What Else Do You Want to Know About Iowa City School District's Plans Before the Special Election?

There will be a vote on Feb. 5 (early voting has begun, sample ballot attached in PDF form to this story) for people in the Iowa City Community School District that will determine if the district can move forward on its plan to borrow against its anticipated Local Option Sales Tax dollars to build new schools and update old schools for the district.

Editor's Note: I want to know what more you would like to know before you make your vote, pro or con. If you ask a question in the comments below I'll try to get it answered before voting day.

Adam Sullivan reports for the Iowa City Press-Citizen that a new group called "People for All" has organized to oppose this vote, which requires a simple majority of school district attendees to vote yes for passage. Their criticism of the district is that the plans for the money are too vague, and that they lack faith that the board will make the right decisions.

“It would just be basically writing a blank check to the schools,” said Chuck Seberg, a Coralville resident and the treasurer of the new group. “We know they’ll have to redraw the lines when they build a new high school and we don’t know where those will be. There’s just too much up in the air.”

This group is not alone in asking the district for more information. This theme of distrust was also evident during the school board's vote on the second reading of its new diversity plan Tuesday night.

Proponents of the plan, organizing under the district approved aegis of "One Community, One District, One Plan" argue that passing the revenue purpose statement is the only way all feuding parties can get what they want as quickly as they want, and that there is no real benefit to voting no even for doubters. The website for that group on the district website is here.

After wrestling with the Iowa City School District website for awhile, I was able to unearth a PDF with a basic plan for SILO dollars the district is proposing to use. The highlights of this plan are as follows:

Facility Plan Highlights

• Major renovations and upgrades to older schools
• Purchase tracts of land for three new elementary buildings and one new high school
• Construction of two new eastside elementary schools and one North Liberty Elementary school
• Addition to Penn Elementary in North Liberty
• Addition to North Central Junior High
• Construction of new High School.

The plan undertakes improvements and new construction across the District. It addresses the needs of our existing student body while also being conscious of the exciting student population growth that is taking place. Through the One District Facility Plan, we are able to focus on what our students need now while also ensuring that we are providing for the next generation of ICCSD students.

The full PDF is attached to this article with a spreadsheet projecting how the money will be spent.

What is a Revenue Purpose Statement and Why Does the District Want to Renew it Now?

I go into the details for that question here.

To summarize, a Revenue Purpose Statement (RPS) is a document the state requires district to have to explain how it will spend the money it levies. The district already has a RPS going set to expire in 2017, but are choosing to renew it now to extend the period the RPS lasts until the state sales local sales tax levy ends in 2029. They are doing this so they can take advantage of a fiscal tool called Tax Anticipation Revenue Bonds or (TARBs), money that can be borrowed now against sales tax dollars the district will accrue in the future.

If the district passes the Revenue Purpose Statement it could have access to up to $100 million in sales tax revenue that it can borrow against, but Craig Hansel, the district's chief financial officer, said the district won't need to borrow nearly that much. Instead they can use TARBs in combination with SILO money already accrued to reach the nearly $90 million estimated to achieve the multiple projects mentioned above.

The only disadvantage of using TARBs? Part of the district's SILO money in the far future will be garnished to pay for SILO expenditures that would be made now and into the near future. This could potentially give a future school board less flexibility with its building decisions.

Questions? Comments? Let me know!