Iowa City school board to consider facility, boundary updates

The Iowa City school board on Tuesday will take up facilities and attendance-zone proposals that could close three additional elementary schools and reshape school boundaries in the district - though officials said the closures are not likely.

The proposal to close three elementary schools - Hills, Lincoln and Mann - is not recommended by district administrators. Superintendent Stephen Murley said that proposal is a 'thought exercise.”

The administration instead supports a more slight adjustment to the district's 2013 facilities master plan based on updated enrollment projections, adding student capacity at several schools.

Administrators said that plan would respect the input community members provided over a yearlong process in 2012 and 2013. Board President Chris Lynch and Vice President Brian Kirschling said they support it, as well.

Kirschling said the option to close additional schools is a 'contingency plan” in case the district needs to cut costs. The 2013 plan already calls for the closing of Hoover Elementary School.

'Option one is what we're doing,” Kirschling said, referring to the administration's recommendation. 'I don't see any reason to consider anything besides option one at this point.”

The proposal that includes the school closures would save the district $46 million, or 1.4 percent, in operating costs over 30 years, compared to the plan administrators are recommending.

Lincoln and Mann would be closed no earlier than 2018-19, with Hills discontinued no earlier than 2023-24. The district would add capacity at other schools for those students.

A third proposal, described by officials as including 'outside the box” ideas, would convert two elementary schools and part of another to preschool centers, repurpose North Central Junior High as an elementary school and build a new junior high school, among other changes.

This is the first time the district has considered updates to the 2013 facilities plan, which details additions, renovations, school closures, and new schools. Administrators said they would try to consider updates annually moving forward.

Boundaries talk TO continue

Also Tuesday, the board will consider the latest set of options for new attendance zones, or school boundaries, in the district.

The attendance zones - which dictate where students go to school based on where they live - would take effect when the planned Liberty High School opens in North Liberty in 2017. The district's junior-high boundaries likely would mirror the new high school boundaries, Murley said.

One set of boundaries prioritizes geography, attempting to direct each student to the school closest to her or him while taking into account natural boundaries such as the Iowa River, busy roads, and railroad lines.

It also attempts to balance student demographics, including the percentages of students at each school who are English language learners, have special needs, or are of low socioeconomic status. It avoids boundaries that are within a half mile of current and future elementary schools, where that is feasible.

Murley said the district could later redraw its elementary boundaries based on that option if it is adopted.

A second option focuses more heavily on balancing demographics and is based on current elementary school boundaries. It would create one 'island” of students attending Liberty High School despite some of their neighbors going to West High School.

That proposal would result in something close to a socioeconomic balance between the district's high schools, with 28 percent of West High School students of low socioeconomic status, compared to 29 percent at Liberty High and 31 percent at City High.

Under the more geographic option, 26 percent of West students would be of low socioeconomic status, compared to 27 percent at Liberty and 34 percent at City.

District officials have said balancing socioeconomic status between schools can help improve academic performance in the district.

Lynch and Kirschling did not say if they have any preference between the two attendance zone options. The school board has been considering various boundary possibilities at its last several meetings and hopes to pick one in May.

David Dude, the district's chief operating officer, said the boundary and facilities plan decisions impact each other.

'Sometimes I'm not sure which one's the cart and which one's the horse,” Dude said.