CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The Cedar Rapids School District says it is facing staffing cuts and the possibility of combining schools as it faces the financial fallout from declining enrollment and a failed bond vote.
In an exclusive interview with KCRG-TV9, Superintendent Dr. Tawana Grover said the district is now working on a plan for the district’s finances.
On Thursday, the district announced its enrollment had declined by 622 students from last school year. Dr. Grover pointed to increased competition from charter schools and private schools fueled by the state’s voucher program. However, the Cedar Rapids district’s enrollment has been declining for years, losing 1,800 students over the past 5 years alone.
The loss of 622 students this school year means a loss of nearly $5 million in state funding.
The district had proposed a $117 million bond in part due to declining enrollment. That plan would have combined middle schools into a larger building to save the district money over the long term. Voters narrowly rejected that bond last week.
Now, the district will be faced with difficult choices to deal with the financial realities that come with declining enrollment, aging school buildings and a failed bond vote. The district says that will likely include staffing cuts but could also include combining schools in existing buildings but without the benefit of upgraded buildings from a bond.
Dr. Grover said every option is on the table now with no set plan in place. The first step is getting feedback as the district forms a committee of parents, staff and community members to consider options.
KCRG-TV9’s Becky Phelps sat down with Dr. Tawana Grover, the superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, on Thursday to discuss the district’s financial status, the failed bond vote, trust in the district leadership and more.
Below is the full transcript of that interview.
Becky Phelps: Dr. Grover, thank you so much for your time this afternoon.
We’re talking about enrollment numbers that came out, released enrollment for the district…down by 622 students. That does follow a trend that you guys have been expecting. Can you talk about what’s behind those numbers?
Dr. Tawana Grover: So yes, we have been seeing a decline in our student enrollment for the last 15 years or more. I think what’s different for us here in the last couple of years is our parents now have new choices with the introduction of vouchers as well as charter schools. It has drastically impacted our enrollment here in Cedar Rapids.
Phelps: That drop in enrollment does directly correlate to a loss in funding for the school. How does the district plan to navigate losing that much money that the 622 students that’s nearly $5 million.
Grover: Yes, there is a direct correlation between enrollment and our funding, and our biggest expenditure is around our staffing. And so as we continue to navigate understanding this new landscape, new reality that we’re facing, it really is an opportunity for us to, number one, the district, we adopted a staffing model last year. So there’s a lot of great effort on behalf of our staff and understanding how we bring transparency to our staffing model as well as really a staffing model that is based on enrollment numbers as well as the needs of our students. And so we still have that staffing model in place that we will apply this year. And so therefore it’s pretty predictable to our administrators. But yet at the same time, we know that anytime you’re losing funding, then how do we recoup? How do we continue to ensure that we have a high quality educational opportunities for all of our students across all of our buildings.
And we’ve already started some of those conversations with our administrators for us to really think about, help us think through where all of our expenditures are in within our organization. And we went through some of this last year. We have to take some of those same steps to try to see how we can really think about what’s our biggest priorities for the next school year and how we manage those resources. I think the greatest opportunity that we have with our community is to face this reality together, that it is a new landscape for us, and what do our families want and need from us? And how do we design a strategic plan that will allow us to deliver what families desire for their students’ education today? And how we become the school district of choice here in Cedar Rapids.
Phelps: Now, as you mentioned, you kind of saw this enrollment trend coming. It’s been happening. And the bond was an attempt to help right-size the district, plan some of those plans. Now that the bond has failed, are there any short-term things the district is looking at to help get that right-sizing to happen?
right-sizing Yes, right-sizinghigh-quality the district has been a part of our bond conversations. As we move forward, we gain a lot of great momentum with our community and discussing the needs of our facilities. And we came so very close, and so we want to continue that momentum of engagement, not just the vote itself, but our parents being able to bring voice to help us solve a problem. And we are facing a challenge here, and we’re thinking about enrollment and the budget, and what does that mean for the future of education?
We can still offer a high-quality education for all of our students, but it’s going to come with some creativity. It’s going to come with some prioritization. And that’s what I’m excited for right now. We’ve already put out a call today to our staff members to join the coalition, join the conversation, and help us plan forward. You know, we can’t correct like 15 years of declining enrollment overnight. But what we can do is that we can plan for the next 15 years together. And I’m looking forward to having those conversations. While they might be tough, I believe that some innovative solutions can come out of this if we continue the momentum that we’ve already seen with conversations with our community.
Phelps: That call for input from parents, from the community. So that’ll be going towards long-term decisions for the school district?
Grover: Yes, we’re looking to start those conversations. If there are things that we can take care of early on, then certainly we can look at those. We’re going to be taking an internal look in terms of how do we deal with budget concerns for next year, working with our CFO, and really taking a look at where we need to be in the short term. But I think the greater opportunity we have is in a longer term plan and we don’t want to rush through what that plan looks like. So we’ve attempted some Band-Aid type of solutions. But right now as we think about the new landscape, it is that opportunity for us to slow down enough to bring our families together, and let’s design a plan that’s going to offer choice options for our families that will keep them here in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
Phelps: Short term, what’s on the table? Could you consolidate schools? How are you going to handle that declining enrollment?
Grover: We know the bond plan did include consolidating some of our schools. Unfortunately, without having some of that funding, it makes it very difficult to think about how do we bring schools together without being able to provide, some of the upgrades that were part of the bond. Right now, we’ve not made any decisions in terms of how we’re going to move forward. We know the same challenges that we had going into the bond that we still have those now, and we’re also facing this level of decline.
It is still that opportunity, though, to bring back our community. We don’t want to make these decisions by ourselves. I believe that the greater solutions that they’re going to come when we galvanize our community, bring them back to the table and say, yes, well, we came so close to the bond, here we stand with enrollment now, what solutions do we have going forward?
Phelps: I want to speak to that, getting the community involved. The district has faced some conversations recently about maybe a lack of trust in the community. State Senator Molly Donahue has publicly called for several board members to step down. How does the district respond to that? How do you get that trust from the community?
Grover: Well, open up the conversation in regards to trust and transparency, I believe as a school district that we’ve made great strides in terms of inviting our community.
Let’s take the bond for example. That was a community built plan. The community gave us feedback several times. When we sent out a survey, we had over 10,000 people who completed that survey, and it was their input that built that plan. And so while we did not reach the 60% that would allow us to issue bonds, we did flip the script in terms of the community getting behind us and moving towards the future within our organization. We moved from a 39% yes to a 59% yes, which means that the community is engaged.
We continue to invite our community in, and we’re looking forward to understanding more about what does trust and transparency look like. I believe that as we move forward with our new board, and thinking about some very specific strategies in terms of what that may look like. I believe sharing more of the challenges that we’re facing as well as more of the why, inviting a broader base of people to the conversation beyond just a committee or a task force, I think that is going to be incredible. Like when we put out a call to action saying who wants to join the conversation, I think that alone it opens it up.
And so I believe that the district stands in a great position to continue to build trust and transparency. It’s not that we don’t have it because we’ve provided any information that our public acts from us. We’ve done that. But I do believe that we’re in a modern era of how we govern and how we manage an operation may be different from what years past. I don’t think anyone has done anything wrong in that regard. I believe that there have been certain structures that maybe worked for us at one time and we need new structures now.
We need new structure that actually opens up the doors and invite more people to the table. And you’ve seen us do that. I also believe that as a leader, there’s always an opportunity to be reflective and to hear from your constituencies. And we’ve done that time and time again. We’ve been reflective. We’ve listened. We’ve adjusted. And now as we lay out our enrollment challenges here again, we invite the community to come in to partner with us and let’s build a strategic plan that will allow us to, to produce strategies and opportunities for our students to give our students a chance to have the best education possible right here in Cedar Rapids.
Phelps: You mentioned wanting to make sure people understand the challenges the district is facing. Is there any specific instances or examples you’d like parents, the community to be aware of? What are you guys dealing with?
Grover: Well, we’re talking about enrollment right now. We’re talking about parents now have an opportunity to choose where they send their children, now more than ever. And I believe that opportunity is for us to take a hard look at our program offerings and what families want. For example, we’ve heard from our families that they’d like to see more music options for their students in elementary schools. And I learned that, music went away in certain ways. Back in 1998, we removed elementary bands. That’s been a long time since that’s happened, but our parents are expressing that desire for their students now.
And we’ve built a committee that’s coming in to help us to rethink some of those things. And I think we want to learn more, and so you’ll see from us an enrollment campaign coming forward allow us to, and hopefully our parents will give us some feedback in terms of what matters to them. And we’ve also heard concerns in regards to behaviors within the schools and how we address those. The district invested $3.5 million in behavior supports. We’re already seeing a reduction in aggressions in our school buildings. Also, we’re seeing a lot of areas where our teachers are gaining additional support. While we’re not there yet, there are still areas to improve. And also, you know, our teachers, they asked us for very specific consequences and supports for our students, and we were able to produce that with our discipline matrix this year. And so those are some examples of how we’re continuing to partner with our staff members as well as our community to meet their needs.
Phelps: You’ve mentioned that the future is a little wide open right now. Do you know yet if you will go for another bond?
Grover: Yeah, I think those are all the conversations that we’re having. Again, while we came so close, the momentum was so strong, and we’ve been receiving a lot of feedback for people that were part of that effort. They want to continue that effort. And over the next couple of months, we’re going to be engaging with our community to really lay out our next steps, and we will continue to make sure we bring updates to our community in the art of trust and transparency as well. We know that people are very anxious. They want to know the next steps, but I think it’s a good opportunity for us to develop those next steps with our community.
So next steps for us, what do they look like? You’ll see additional efforts from us and understanding our enrollment patterns and where we can get better in that particular area. But a lot of our emphasis will be on building a coalition that will help us develop a new strategic plan for our board to consider, one that’s co-created with our community that will give us the direction that we need for programming and resources in our district.
Phelps: Is there anything else you’d like to share with parents in the community?
Grover: Well, I want to thank our families for their continued engagement within our organization. I believe that as we look towards the future by coming together and sharing your desires for your students, your aspirations, that we can build something special. We are still the largest school district within our area, so we still serve the vast majority of students here in the Cedar Rapids area, and we want to make sure that our families know that they have a place here in Cedar Rapids and let’s build a future together.
Phelps: Dr. Grover, thank you for your time.
Grover: Thank you.
Copyright 2025 KCRG. All rights reserved.