Voting Yes on June 25 Bond Referendum Means More Than New High School (Blog)

Johnston's K-12 schools are experiencing student enrollment never before seen. In 1986, the Johnston Community School District had 1,379 students enrolled districtwide. By 2011 that number reached 6,147 students. It is projected to reach 7,073 students by 2022.

Johnston has been one of the top five fastest growing school districts in the past 15 years. A Band-Aid approach like portable classrooms is not sustainable. A permanent solution is what is needed.

Fortunately, hundreds of district residents, including students, parents, staff, and even those without school-age children, dedicated many hours to serving on facilities study committees over the past three years.

From these committees, the K-12 Facilities Plan was born. This plan alleviates current and future overcrowding issues for grades K-12 through renovations and new school construction.

In January, more than 800 residents petitioned the school board to hold a $41 million bond referendum. The school board voted to hold a special election on June 25. The June 25 bond referendum will determine the outcome of this well thought-out plan.

The total cost of the K-12 Facilities Plan is $112 million. The school district already has $71 million in its sales tax and PPEL funds to apply to the total cost of the plan without any additional cost to residents. Doing some simple math, one can see that leaves $41 million of the plan left to fund. This is where bond dollars come in — they will make up the $41 million difference needed for the K-12 Facilities Plan. School boards need voter approval to issue these bonds, and that is why bond referendums are held. The $41 million bond referendum on June 25 offers a chance to vote yes and express support for this well-thought out K-12 Facilities Plan.

Included in the plan is renovation of the current high school to house grades 8/9 while providing more space for electives and additional curriculum programming. In the district's Bond Connection newsletter, health teacher Lacey Fulton talks about how important this is for student learning:

"The classrooms in here are smaller than the regular classrooms [at the middle school] and at the high school,” Fulton said. “So it becomes very crowded in some of my classes of 32 in an already small classroom. With this crowding, it is not an ideal learning environment and makes movement difficult.” 

The current grade 8/9 building will be renovated to house Wallace Elementary students and a district-wide preschool location. This new location for Wallace Elementary creates grade-level communities, eliminates space issues at the current location, and helps alleviate overcrowding at other elementary schools by increasing its capacity to the same as other elementary schools. As Wallace Elementary principal Suzie Pearson noted in the district's Bond Connection newsletter: 

"Moving Wallace over to the 8/9 building opens a world of possibilities that we do not currently have,” Pearson said. “If the bond referendum does not pass, parents need to know that the size of our classrooms will not be expanded, we cannot increase or add community space, and we will not gain additional classroom space with a renovation to our building. All of that changes if the middle school is converted into an elementary center for the Wallace students.” 

The current Wallace Elementary location will then house the district administrative building. Vacating the district’s current administrative building, which is too small for all of the district’s departments and professional development needs, would then free it to sell the property.

The final component of the plan is a new grades 10-12 high school. The current high school cannot handle the increasing numbers of students. The new high school adds capacity for 400 more students than the current one and provides the opportunity to construct seamless additions if future growth necessitates. All renovation and new construction projects will improve building security and safety for students and staff.

According to Johnston school officials, more and more K-12 classes will have to be taught in portable classrooms and trailers unless bond money is used for renovations and new construction. 

District figures show that the bond would cost less than $9 per month for the average homeowner in the Johnston school district. Even with bond approval, the new tax rate would still be lower than other Des Moines area school districts such as Ankeny and Southeast Polk.

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