Enrollment in the Southeast Polk school district has grown by nearly 15% in the past decade, with much of the growth at the elementary level, district officials said.

District officials say a new elementary school will help keep class sizes small and allow for the expansion of preschool and addition of transitional kindergarten. A site for a new elementary school is yet to be determined.  

On Tuesday, voters in the district will decide whether to approve a $51 million bond referendum, $40 million of which would be used to construct a new elementary school.

“We’re a growing district and our demographer expects us to increase by another 400 students over the next five years,” Southeast Polk Superintendent Dirk Halupnik said. A large part of that growth is expected to be at the elementary school level, he said.

The Southeast Polk school district, spread over about 114 square miles, includes the cities of Altoona, Mitchellville, Pleasant Hill, Runnells and a portion of northeast Des Moines as well as parts of unincorporated Polk County. In the past decade, K-12 enrollment in the district has grown from 6,925 in 2014-15 to 7,200 in 2024-25, state enrollment data shows.

Growth is occurring in most parts of the district, Halupnik said.

“That’s why we’ll need help from a demographer to identify where to build a new school,” he said.

The addition of a new elementary school in the district will help keep “the concept of neighborhood elementary schools intact, something our community values a great deal, Halupnik said.

New sections of preschool will be added districtwide and transitional kindergarten classes will begin to be offered. “Right now, we simply do not have any classroom space to do that,” Halupnik said.

Much of the new construction in the district in recent years has been at the middle school and high school levels. The district’s newest elementary school — Clay — was built in Altoona in 2006. In the past two decades, improvements have been made to the district’s eight elementary schools, including an overhaul to Mitchellville Elementary School that was completed in 2014. 

Construction of a new elementary school would likely begin in 2026 with completion slated for 2028.

Also included in the bond referendum are upgrades to all of the district’s elementary school playgrounds and renovation of the junior high school. The district, on its website, indicates that property taxes will not increase if the bond referendum is approved.

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