Debate over new Iowa City high school continues

Iowa City school district officials are looking for land for a new high school, but whether the school board is ready to move forward with opening a building is far from certain.

Board members were split during a work session Tuesday night on whether the district needs to start planning for what would be a third comprehensive high school, joining City High and West High.

The six members at the meeting indicated they thought a new school would eventually be needed, but there were differences in whether that would be sooner or later.

Or, as board President Marla Swesey said to Tuyet Dorau, “Your ‘eventually' is different from my ‘eventually.'”

Dorau, Patti Fields, and Sarah Swisher backed moving toward a new high school soon. Swesey and Karla Cook were more skeptical one is needed in the next few years. Jeff McGinness said he wanted more data. Sally Hoelscher was absent.

It's a question that has vexed the board for years as the district's enrollment continues to increase. That's despite the board in 2010 formalizing, with a vote, its support for building a new school when the district has the enrollment and money to support one.

Part of that plan set trigger points based on enrollment for when that work, expected to take three years to design and build a school, would start.

An enrollment report released this past spring showed those trigger points would be met next school year, but the district counts students differently now, throwing the triggers into doubt.

Also, four new members joined the school board last fall.

Superintendent Stephen Murley said he and his team of administrators are actively looking for land for a new high school, which is expected to be in North Liberty or northern Coralville. They're also looking for land for elementary schools, with new buildings needed in North Liberty and eastern Iowa City.

The district does not have the money for three new buildings, however, which is also a consideration for the school board.

Murley also said administrators have interviewed a vender, BLDD Architects, with an office in Davenport, that would provide the district a sophisticated database on building capacities and costs, including the ability to forecast those numbers decades out. That work would cost an estimated $120,000, he said.

The district also may hire a company to review enrollment projections, he said.

Having accurate capacity and enrollment numbers would help the board make a decision based on the best available data, he said.

“I think it provides us the opportunity to measure twice and cut once,” Murley said.

That work could take up to six months to complete, he said. With district officials then having to review the data, Swisher said that would take too long.

“I don't want to wait a year for a report to come back,” she said.

A district report released earlier this month said a new 800- to 900-student high school would be able to provide similar course offerings to what students at City and West receive and would cost up to $3 million a year to operate.