Iowa City school board settles on boundary priorities

New boundaries in the Iowa City school district should more evenly distribute low-income students than the current boundaries do, the school board decided last night.

Student demographics were one of four priorities the board set for a committee that will develop boundary proposals. The others were: consideration of operational costs, maintaining neighborhood schools and consideration of enrollment projections/using buildings efficiently.

The priorities now go to a committee of about 30 people that will work with consultant RSP and Associates on redrawing boundaries, a process commonly known as redistricting.

The school board also asked the committee, which will hold meetings open to the public starting this month, to come up with two or three redistricting scenarios. The goal is to have the plans ready for the school board's consideration in March.

The board did not rank the priorities in order of importance.

“It's not going to be an easy job to do, and these are all important,” board member Mike Cooper said.

The disparity among the district's schools in the number of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch - a common measure of poverty - has been the focus of a lot of attention in recent months.

About 27 percent of the district's students last year qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. But there were seven schools, out of 24 total, with rates about 50 percent or higher.

The board asked the committee to develop scenarios in which no school's free or reduced-price lunch rate is 20 percentage points higher than the district average.

The board discussed its priorities at a meeting last month and ranked them, anonymously, using clickers in a process set up by RSP. The board then talked about them further at an informal meeting Sunday.

Last night the board voted, unanimously, to approve the priorities.