-Sun Courier File Photo

Voters in the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District community will be asked to head to the ballot box on March 1 for a special school election.

On the ballot will be a single question asking to renew the voter-approved portion of the school’s Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) for the next 10 years.

The election was called following a special meeting of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck Board of Education on Jan. 5 where board members voted unanimously to put the measure before voters in March.

The PPEL levy, as it is currently constructed for the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District, is made up of two components.

Each public school district in the state of Iowa is allowed to levy 33 cents per $1,000 of assessed property tax valuation to go toward the PPEL levy fund. The first 33 cents does not require a public vote. Gladbrook-Reinbeck has this portion in place currently.

Districts also have the option to levy for up to an additional $1.34 per $1,000 of assessed property tax valuation to go toward the PPEL levy fund. This additional amount does require a public vote and, if approved, can be instituted for 10 years before being required to be voted on again. Gladbrook-Reinbeck has this additional portion of the PPEL fund in place but does not levy the entire $1.34 per $1,000 amount. The district instead levies 67 cents per $1,000 of assessed property tax valuation.

The request that will be on the March 1 ballot is asking voters to keep the voter-approved PPEL levy at the same 67 cents rate that had been in place over the past 10 years. The vote and the PPEL levy are not related to specific facility projects at G-R that have been discussed over the past year.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck is one of 93 public districts in the state that utilizes both property tax and income surtax to account for the full 67 cents of voter-approved PPEL funds.

This is done as a way to spread out the financial responsibility out to those who live within the school district but who do not own land.

Last year the portion of the voter-approved PPEL that came from income surtax offset roughy 20 percent of the 67 cents per $1,000 funding that comes from property tax.

Money that comes from PPEL levies has a broad set of requirements for which schools are allowed to spend it on, generally related to school facilities, infrastructure and technology.

At Gladbrook-Reinbeck, the PPEL dollars work to fund vehicle purchases, technology hardware and software purchases, facility repairs, equipment purchases and rental of facilities such as the Western Outreach Center at Hawkeye Community College.

In recent years the PPEL fund accounts for roughly $350,000 in annual revenue to support the school district.

The PPEL levy is a long-standing financial tool the district has participated in, one which predates consolidation in 1988. School records indicate PPEL participation dates back to at least 1975 when it was first adopted by the Gladbrook Community School District.

Currently the district has debt borrowed against the existing PPEL funds that will expire along with the 10-year PPEL levy term in 2024.

In speaking with the Sun Courier, Superintendent Erik Smith said the district has no plans to borrow against PPEL funds that are currently being requested for 2024-2034.

A 50 percent simple majority vote is required for the PPEL measure to pass.

The current voter-approved PPEL levy will not expire until fiscal year 2024, meaning that in the event the March 1 vote fails to pass, the school board will have the option to put the measure back before voters at a future date.

“If we were not able to utilize the PPEL fund, we’d be purchasing buses using our general fund which also pays for direct educational expenses like teacher salaries and insurance, textbooks and supplies” Smith said. “We’d be redirecting funds otherwise being used for kids.”

According to 2021 data from the Iowa Department of Management, 272 public school districts out of a total of 327 districts statewide (83.2 percent) currently have a voter-approved PPEL levy in place.

A majority of the districts near Gladbrook-Reinbeck have a voter-approved PPEL including Grundy Center, Dike-New Hartford, GMG, Hudson, AGWSR, Aplington-Parkersburg, Union Community and BCLUW.

Area school districts that do not have voter-approved PPEL in place include North Tama, South Tama, Jesup and Janesville.

Update on facility projects

In a phone interview with the Sun Courier Smith said the Board of Education is expecting to finalize bid documents for the demolition of the vacant school building on 5th Street in Gladbrook at their February regular board meeting.

Funding for the demolition project has already been set aside and is not a part of the PPEL vote being held in March.

Should the timeline proceed as planned, the project will be sent out for bid in February with hope of completion in 2022.

Smith also provided an update on the status of the previously reported facilities renovation project in Reinbeck.

Earlier in 2021 discussions at the board level were considering putting the renovation project, one that is expected to surpass $15 million, up for a vote during the March 2022 special election period.

Smith said the board slowed the timeline on that process but planning work continues in hopes of bringing a set of renovation plans and a funding strategy before the district community ahead of a potential September 2022 special school election vote.

In the fall of 2021 the district contracted Peters Construction of Waterloo to work as the construction manager for the project and Donovan Group to work as a public relations partner.

The board and administration are currently working with the Donovan Group in developing a community survey that will help identify and prioritize the needs that could be addressed within the renovation project.

Smith said he expects the survey to be released to community members in the coming weeks.

Over the next seven months Smith said the community should expect to see traditional project engagement efforts like public input sessions and informational meetings.

“The community meetings will be feedback-driven even though it may look like we are presenting more of a finished project,” Smith said. “There will be times the community will be able to express concerns and suggestions they may have and that feedback will be taken in and used to refine or change what we ultimately bring before voters.”