Des Moines District to Fund Deferred Projects

DES MOINES, Iowa — Twenty-four Des Moines-area schools that missed out on approximately $290 million in building improvements over the last 10 years will be the first to receive part of $112.5 million Des Moines Public Schools hopes to collect in the next five years thanks to a statewide one-cent sales tax enacted last July, district officials said.

 

The statewide tax replaced a local option sales tax. Under the local option tax, the Des Moines district upgraded 31 elementary, middle, and high schools. The district expects $6.5 million less with the statewide tax than with the local option, meaning the improvements to the 24 schools will be smaller in scale than those projects completed over the last decade, and the schools will only receive essential elements, including new windows and doors, updated lighting and HVAC systems, and improved technologies. In the past, the district funded such projects as large multipurpose rooms and more than $100,000 in new school furniture.

 

"It’s the bricks and mortar that matter," says Brian Millard, head of the DMPS district’s Sales Tax Oversight Committee. "We don’t need community rooms or other luxuries that are not part of a well-rounded education for the children."

 

The DMPS released $65.1 million in bonds earlier this year to pay for projects at 18 schools, 11 of which have already received their upgrades or are currently undertaking them. Multi-million dollar projects at North and Hoover high schools, and Meredith Middle School, have recently wrapped up. Fourteen elementary schools, seven middle and two high schools are all expected to benefit from the new sales tax.