Cedar Rapids school administrators tout facility, faculty improvements at State of the District

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Cedar Rapids school administrators used an annual 'State of the District' event Friday to highlight taxpayer-funded maintenance projects, a new teacher leadership system,cand the district's innovation initiatives.

The event — held at the end of every year to call attention to recent successes and upcoming initiatives — featured speeches by superintendent Dave Benson and Brad Buck, director of the state Department of Education and a Jefferson High School alumnus.

Benson thanked community members for their support in securing additional maintenance funding for the district. A referendum on an increase of $0.67 in the district's physical plant and equipment levy, or PPEL, passed narrowly in September.

Benson said the district will post signs at the schools where PPEL-funded maintenance projects are underway.

'We're excited about telling our community over the next 10 years how we have managed their money and their trust,' he said. 'We will be able to be held accountable for what we said we did.'

Steve Graham, the district's executive director of business services, said this week that the district will maintain its overall property tax levy rate for the 2015-16 year, at $15.48 per $1,000 of taxable valuation, despite the PPEL increase.

To offset the PPEL increase, Graham said, the district will use its school infrastructure local option, or SILO, revenues to reduce its property tax levy by about $0.75 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

The district's overall property tax levy increased by $0.32 this year from its 2012-13 level of $15.16.

Also at the district event Friday, deputy superintendent Mary Ellen Maske said Cedar Rapids' teacher leadership system has been a success thus far.

The program, funded in part through a state grant, allows teachers to improve their skills by observing and learning from their colleagues. That type of work has led to success in turning around some of the district's elementary schools.

'The work that's being done in Iowa is being looked at throughout the country,' Maske said.

Trace Pickering, the district's associate superintendent and the leader of its 'innovation' programs, spotlighted students from the project-based Iowa BIG school and the Roosevelt Option program at Roosevelt Middle School, as well as a $25,000 grant the BIG school received this week.

The grant, awarded by the Iowa STEM Centers for Advanced Professional Studies, will help fund a development director position.

Administrators are in the 'design phase' of turning Johnson Elementary School into a magnet school by next school year, Pickering said.

Buck said inventive projects like those are important state-wide.

'It's exciting to come to a district (that is) taking a significant leadership role in the state,' Buck said.

Friday marked Buck's second visit to the Cedar Rapids district in the last two months. He visited his alma mater, Jefferson High School, in October and led a discussion with students.