Several Iowa City school boundaries could change under district proposals

Two years after a contentious redistricting process, the Iowa City school district is again considering boundary changes, albeit on a smaller scale.

The district has released two redistricting proposals to address capacity issues at east-side elementary schools and two junior high schools. View them here.

One proposal would ease overcrowding at Wood Elementary by using available space at Twain and Hills elementary schools. It also would bring the percentage of low-income students at those schools and Longfellow Elementary closer to the district average.

The other proposal would try to resolve overcrowding at North Central Junior High by using space at Northwest Junior High.

The two proposals are drafts that could be revised based on public feedback. Forums are scheduled for 7 to 8:30 p.m. March 8 at City High School and the same time March 21 at Northwest.

Ultimately, the school board has the final say, and the goal is to get plans to the board in May, Assistant Superintendent Ann Feldmann said. Administrators are suggesting the boundary changes take effect in fall 2013.

The district spent the first five months of 2010 debating districtwide boundary changes. There were multiple meetings, many of them attended by up to several hundred parents voicing strong opinions about where they did and did not want their children to attend school.

Ultimately, the school board adopted a plan that even board members and school administrators acknowledged brought few changes.

School officials said they thought part of the reason the process was so difficult was that it had been two decades since the district took a comprehensive look at its boundaries. They said changes would occur more frequently in the future.

The two new proposals are examples of that is happening. The proposed changes at the elementary level include:

• Moving 106 students living in the Dolphin Lake Pointe Enclave and Bon Aire neighborhoods out of Wood and into Longfellow.
• Moving 104 students in the Windsor Ridge and Redwing Estates neighborhoods from Longfellow to Twain.
• Moving 69 students in the Lake Ridge neighborhood out of Twain to Hills.

The district a year ago explored whether to close Hills because of low enrollment, but it was saved because of overcrowding at other schools feeding into City High.

The proposals also slightly decrease the percentage of students receiving free and reduced-price lunch at Hills and Wood, and to a greater extent Twain, all of which are well above the district average of 33.7 percent. This would be done mostly by changing boundaries so that Longfellow's percentage goes from 12.9 percent to 41.1 percent.

Having a more even distribution of low-income students across the district's schools is something some school officials and community members have pushed for, but it's also a controversial issue, particularly among parents who don't want the percentages at their children's schools to increase.

“I expect we'll have lots of feedback,” Feldmann said.

The junior high proposal calls for sending 128 students from Wickham Elementary to Northwest for junior high instead of the overcrowded North Central.

Feldmann said the current drafts result from four meetings of a committee made up from elementary and junior high principals, administrators and the person who makes enrollment projections for the district.

The group likely will next look at enrollment growth in North Liberty schools, Feldmann said.

The district posted the redistricting information on its website late Thursday without sending out a release to the news media or public.