Iowa City schools closing Roosevelt education center

IOWA CITY - First opened in the 1930s, a school building in central Iowa City will close this spring - again.

Theodore Roosevelt Education Center - formerly Roosevelt Elementary School - has for years provided space for several non-traditional Iowa City Community School District programs.

Those programs will be permanently relocated next school year, Superintendent Stephen Murley said, as the district shuts down the aging building.

The district and school board opted to close Roosevelt as an elementary school in spring 2012, after school officials estimated the building needed more than $5 million in renovations.

More than six years later, those repairs have not been completed, leading to costly stopgaps to keep the building functional. It's in such disrepair, Murley said, the district is 'simply waiting for that building to fail.”

'This is an important responsibility that we have to the students who are participating in the programs there,” Murley said. 'To think proactively and to make sure we're meeting their needs today, and that we can meet their needs tomorrow.”

While students and staff at Roosevelt will be relocated, the future of the building has yet to be decided by the school board.

About 230 students participate in the Home School Assistance Program housed at Roosevelt. The district plans to relocate those programs - which include art classes, science labs and other extended learning opportunities - to a structure on Shimek Elementary School's campus in northeast Iowa City.

Murley described the structure as 'its own schoolhouse” made up of eight modular units separate from the Shimek building. The structure would include bathrooms, locker rooms, and a heating and air-conditioning system.

Roosevelt also serves students who are transitioning in or out of the juvenile detention system, students with behavior disorders and suspended students.

'We want to create those kinds of programs at all seven of the secondary schools,” Murley said.

The district's junior high and high schools would provide programming as students need - the number of students receiving services varies widely from week to week, Murley said.

Programs were initially placed at Roosevelt because of a lack of space at the district's high schools. Since the opening of Liberty High School in fall 2017, more space has become available.

For all programs held in Roosevelt, staffing levels would remain unchanged and staff would migrate to their program's new location, Murley said.

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