A bond issue is a dance between the school board and the public, said Mid-Prairie superintendent Mark Schneider. An early step of this dance for the Mid-Prairie district’s potential bond issue is the general obligation bond petition, signatures for which are currently being collected.

The petition needs at least 725 signatures in order to put the bond issue on the March 1 ballot.

“The school board on its own can’t bring up a bond issue to put before the public. It requires a petition to come from the citizens to the school board,” Schneider said. “You have to have the school board support whatever it is that the citizens want to do, and the citizens have to take direction from the school board. The school board in November reached consensus about the construction projects they would like to see and how they wish them to be funded and part of that included selling general obligation bonds, which they can only do if a bond issue is put up in front of the public.”

The deadline for the petition is in early January, when Mid-Prairie business manager Jeff Swartzentruber will certify the signatures and then put the petition before the school board during its January 10 meeting.

The petition is currently available in many businesses in both Kalona and Wellman, including the banks, Schneider said. Anyone who has questions about where to sign the petition can also contact the Central Office at 319-646-6093 for more information.

In November, the school board reached consensus on $37.6 million in facilties projects, including a new 600-seat auditorium, a new band/vocal room, additional classrooms at the middle school and East Elementary, a new wrestling/weight room, a new middle school gym, and renovations to the middle school commons, among other projects.

Schneider said the process started almost three years ago, when a facilities committee made up of about 40-50 community members, Mid-Prairie staff, parents and board members did a needs assessment of the district’s facilities. The committee presented its recommendations to the school board in January 2020 before the process was put on hold while the district managed the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in early 2021, the recommendations were put back in front of the school board with updated cost estimates.

“The board also considered funding options and that’s where they came up with the strategy of using general obligation bonds through a bond issue, revenue bonds paid through with Sales Tax, and contributions. There will be three funding sources for the construction projects,” Schneider said.

If enough signatures are collected, the bond issue will be placed on the March 1 ballot, which would give the school board and the school district about two months to educate the community about the construction projects before the vote.