2008 Woodie Awards
Increasing enrollment forces bond issue
Dane Schumann
Issue date: 8/22/05 Section: News
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With enrollment spiking at Kirkwood Community College for the fifth consecutive year, the college has been forced to take additional steps in order to finance its capital needs. A bond issue, whose approval will be in the hands of voters throughout the seven-county region on Tuesday, Sept. 13, will be such a step.
During the 2003 and 2004 academic year, Kirkwood assembled a group known as the Kirkwood Quality Improvement Process (KQIP) team and charged it with the duty of assessing the college's future needs in the face of rising enrollment and limited space. The team's final analysis disclosed that over the next five years Kirkwood would need an extra $28 million in revenue in order to finance capital projects with the aim of creating more as well as advanced facilities. The areas that Kirkwood faces the most dire capital constraints are in the health sciences, math and English fields. While the bond issue would have the ability to aid in any new construction or equipment supplying, it would most likely support such measures in those fields, which are typically accommodated in Linn Hall. "Nothing is set in stone only because things change," said Director of Special Projects and Assistant to the President, Kristie Fisher, "... but Kirkwood trains so many of our area healthcare providers' employees." Other potential projects could include an addition to the Jones Hall industrial tech center and a digital upgrade to the Kirkwood Telecommunication System (KTS).
Kirkwood presently has a levy in place that has supplied extra revenues to the college so far. A bond issue would add more revenue by adding to the rate of taxation of property values that Kirkwood is allocated. That would bring the total rate of taxation to about 84 cents on every $1,000 of property value that exists within the seven-county region made up by Benton, Iowa, Washington, Cedar, Jones, Johnson and Linn. This rate would cost the average homeowner approximately 20 cents a week for the next 10 years. The college has named this vote after that rate: The 20 Cent Solution. "So if someone had say a $100,000 house, they would be taxed an additional $10 per year [as a result of the bond issue]," said Fisher.
During the 2003 and 2004 academic year, Kirkwood assembled a group known as the Kirkwood Quality Improvement Process (KQIP) team and charged it with the duty of assessing the college's future needs in the face of rising enrollment and limited space. The team's final analysis disclosed that over the next five years Kirkwood would need an extra $28 million in revenue in order to finance capital projects with the aim of creating more as well as advanced facilities. The areas that Kirkwood faces the most dire capital constraints are in the health sciences, math and English fields. While the bond issue would have the ability to aid in any new construction or equipment supplying, it would most likely support such measures in those fields, which are typically accommodated in Linn Hall. "Nothing is set in stone only because things change," said Director of Special Projects and Assistant to the President, Kristie Fisher, "... but Kirkwood trains so many of our area healthcare providers' employees." Other potential projects could include an addition to the Jones Hall industrial tech center and a digital upgrade to the Kirkwood Telecommunication System (KTS).
Kirkwood presently has a levy in place that has supplied extra revenues to the college so far. A bond issue would add more revenue by adding to the rate of taxation of property values that Kirkwood is allocated. That would bring the total rate of taxation to about 84 cents on every $1,000 of property value that exists within the seven-county region made up by Benton, Iowa, Washington, Cedar, Jones, Johnson and Linn. This rate would cost the average homeowner approximately 20 cents a week for the next 10 years. The college has named this vote after that rate: The 20 Cent Solution. "So if someone had say a $100,000 house, they would be taxed an additional $10 per year [as a result of the bond issue]," said Fisher.