×

North Tama school board hears public comments regarding failed bond referendum

The North Tama County Community School District located at 605 Walnut Street in Traer, Iowa. TAMA-GRUNDY PUBLISHING FILE PHOTO

The most prominent part of the North Tama Board of Education meeting last Wednesday, April 12 was a public discussion of the failed bond referendum following the March 7 special election. For the second time in as many nights, Superintendent David Hill and board members took the opportunity to listen to district residents discuss why they supported or opposed the bond (see last week’s reporting, “North Tama reps visit Clutier to discuss facilities, bond issue”).

Noting that “folks told us that they didn’t know about [the special election] or they just didn’t have enough information,” Hill asked those in attendance for suggestions on how best to communicate any future bond referendum. Alex Kubik responded that although he received information about the bond from the newspaper, school website and Facebook, he based his no vote primarily on a bullet list provided to residents highlighting improvements the bond would facilitate. Kubik said that list seemed to suggest that “North Tama was just going to be spending money on more athletic facilities. As a taxpayer, I wasn’t sure how that was going to benefit my child’s education and ultimately hold us up to the same standards as our neighboring schools.”

Hill acknowledged that in an attempt to distill the ambitious project into a few simple bullet points, they inadvertently overemphasized a relatively minor part of the proposed construction. He explained that “when doing a large project like this, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires you to make major accessibility improvements” that would involve removing walls around the locker rooms “so it just makes sense to reconfigure those areas.”

Kubik said his “opinion was drastically changed” after conversing with Hill earlier in the day and learning more about the facility’s needs and that the district is actually in good financial shape. Kubik has heard others express skepticism about a new building if the district wasn’t going to be around in 15 years — why have a nice building that’s going to be empty/not a school.

A farmer whose children previously graduated from North Tama told the board: “[S]tereotypically you would think I would not support this bond issue because it will significantly impact our bottom line, but yet I did…the future of rural America depends on schools like North Tama.”

Following the public comments, Hill thanked those who spoke for their input. The board took no action during the meeting on the possibility of a future bond referendum. The earliest the district could put the bond issue to vote again is in September.