(Ankeny, IA) -- The Ankeny Community School Board has voted to move forward with a proposed $130 million bond referendum to fund new facilities, build additions, and construct the district’s Innovative Learning Hub.
"The premiere project is an Innovative Hub. In Ankeny right now we offer post-secondary training in four of Iowa’s six career clusters, so this facility would allow us to expand into all six areas as well as increase the offerings in the others," said Samantha Aukes with Ankeny Community School District.
The Innovative Hub will serve students from both of Ankeny’s high schools, offering courses in engineering, fashion, construction, health sciences, and more. If construction moves forward, it will be located at the Northview Middle School campus. Around 500 to 750 students are expected to attend the hub daily.
"A general obligation bond is a part of the debt service levy, so essentially it's voters agreeing or disagreeing to take on debt, and that becomes part of our tax rate. Our current ceiling on our debt service levy is $2.59, and this current proposal would just maintain that ceiling, it wouldn't increase the tax rate," said Aukes.
New fine arts classrooms, stadium updates, turf for softball and baseball fields at both high schools, and more will also be in the works if the bond referendum is approved.
The potential bond will also support other changes already approved by the school board.
"The bond package allows us to pursue some of the high school programming we have been looking to add with the Innovative Hub facility, but it also allows us to prepare for a grade-level configuration change that the board approved several years ago," said Aukes.
Aukes says the construction of the Innovative Hub would allow the district to move ninth-grade students back into the high schools, rather than having them in a separate junior high building. If the bond is approved by voters, the Innovative Hub is anticipated to be completed in 2028, with the grade-level configuration change coming the following year in the fall of 2029.
Community members will vote on the bond referendum on November 4th. It will require 60 percent approval to pass.