Anger, sadness at Price Lab closure plan

CEDAR FALLS - Closing the Malcolm Price Lab School at the University of Northern Iowa would save the university up to $2 million annually, President Ben Allen said Wednesday in announcing he will recommend to state regents that the school cease operations June 30.

During three school meetings attended by hundreds, emotional parents, students and staff implored Allen to reconsider the decision.

It's unknown how many job losses may result from the school's closure, Allen said. The recommendation to close the school will go to the state Board of Regents “very soon,” he said, as part of ongoing efforts to trim the UNI budget after several years of state cuts.

“Keep in mind, we are going to be and we are the premier K through 12 program. It's not like we're quitting and not doing it anymore,” Allen said. “We're doing things differently.”

Parents and students said they are angry and upset about the decision.

“We're one big family and I honestly can't imagine not being together,” said Alissa Geving, a 15-year-old sophomore at the school.

Her mother, Nicol Geving of Cedar Falls, said she was devastated by the recommendation. She likes the lab school's small class size and personal attention from the teachers for her daughter.

“It just breaks my heart,” she said. “We didn't have a chance to try and fight for it. They made that decision.”

Allen said the anger and emotion he heard at the day's first meeting with parents, attended by about 500 people, was expected. Parents and teachers questioned how the decision was made and what the plan is going forward. They offered to raise money to keep the school open.

But it would require millions of dollars in an endowment to keep the school sustainable, Allen said, because of its low class sizes, high per-student cost and other factors.

“I expected them to be angry, angry at me, angry at the whole university,” Allen said. “The ‘Where are we heading?' is a good question, a fair question. We probably aren't at a place where we can give them good answers.”

It's not yet known how UNI will replace the research and development portion of the Price Lab School, Allen said. The school's 350 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade would go to other area schools once Price closes.

In the afternoon, Allen met with school faculty and staff to announce the plan and held two forums with school parents, where he heard passionate pleas from parents and students who support the school. Media were not allowed to attend the meetings, but the parent meetings were held in a school auditorium and some comments and applause could be heard through the open doors. After his meeting with staffers, several school employees came out in tears.

Parent Bridgette Wagoner of Cedar Falls has a daughter in sixth grade at Price Lab School, and Wagoner was the school's director until she left two years ago. She told Allen she was disappointed in his decision, and that he lacked the vision, imagination and guts to support the school.

“My 11 years here was constantly a struggle,” said Wagoner, now director of educational services for the Waverly-Shell Rock district. “Constantly looking over your shoulder hoping someone's not going to close the school, you can't function.”

The College of Education is so core to UNI that it's hard to imagine parting with Price Lab School, said Courtney Clausen, a high school social studies teacher there. Clausen, 29, left her job teaching in the Marshalltown district and took a pay cut to come to Price last summer because it's her dream job, she said, merging teaching with teacher training and research and development for teaching practices.

“I'm not giving up. We'll stand up for it,” she said. “It was just a lot of unanswered questions and the fact that there is such a failure in communication.”

UNI officials have spent months looking at ways to cut the budget, as state appropriations makes up less of the university's funding and student tuition dollars make up more. UNI's enrollment is 92 percent in-state students, who pay much less in tuition than do out-of-state students, putting UNI in a different situation regarding state budget cuts compared to Iowa State University and the University of Iowa.

More details about other university cuts, including to athletics and the UNI Museum, will be announced by UNI officials today.

Cuts to academic programs likely won't be announced until next week.