Facility Planning

Recommendation: Build a New Middle School at the Washington Site

The Dubuque Community School District Facility Planning Community Task Force recommends the construction of a new, modern middle school on the current Washington Middle School site. This new facility would serve approximately 1,000 students.

This would allow the district to:

  • move from three to two middle schools, replacing the over 100-year-old Washington and Jefferson buildings
  • create a middle to high school feeder system, based on high school boundary lines, so that the same students would move from middle school to the same high school

The project would be funded in part by a potential $70 million general obligation bond referendum that could be placed on the November 2025 ballot. The district would also contribute approximately $51.9 million in district SAVE (one-cent sales tax) funds that are already designated to the district and have no property tax impact on residents.

On May 19, the School Board approved proposed bond language for the project. Petitions are currently being sought to have the proposed bond referendum on the November ballot. PETITIONS ARE AVAILABLE TO SIGN AT ANY SCHOOL OR DISTRICT OFFICE.

If the number of needed petition signatures is received and subsequently filed with the School Board, the issue would move forward to become an official ballot issue.

Project Background

In November 2023, the district sought a $150 million general obligation to fund five projects across the Dubuque Community School District. The measure failed to reach the 60 percent needed for approval by just over 1 percent.

Following that measure, the district received feedback on the items included in the bond measure and heard three pieces of consistent feedback:

  • There were too many projects included in the bond measure
  • The total amount of the proposed bond was too high
  • The tax-rate neutral solution was confusing to understand

With continued slightly declining enrollment and state aid for schools not keeping up with the pace of inflation, there continues to be budget pressures on the district. The district’s planning team from INVISION Architecture and the Facility Planning Community Task Force reconvened to reviewed previous planning work and develop a revised plan that will create needed efficiencies while ensuring high-quality facilities for all students.

Community Feedback

In March, the district facilitated a community survey that garnered nearly 3,000 responses. Key takeaways from the survey included:

  • 54.61% of respondents saw middle school consolidation as an appealing efficiency strategy
  • Respondents largely saw other efficiency options to be not appealing, including additional elementary school consolidation (69.85% not appealing), moving to one high school and one middle in the district (89.01% not appealing), and moving eighth-graders to the high schools and creating one sixth- and seventh-grade middle school (86.18% not appealing)
  • A majority of respondents favored construction of a new middle school over renovating and adding on to the existing school
  • The majority of respondents favored a slight tax increase for high-quality facilities over no tax increase and inadequate facilities

Operational Efficiencies

Moving from three to two middle schools is anticipated to have an annual savings to the district general fund (which covers operational expenses) of $1.9 to $2.5 million annually through staffing efficiencies and reduced facility maintenance. This would create needed financial efficiencies to ensure the district remains in a strong financial position.

Project Funding / Potential Tax Impact

The overall cost to construct a new middle school on the Washington Middle School site is estimated at $121.9 million.

After listening to feedback following the 2023 bond referendum, the district proposes funding the project through a $70 million potential general obligation bond referendum that could be placed on the November 2025 ballot and approximately $51.9 million in SAVE (one-cent sales tax) funds already designated to the district.

If a general obligation bond is on the ballot and approved, it would add an additional $1.00 per $1,000 of assessed value to the property tax level. With a $1.00 addition, the tax levy rate would still remain below the level proposed in 2023. Here is the breakdown from the previous few years:

2023-24 Levy Rate: $14.51 per $1,000
2024-25 Levy Rate: $12.99 per $1,000
2025-26 Levy Rate: $13.05 per $1,000
2025-26 Levy Rate + $1.00: $14:05 per $1,000

Moving Forward

As facility planning moves forward, additional information and answers to FAQs will be posted to this webpage.