Iowa City school enrollment continues to grow

The Iowa City school district has continued to buck the statewide trend and this school year once again saw its student enrollment increase.

The district's certified enrollment is 12,017, up 114 students, or 0.96 percent, from last year, according to an enrollment report the school board is to receive Dec. 14. The certified enrollment is the number used to determine state funding for a district.

Over the past four years, the district's certified enrollment has increased 6.7 percent, according to the report. Statewide enrollment had dropped 12 straight years as of last school year, a total of more than 7 percent, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

While school officials would much rather be growing than shrinking, the growth does present challenges of its own.

The community went through a comprehensive, and often contentious, redistricting process earlier this year to redraw school boundaries in part because of the enrollment disparity between the district's two comprehensive high schools, City High and West High.

This school year, City has 1,371 students and West has 1,770.

The school board decided to move Lincoln and Hills elementary schools to the City High feeder system. Those schools have 341 students combined.

The school board also officially pledged support for building a third comprehensive high school once enrollment supports it, which is projected to be several years from now.

The district's enrollment is projected to continue to increase. This year's kindergarten class has 250 more students than the graduating class of seniors, according to the report. In fact, the four smallest grade levels in the district are the high school ones.

The enrollment report also shows that the district – which includes Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, University Heights and Hills – is increasingly diverse. Minority students make up 32.47 percent of the student population this year, up from 25.99 percent six years ago.

The number of minority students has been increasing statewide, too.

Assistant Superintendent Ann Feldmann, who compiled the report, was out of the office Friday. Superintendent Stephen Murley did not immediately return a phone message.