Iowa City schools reviews elementary costs as district prepares to trim $7.5 million from budget over next two years

IOWA CITY — Iowa City school officials are examining how much is spent operating elementary schools — looking closely at enrollment and cost data for each building — as the district prepares to trim $7.5 million in expenses from the budget over the next two years.

Last week, the Iowa City financial oversight committee — which is comprised of school board members — was presented with information about the cost per elementary student and projected enrollment in each of the district’s 21 elementary schools. The anticipated enrollment of Iowa City elementary schools for the 2024-25 school year ranges drastically — from 126 students at the smallest school to 475 at the largest.

Smaller schools can potentially be less efficient to operate, with the base costs of the school remaining the same, spread out across a smaller number of students. Base staffing costs are essential to every school. They include positions like a principal, custodian, classroom teachers, and general education support staff like secretaries and paraprofessionals.

“You have one principal in a school that serves 200 students, and one principal in a school that serves 400 students. Clearly the cost of providing that administrative service for each student is lower in the larger school,” Iowa City schools chief financial officer Adam Kurth said in an interview with The Gazette.

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“There are limits to that. It’s not as though just going larger and larger creates more efficiency,” Kurth said.

District leaders do not have a goal of creating same-sized schools, Iowa City schools Deputy Superintendent Chace Ramey said.

“The goal is to create schools reflective of our entire school community,” Ramey said. “At the same time, we do need to be good stewards of taxpayer money, so we look for ways to make sure we are operating this whole system in the most effective and efficient way possible.”

Enrollment at Iowa City elementary schools next year is projected to be 70 percent of the district’s capacity. This leaves about 3,000 open spots for elementary students in the Iowa City Community School District.

School board to hear recommendations on reducing costs

District administrators are expected to make recommendations to the school board on how to reduce costs at the board’s next board meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. at the Educational Services Center, 1725 N. Dodge St., Iowa City.

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This could include a recommendation on changing the district’s Weighted Resource Allocation Model, Superintendent Matt Degner said during the committee meeting.

The Weighted Resource Allocation Model has five levels — with Level 1 being the smallest class size — to control class sizes based on rates of students who face barriers in their education. For example, if 70 percent or more students in a classroom receive free or reduced-price lunch, that class size will be smaller than a classroom that has fewer than the 70 percent.

Degner told the committee whatever changes are made to achieve the budget goal will be “painful.” Everything the district is doing now “we believe is good for kids,” he said.

Data being used to ‘inform teaching decisions’

The information presented to the financial oversight committee is being used to “inform teaching and learning decisions,” not to make financial decisions, Kurth said.

That means deploying staff in a way that “maximizes what they’re bringing to our district and the impact they can have on kids,” he said.

“As we talk about efficiency, are we best leveraging the staffing we have in the district?” Kurth said.

Iowa City schools spend more on staffing

The Iowa City school district spends “substantially higher” on staffing — 86 percent of the general budget — than most districts across the state, Kurth said, noting other school districts in Iowa range from 79 to 80 percent of their budgets spent on staffing.

This is partially because the district used federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief — which expires Sept. 30 — to add more teaching staff to classrooms to decrease class sizes and help students learn during the pandemic. The Iowa City Community School District received $41.5 million in federal funds over three allocations.

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The district is in year two of reducing the number of teachers by about 4 percent in response to the federal pandemic aid expiring and Iowa’s per-pupil state aid failing to keep up with rising costs.

Ramey said any reduction in teaching staff at this point would be through attrition — whether that’s retirements or educators leaving the school district for other opportunities.

“Our goal and plan is anyone who wants to remain employed with us will have a job with us next year. Those circumstances could change, but we remain committed to our employees while we navigate the challenges,” Ramey said.

Declining enrollment

The Iowa City Community School District is not unique in needing to reduce costs. Earlier this month, Des Moines Public school officials announced the need to cut at least $14 million in expenses from their budget. Last year, the Cedar Rapids Community School District trimmed $2 million from its general fund.

Also like many school districts in Iowa, Iowa City schools has faced declining enrollment since the pandemic began in the spring of 2020. During the 2019-2020 school year, the district had an enrollment of about 14,500 students. This dropped to 14,200 students during the 2020-21 school year, and rebounded up to 14,440 students this year.

Additionally, 471 students who live within the Iowa City Community School District boundaries are using Education Savings Accounts, taxpayer-funded financial assistance to attend a private K-12 school. The 2023-24 school year is the first year families have had that option.

Before the pandemic, the district had been growing steadily — by 150 to 200 students per year — Kurth said. It used to be that the district’s largest class sizes were at the lower elementary grade level, but now that is flattening, he said.

A large portion of the projected decline in enrollment at Iowa City elementary schools can be attributed to the plan to move sixth-graders from the district’s elementary schools to its middle schools this fall, a change approved by the school board in February 2022.

The projected enrollment next year also includes students added to each elementary school. The district is offering half-day preschool options at every elementary school this fall and free full-day options at three schools for families that qualify.

Hills Elementary smallest in the district

The school with the highest cost per student and lowest enrollment is Hills Elementary School in Hills. The anticipated enrollment next year at Hills for PK-5th grade is 126 students, with a building capacity of 200 students. The cost per student is projected to be just over $7,000, about $2,000 more than the district’s average anticipated cost per elementary student next year.

At a school board meeting earlier this month, Hills Elementary English Language Learner teacher Kara Diemer voiced her concern surrounding rumors that the district is considering closing Hills Elementary School because of budget cuts.

“Before the board potentially makes a decision that would devastate students, families and staff in the community, I implore you to consider the many unique circumstances surrounding us and work together alongside us to explore other options to reduce costs to keep our school open.”

Hills has a significantly higher rate of students in the English Language Learner program who are learning English as a second language and who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

“We have students without clean drinking water, without internet and with food scarcity at home,” Diemer said. “We have many students who recently arrived in the United States often with little to no formal education and little to no English.

“At Hills, we provide many of these resources for families, often with money from our own pockets,” she said. “Being a small building, every teacher realistically has a chance to form a relationship with every student. We are better able to serve their individual needs.”

School officials did not provide comment to The Gazette on this speculation.

Two years ago, board approved new school in Hills

In 2022, the Iowa City School Board approved construction of a new elementary school in Hills after months of debate that delayed the project by a year. Debate among board members focused on whether the district should maintain a school in the Hills community.

The project is part of a facility master plan that would replace the 50-year-old building. It was originally supposed to be completed by summer 2025.

For the 2021-22 school year, 70 percent of Hills Elementary students were bused to the school from areas north of Hills, the southern portion of Iowa City and unincorporated parts of Johnson County. The student body is 30 percent English Language Learners whose first language is not English.

Hills Elementary was named a National Blue Ribbon School for 2021 — one of five in the state. The program recognizes public and private schools based on their overall academic excellence or progress in closing achievement gaps among students.

In a letter to the school board in August 2022, Ramey wrote that while closing Hills Elementary could potentially result in short term financial gain, it is not overall fiscally responsible to close it. Ramey said officials anticipate housing growth in the southern part of Iowa City and Hills over the next 15 years.

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