C.R. schools named for possible closure

CEDAR RAPIDS - Four Cedar Rapids elementary schools are on the list for possible closure, though no recommendations have been made and a final decision is at least several months away.

Harrison, Monroe, Madison and Polk schools were named as buildings that could close in the district's attempts to balance its declining enrollment with school capacity.

Twenty-one members of the district's 23-member enrollment study committee moved from discussing “supposals” to proposals Tuesday night. Two of the proposals focused on the district's elementary schools, two on high schools and one on middle schools.

Only two of the options included school closures.

Proposal 1 includes the closing of Harrison, Monroe and Polk elementary schools. Grant Early Childhood Center would become a K-5 facility and Wilson Middle School would serve sixth- through eighth-graders.

Proposal 2 is essentially the same, except it has Madison Elementary closing instead of Harrison.

No recommendations were made last night. Consultants Robert Schwartz and Mark Porter with RSP & Associates LLC told committee members that tweaks will be made to the proposals before they meet Dec. 20.

Harrison vs. Madison

Committee members spent the majority of their meeting discussing the pros and cons of closing Harrison and Madison. Data from a facilities study presented to school board members in June shows that the district would have to spend more money at Harrison than Madison to bring it up to current standards.

The facilities study, conducted by Shive-Hattery Inc., ranked all of the district's schools by the amount of work they needed. Harrison's projects would cost $4.5 million, it said; Madison's would cost $1.4 million.

Still, committee members said, closing Harrison would displace more students than closing Madison. There's also concern that closing Harrison would show a lack of belief in the neighborhood's ability to recover from the Floods of 2008.

Rumors that Harrison was on the list of possible school closures ran rampant throughout the community last week. Mayor Ron Corbett sent a letter to the enrollment committee on behalf of the City Council, asking members not to recommend closing the building.

“The closing of Harrison Elementary School will hinder the redevelopment efforts in the neighborhood and would waste the dollars already spent to rehabilitate and make progress in an area affected by the flood,” he wrote.

Superintendent Dave Benson said he's received additional information and opinions regarding the possible closures from the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association, Kids On Course - pro golfer Zach Johnson's program for elementary school pupils, which is being tested at Harrison and Van Buren schools - and Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary, which has a partnership with Polk.

“That's totally expected,” he said. “We went into this with our eyes wide open. We understand parents have an affinity with their schools and that families have purchased homes in neighborhoods, with the expectation that their children would attend schools in that neighborhood.”

However, a continuous decline in district enrollment, coupled with population shifts throughout the community, have left the school buildings with uneven populations.

What comes next?

The committee will meet for the last time on Dec. 20 and finalize its recommendations. Benson will then review those recommendations, possibly adding his own input to create the final recommendations that will be presented to the school board on Jan. 9.

Benson said the district will move the January and February board meetings to larger venues to accommodate a larger audience. The district also will hold public input sessions the evenings of Feb. 2 and Feb. 9 to give the community an opportunity to voice their opinions on the recommendations. The times and locations haven't been finalized.

All information from Tuesday's meeting, including Power Points outlining each proposal, will be on the district Website at

www.cr.k12.ia.us by Friday.