New Coralville elementary school opens Thursday

CORALVILLE – The Iowa City school district's newest school is replacing one of its oldest.

Norman Borlaug Elementary School will open with the start of the school year Aug. 16. It will have close to 400 students and has room for 500.

The $11.5 million, 67,029-square-foot building takes the place of 81-year-old Roosevelt Elementary School, which closed at the end of last school year.

Borlaug is at 1000 Kennedy Parkway, off Camp Cardinal Boulevard on the western side of the school district.

“It's just lovely,” said school board President Marla Swesey, a retired teacher. “I was very impressed.”

The school's namesake is a Cresco native and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Norman Borlaug, who died in 2009, is known as the father of the "green revolution” and is credited with saving up to 1 billion lives through his work with food production.

Borlaug Elementary is the first two-story elementary school built in the district since Coralville Central, in 1948. During the design process, school officials said they wanted to get the most out of the 10-acre site Borlaug is on.

From above, the building looks like a dragonfly. Each “wing” has a common area where teachers can take students for group work. The areas include tables instead of desks and will have a computer and printer.

“It gives them more flexibility and gives them another place to come,” said Kate Moreland, the district's community relations coordinator.

The library also is a highlight. Moreland said it's being called “the tree house” because of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the north wall that offer a view of an undeveloped wooded area.

The school maintains other connections to the outdoors. The art and music rooms have doors allowing class to head outside for lessons. There are three sets of playground equipment: one for preschool, one for kindergarten through second-grade and one for third- through sixth-grade.

Next to the library is a computer lab with 30 desktop computers. All of the instructional areas have interactive whiteboards.

Financial support from the city of Coralville allowed for a larger gymnasium, a common practice in the district's newer schools.

Borlaug's history is not completely smooth. The school board's 2009 decision to close Roosevelt Elementary was controversial.

Most of the students who attended Roosevelt will go to Weber and Horn elementary schools this fall. Most of the staff, including Principal Celeste Shoppa, have moved to Borlaug.

Also, some Iowa City officials and residents have recently raised concerns about the number of new schools built in the western and northern portions of the district the past few decades. The Iowa City school district covers Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, University Heights and Hills.

For example, Iowa City Council member Jim Throgmorton told The Gazette last month that Iowa City's older schools were being “allowed to deteriorate” while its residents helped “subsidize” new Coralville and North Liberty schools through property taxes.

Garner Elementary, Van Allen Elementary and North Central Junior High, all in North Liberty, have opened since 2005.

Borlaug is in Coralville, but it's just inside city limits and will serve mostly Iowa City residents.

Swesey said the school board's facilities committee will spend upcoming meetings talking about building priorities.

“I know that east-side Iowa City people are anxious for a new elementary building,” she said.