Iowa City schools consider hiring consultant

IOWA CITY - It appears the Iowa City school district will hire a consultant to help it develop a proposal for opening a new high school and changing boundaries.

Superintendent Lane Plugge brought to last night's school board meeting representatives from RSP and Associates, an educational planning company out of Olathe, Kan.

The board did not vote to hire RSP, but no board member spoke against doing so. Plugge is to bring  more information to a future meeting.

For more on last night's meeting, see today's Gazette.

RSP recently helped the Ankeny school district, north of Des Moines, develop a plan to change boundaries.

Earlier this summer, Ankeny school board President Andrew Martin told The Gazette that the district's boundary changes were met with little resistance, which he credited to RSP being seen as providing an objective, data-driven proposal. He also said his school board made very few changes to RSP's plan.