Superintendent Press Release February 17, 2023
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
If you haven’t seen our posts about following the building project, here is that link again:
https://app.truelook.cloud/dashboard/2591/3443/live?code=7rizlgnijskkit9atzi0fnf90
The new building was set to open on August 1, 2023 but they are currently 33 days behind schedule so I am not sure if we will have to wait until December Holiday break to open, since it will require us to move all of our current kitchen equipment into the new kitchen space on the East end of the new building and we can’t do that and serve students at the same time. The new building will house a new kitchen, serving area, bathrooms and new multipurpose space that will be our cafeteria for students and serve as a second gymnasium. Along with that, the board would like to add a link (hallway) that would extend from the new building, running along the south side of the vocational building and into our current link that connects the vocational building and the elementary building if we can afford it. Otherwise, like the PreSchool kids who walk inside every day to eat lunch all the kids will need to walk outside to the new building until we can afford the link. A parking lot is scheduled for south of the new building. Again, another expense that we will be saving for in the future but for now we will continue to use the bus lane until the link is built and once the link is built, the space to the south of the new building will be used as a pull through for the bus drop off and pick up.
Furthermore, with the addition of the new building taking the space to the west of the school, we have begun discussions around a vision for a new track and field facility. We began with an idea to construct a small 200M track with 3 lanes near the bus barn (picture 1) and then looked at the softball space by the football field (picture 2) adding a 110 meter straight away to the oval. However, as we started added up the cost for a partial track (200M) where we could never host an event, we decided to investigate the possibility of a full-size track around our current football field (picture 3). Again, as with all things we need to be frugal with our resources but as our school continues to grow, nearing 500 students, we continue to receive increases in State Funding. These increases in State funding are what has allowed us to save for future project like these. And while this may be just a vision for the future, we continue to envision all things possible for our kids.
The board’s goal of reducing reliance on our local property taxpayers and still being able to complete building projects can be seen as in 2015 Cedar Bluffs Public School asked for $3,445,061 in taxes and our levy was $1.18 and in 2022, we asked for $3,384,266 in taxes with a levy of $1.01. At the same time in 2015 we received $429,597 from the State in Equalization Aid and in 2022 we received $3,108,203 in State Aid of which $1,763,767 came from our Net Option Student Count. Have a great weekend! #Wildcat Pride!