Russ and Leann Clemann of Toledo check in at the Reinig Center to vote during the special school election on March 1. Although turnout was down slightly compared to the previous bond vote in 2020, the measure to fund a new middle school facility at the former Iowa Juvenile Home facility in Toledo was met by voters with more than 80 percent approval. – Photo by Darvin Graham

The $26.8 million South Tama Middle School Facility project appears headed forward as unofficial results from Tuesday’s special school election showed 83.43 percent of voters voted yes on the single-question ballot to fund the project.

“We would like to thank our entire community for their engagement in finding a sound solution to our middle school facility needs,” said Mandy Lekin, Board President. “We are especially grateful for the work of our community-led Facility Task Force. The results of the vote are a true testament to a successful community-driven process, and we are excited to move ahead with our plans to renovate the Iowa Juvenile Home and open up new opportunities for our students, staff, families and community.”

Turnout for the 2022 special school election was much lower than in 2020 with a total of 1,044 voters participating this year. In 2020, the first attempt at the STC Middle School Bond Referendum garnered 1,581 voters from within the school district territory.

Tuesday’s vote was the second attempt by South Tama County to clear a facility project that would address the 105-year-old middle school building in Toledo. The first bond vote held in March of 2020 included three ballot questions and failed to reach the necessary 60 percent supermajority to pass.

Over the course of the last two years the district altered the middle school project plan from building an entirely new structure next to the high school in Tama to utilizing the vacant Iowa Juvenile Home facility in Toledo.

South Tama County Board of Education members Elizabeth Dolezal (right) and Mandy Lekin (left) wait patiently at the auditor’s office in Toledo as voting results trickle in from around the district on the evening of March 1. – Photo by Darvin Graham

Official canvas of the school election is set to be completed on Monday, March 7.

On the ballot was a question asking voters to approve the school to take out $15 million in general obligation bonds to fund the project. The remaining funds are scheduled to come from state sales tax dollars the district already has the authority to spend.

The facility project approved Tuesday will utilize the vacant Iowa Juvenile Home (IJH) facility in Toledo for a portion of the new middle school. The primary building on the IJH campus will remain and be fully renovated along with a new addition planned to extend from the north side of the building.

The IJH facility has been vacant for eight years since it was closed by the Branstad administration in 2014. Attempts to sell the facility have fallen short over the years as the size and structure of the buildings made it a challenging site for reuse toward something other than a state youth facility.

Project collaboration

The former Toledo High School on Green Street in Toledo has been the home for South Tama County middle school students for generations. Following approval of a facilities project by voters on March 1, the 105-year-old building will be decommissioned in the coming years. South Tama district officials said they hope to open the new middle school facility for the 2024-25 school year. Plans have not been made yet as to the future of the three-story school building within residential Toledo. However, the district has allocated funds within the $26.8 million project budget to demolish the middle school building should it not be able to be sold or repurposed. – News Chronicle file photo

The project will be a collaborative effort between the school district, the state of Iowa who own the IJH property and the city of Toledo.

While voters were busy at the polls Tuesday, the city of Toledo received official word from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) that their $1.5 million grant application for state funding for demolition and remediation work at the IJH facility had been approved.

The plan will utilize the city of Toledo as a pass-through entity to facilitate the demolition of the cottage buildings around the IJH campus and the remediation of any existing asbestos issues within the main school building.

The vote Tuesday clears the way for the city of Toledo to take ownership of the facility from the state and utilize the state grant funding to complete the necessary demolition and remediation work. The IEDA funding that was made available to the city is not available to school districts.

Once the demolition work is complete a portion of the property will transfer to the South Tama County school district for their work to begin in renovating and constructing the new middle school.

The state-owned Iowa Juvenile Home has been sitting vacant for the past 8 years following its closure by the Branstad administration in 2014. Attempts to sell the facility for repurposed development had fallen short numerous times until South Tama School District voters approved a $26.8 million facility project on March 1 that will fully renovate the largest building on the 27-acre campus (pictured) as a replacement for the district’s aging middle school. The Iowa Juvenile Home was the last state facility available for girls that were orphaned, deemed children in need of assistance or adjudged as delinquent. At the time of its closure a total of 93 state employees were abruptly laid off. – News Chronicle file photo

The remaining portion of the 27-acre IJH campus, mostly undeveloped land to the south and east of the IJH buildings, will remain under city ownership for future housing development.

“The result of the bond referendum paves the way for more growth and progress in our communities,” Toledo Mayor Brian Sokol said. “In addition to a great school campus, the collaboration with the school and state will allow a much-needed housing addition in the heart of Toledo. This is a multi-layered investment in the community that will give us an opportunity for growth that many cities our size can only dream of. Everyone should be proud and excited to watch the progress over the next several months.”

According to an award letter sent to the city Tuesday morning from IEDA Director Deborah Durham, the state funding going toward the demolition and remediation for the school project will total $1.5 million. The city and school had previously received verbal commitment indicating the $1.5 million grant funds would be available but had nothing in writing assuring them of the commitment.

The funds are being made available through the IEDA’s Vacant State Building Demolition and Rehabilitation Fund that was established by the State Legislature in 2019 to address a growing number of vacant, state-owned facilities that have been difficult to sell and repurpose.

According to the IEDA award letter, the city would receive $750,000 through the Vacant State Building Demolition Fund and another $750,000 through the Vacant State Building Rehabilitation Fund.

The funds would be reimbursed to the city of Toledo upon completion of the various projects identified as necessary for the school’s development to begin.

A contract between the state and the city of Toledo is forthcoming and will spell out the details of the grant reimbursement funding.

What comes next?

A tentative timeline for the city’s portion of the project would begin immediately with an asbestos study being commissioned later this month for the IJH buildings set for demolition.

Asbestos remediation would then occur, followed by the bidding process for demolition and the demolition work itself, all which could happen sometime within 2022.

While the city is making preparations for the IJH property, the school district will soon begin work to organize the components of the project that have been left undecided up to this point.

The school board is set to meet on March 7 and March 21. One of the first priorities to be discussed is approving the terms of the refinancing for the outstanding high school renovation project debt.

The board will also need to set public hearings and eventually approve the lender and terms of the $15 million general obligation bonds.

Up to this point since South Tama began the middle school bond project in 2019, the district has utilized Invision Architecture and Estes Construction for pre-bond architect and construction manager services.

The school board recently put out requests for bids for additional architect firms to submit proposals to complete the construction phase of the project.

The architect bids are due on March 9 and the board expects to vote on accepting one of the bids during their March 21 meeting.

Similarly, there has also been discussion in recent months regarding whether to use a construction management company like Estes Construction to plan, coordinate, budget, and supervise the project through the construction phase or whether to put the planning and coordinating work onto the shoulders of school staff and allow them to deal directly with a general contractor.

The board also looks to take up discussion in the coming months regarding the future of the existing 105-year-old middle school as well as whether or not to retain the former IJH cafeteria building that sits next to the main school building on the IJH campus.

District officials said there have been no final decisions made as of yet on either of those issues. However, the school has allowed funds within the $26.8 million middle school project budget to demolish the middle school building on Green Street if a reuse solution is not ultimately available.

The tentative timeline for the school district once it receives a clean and graded property at IJH from the city is to conduct the bidding process for the middle school project in late 2022 or early 2023.

Should that timeline hold firm, the district would hope to begin construction in the spring of 2023 with a target opening date the following year to start the 2024-25 school year.

Unofficial results by precinct

Absentee:

Yes- 60

No- 11

Chelsea:

Yes- 93

No-10

Meskwaki Settlement:

Yes- 16

No- 0

Montour:

Yes- 74

No- 22

Toledo:

Yes- 359

No- 64

Tama:

Yes- 269

No- 66

Total:

Yes- 871

No- 173

2022 Turnout Total: 1,044 voters

2020 Turnout Total: 1,581 voters