Polk supporters make case for saving school

CEDAR RAPIDS - Polk Elementary School supporters flooded the Cedar Rapids school board meeting Monday night, presenting information, anecdotes and a petition with more than 1,000 signatures in an effort to keep their school open.

Superintendent Dave Benson has recommended that the year-round school close at the end of this school year. The idea was one of several recommendations Benson made this month to address the district's declining enrollment numbers and population shifts.

Benson also recommended that Monroe Elementary, which serves only kindergarten students, close at the end of the current school year.

More than 30 people addressed the board Monday night. The group included parents and grandparents of past and current Polk students, community members and former students at the school. Several supporters referred to Polk as a model for success, referring to its “We're going to college” mentality and improved test scores, as well as its history of support from local businesses.

“Polk is inspiring a generation to reach beyond their current circumstances,” parent Jennifer Hill said.

Dale Todd, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, told board members he wished he'd gotten involved in Polk's efforts sooner, stressing that the district has a group of dedicated parents invested in their school.

“Why not find a way to work with them?” Todd asked. “They've got 1,000 signatures. I'm thinking, as a (former) council member, ‘When's the last time we had 1,000 signatures on anything?'”

The discussion continued after most of the supporters left, with Benson leading a work session to address board members' questions about his recommendations. One of the questions asked if Polk's history of success could be replicated at the district's other elementary schools.

Mary Ellen Maske, the district's executive administrator for prekindergarten through eighth grade, shared Adequate Yearly Progress and Iowa Assessment data with board members. She highlighted Polk's successes - students at Polk have met No Child Left Behind's yearly progress benchmarks in reading and math the for last two school years - but stressed that the academic growth isn't isolated to one building.

“Thirteen of our 24 elementary schools are not identified as schools in need of assistance,” Maske said.

Maske said the Iowa Assessments, formerly called the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, provide data that speaks to students' year-to-year growth. On average, she said, Polk students make more than one year's growth between tests in math and reading. However, she added, 22 of 22 district elementary schools show more than a year's growth in math, while 17 of them show more than a year's growth in reading. The annual tests aren't given to early childhood students at Grant and Monroe schools.

Maske also said the district has grade-level expectations at every school in the district.

“No matter where a student goes to elementary school, their end-of-year expectations are the same,” she said.

Maske said the district is replicating some of Polk's academic efforts at other elementary schools and is seeing success.

“It would be silly not to continue,” she said.

Still, supporters stress that Polk is more than test scores. The atmosphere of caring and learning, they say, is something that needs to be experienced to understand.

“You walk into Polk, the first thing you see on a bulletin board is ‘We're going to college,'” Polk parent Danielle Scott said. “As a parent, that's a great thing to see. You want your kids to go to college.”

She and several other parents asked school board members to visit Polk before voting to close it.

“It will change your minds,” Scott told the school board.

Board members are scheduled to vote on Benson's recommendations at their March 12 meeting.

One of the questions asked what would happen if the board voted to do nothing. Benson told members doing nothing would not solve the district's current overuse and underuse of district facilities. Steve Graham, the district's executive director of business services, added that doing nothing could increase the number of district personnel that could be laid off in effort to balance the district's budget.

Closing schools and shifting boundary lines doesn't guarantee job safety, but Graham said it could diminish the number of positions cut from the district's personnel budget.

No district positions have been identified for layoffs so far.