Based on my research, the core school building in Traer is likely among the 50 oldest in use in Iowa. Following Tuesday’s failed bond referendum, it’s going to be that way for a while longer.
A $14.25 million bond issue for new construction, the first step toward replacing the 1917-18 building, missed clearing a supermajority by six votes, the North Tama Telegraph reports. A separate levy vote also failed. The breakdown by area shows that the southern part of the district opposed it the most.
The North Tama board started this process nearly two years ago. It went through a lot of effort on this referendum, combing through a boatload of plans and repeatedly stressing that the “do nothing” option would still be $13 million. (Keep in mind, that’s in 2022 dollars.) A significant amount of that is compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, which is what happens when 1990 and later standards get imposed on 1917-18, 1955-56, and 1964 facilities.
The NT bond failure margin beats out HMS’s bond failure in 2017 (seven votes), which succeeded on its fourth try. I hope the school district doesn’t have to start its plans from scratch, but the whole public process has to be redone. Due to a quirk in the calendar, September is out as the month for the next attempt.
Given that this was the first step in what could be/could have been a multi-decade multi-bond process, those six votes loom large in North Tama’s future. The last entry about the school in Traer’s sesquicentennial book will be another mention of a failed bond issue.
Benton Community’s bond issue on Tuesday, which would have built an elementary in Van Horne and closed Keystone and Norway, got a supermajority in the wrong direction, 64%-36% against.