Iowa City Community School District Board discusses the future during informal meeting this evening

Members of the Iowa City Community School District came together for an informal meeting to discuss various short-term and long-term goals for the District this evening in Iowa City.

Board members continued to discuss various ideas about how the District can operate more efficiently to help save money and also touched on future goals for expansion as enrollment numbers are projected to grow in the area.

Roosevelt Elementary was also a topic of discussion as the Board discussed what viable options the District will have to either re-purpose or sell the school property after it is closed down at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

Four options were presented: allow the property to purchased and used by the City of Iowa City, use the building for district use, sell the property with stipulations or to sell the property without stipulations.

Due to the fact that City of Iowa City does not have the purchase of such a property budgeted in the near future, and the Board's belief that the District does not have needs large enough for a building of Roosevelt's size, a preliminary decision was made to begin contacting realtors.

The board hopes that a realtor will be able to more accurately assess the value of the property and will be able to see whether or not viable buyers interested in the neighborhood's needs would think about following through with a purchase. The issue is tentatively slated to be discussed during a formal school board meeting in the coming months.

School boundaries and available slots for students also spurred a discussion of medium-to-long-term plans to think about the possible construction of a new, larger elementary school and fourth high school as well as dealing with transportation issues that could arise in years to come.

The Iowa City Community School District Board will host a formal meeting tomorrow evening beginning at 6:00 p.m. at 509 South Dubuque Street. Items on the agenda include the budget, Borlaug attendance area and discussing community issues.