Ankeny's 11th Elementary Building Being Planned As District Gathers Signatures For Bond Vote

ANKENY, IA — Ankeny school officials will proceed with plans for an 11th elementary building to handle increasing enrollment and the district is collecting the needed signatures to put an $18 million bond referendum on an upcoming ballot, Superintendent Bruce Kimpston said this week. The school would be built in the Prairie Trail development.

Kimpston said in comments on the district's website that the school board believes the "best, long-term solution is to begin construction of the 11th elementary as soon as possible."

Board policy requires class sizes to be limited to 25 students in kindergarten and 27 in grades 1 through 5. Ankeny's enrollment has steadily increased by about 400 students per year and most of that comes in elementary grades, according to district officials. Enrollment in the district topped 11,000 this year.

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The school board in January 2016 approved the addition of four classrooms to Prairie Trail and Rock Creek elementary schools to increase capacity at those buildings to 750 each. That plan, which added space beginning with this school year, alleviated the need to change elementary boundaries through 2020 because students who began school in 2014-15 will be able to remain in the same building through fifth grade.

Kimpston's memo also cautioned that even construction of another elementary school will not resolve the enrollment concerns.

"We will begin to focus on additions to both high schools with an additional (12th) elementary not far away," he said. "There is already land purchased in the northwest corner of Ankeny for the next elementary, and the board is continually looking for additional land for school sites."

Kimpston said passage of a bond referendum would not cost property owners more in taxes.

"The Ankeny Board of Education has reduced taxes five years in a row by a total of $3.83, keeping the promise to lower taxes," he said. "This bond would be tax neutral, meaning there would be no effect on property tax."

District residents interested in serving on a schools committee or those with questions about the petition for the bond referendum may contact Samantha Kampman at samantha.kampman@ankenyschools.org.

Image from Ankeny schools website