” Fadness, the school board’s vice president, said. “We need to comply with the strict requirements, which is why we are going through so many steps. But hopefully it’s something that can be made clear to the public.”
Goodner, the board’s president, encouraged voters to visit the informational district’s informational website decorahcsdfuture.org to learn more about the plan, its impact on taxes and other frequently asked questions. The site also includes a three-minute video, explaining the project. She said the site also features a comment box, which she said is monitored daily, and voters can submit questions about the project.
She reminded those attending Monday’s meeting that the $38 million figure was thoroughly considered.
“The $38 million dollar number is on this motion, and I want to remind everyone this is not a number we made up,” she said. “This was a number that was considered, discussed and evaluated for over six months by a volunteer committee, the Facilities Committee, that worked with our architect to set a reasonable goal.”
She went on to say school officials gave plenty of consideration to the proposed figure, and higher numbers were discussed earlier in the process.
“We, through conversations, scaled back, and we felt like this was a project that met the education needs of our community without being over the top,” Goodner said.
Softball field
In other business Monday night, board members approved a bid for refurbishing the district’s softball field surface. The accepted low bid of $127,317.50 from Iowa Sports Turf, a specialty sports construction and surfacing company, does not include sales tax or fencing for the area. Among the services included in the Iowa Sports Turf bid were the removal of existing outfield grass, laser-grading of the outfield, excavation work, regrading, building a home bullpen and visitors bullpen, installing new irrigation system and the installation of sod. Three bids were reviewed by the board during the meeting.
Decorah Schools recently purchased the former city-owned softball field and have earmarked expenditures for improving the playing surface.
In prior years, Decorah Schools and the city of Decorah shared the field. Decorah’s Parks and Recreation Department was responsible for maintenance and upkeep.
Decorah’s Superintendent Cronin and District Athletic Director Adam Riley agreed that since the district now owns the land, it is time to tailor the field for the Viking softball players.
“With the change in ownership, we have a new opportunity,” Decorah Schools Athletic Director Adam Riley said.
Riley said he expects the field could still be used by the city parks and rec department next summer — city officials are currently mulling over the development of a proposed city-owned athletic field near Freeport.
Riley said he anticipates the school’s softball field project will be complete in time for the 2025 season.
The school board also made changes to the school calendar, rescheduling the fall parent/teacher conferences for Monday, Nov. 4. The conferences were previously scheduled for Nov. 5, the same night as the November election.
Submit A Comment
Fill out the form to submit a comment. All comments require approval by our staff before it is displayed on the website.