Borlaug Redistricting Draws Community Ire at Public Forum

If Tuesday night's public forum was any indication, a popular solution for the elementary school boundary change caused by the opening of Norman Borlaug Elementary School in the 2012-2013 school year has yet to emerge.

In a sometimes testy meeting, the Iowa City School District shared its fourth attempt at developing a redistricting draft plan.

Parents criticized the district for going back on previous promises with the new redistricting proposals, called Draft #4 and Draft #4b, which were released by the district late last week.

There was also widespread concern among many who spoke that some elements of the plan weakened the connections between certain neighborhoods and their schools, particularly by taking students out of walking distance from the elementary school they would attend.

Some 60 district residents attended the public forum, held in the back of the meeting room in the District Administration Building. Members of the Iowa City School Board were also present to hear the feedback.

Board member Tuyet Dorau told the crowd that the board members are conscious of the public's concerns, which are part of why the forum was held.

"We recognize that there's a lot of angst out there; people want to know what is going on," Dorau said. 

Ann Feldmann, district assistant superintendent and curator for the forum, said the district has been seeking public feedback on the Borlaug redistricting process since April.

The challenge, she said, is to move 150 students out of overcrowded Weber Elementary School and 200 to 300 students out of the soon-to-be-closed Roosevelt Elementary School into nearby Borlaug Elementary in Coralville and other adjacent schools such as Horn and Weber Elementary Schools. All this will occur while maintaining neighborhood schools and balancing the racial and economic diversity among the student population of these schools, she said.

Feldmann said the two new drafts were an attempt to solve the immediate issues while still keeping Borlaug Elementary School well short of its 500-student capacity. She said the district is trying to learn from the recent quick growth of Van Allen and Weber Elementary Schools, which created the necessity for a new elementary school far before the district had anticipated it.

"We're being extra cautious with Borlaug," Feldmann said.

Broadly speaking, the forum attendees who seemed most against the two #4 drafts hailed from Roosevelt Elementary School and Hills Elementary School areas.

The criticism from the Roosevelt attendees sprung mostly from what the school district would tell them would happen after the board voted to close Roosevelt more than a year ago.

Grace Nyoma, a Sudanese refugee and Roosevelt parent, said many other Sudanese refugees and other immigrants who live in the Pheasant Ridge Apartments had been under the impression that their children would go with many of Roosevelt's teachers to Borlaug Elementary. Instead, both #4 drafts move 75 students who live in Pheasant Ridge from Borlaug to Weber Elementary in order to balance demographics.

Nyoma said the Pheasant Ridge parents are upset that their families' relationships with the Roosevelt teachers might be broken.

"We are not happy because you are taking our teachers away from us," Nyoma said. "We feel that the teachers at Roosevelt understand our children better, and understand our culture better. At a different school, our children will have to start at zero."

Feldmann said in addition to demographic considerations, Weber was chosen as a destination for the Pheasant Ridge students because of the plentiful presence of public transportation and because Weber, like Roosevelt, also has a diverse, international student body.

Another group Roosevelt parents were frustrated their families were being sent out of walking distance to Borlaug after being assured they would be sent to nearby Horn, which even had a new expansion built partially for this purpose.

Maria Cahalan, a Roosevelt parent who lives on Melrose Avenue in Iowa City, argued the change would send a small portion of students away from neighboring Horn to Borlaug several miles away. Cahalan said she couldn't understand the long-term benefit of such a move.

"This is an emotionally packed issue, but moving us to Horn from Roosevelt makes logical sense," Cahalan said.

The only difference between Drafts #4 and #4b is that in 4b, a group of students out of an area in the northern Hills Elementary School district would be shifted to Weber, dropping the Hills enrollment ever further.

This angered the Hills partisans, who are already on edge after a recent district viability study linked Hills Elementary School's low attendance to high per student cost, causing some board members to ponder aloud about the idea of closing the school.

Tara Sterba of Hills was one of many from the town who spoke against Draft #4b.

"Please do not choose an option that lowers the Hills enrollment area," Sterba said.

Feldmann said the move of 24 students from that area was done because members of that neighborhood off of Dane Road requested to be relocated to Weber.

Christen Bell, a parent from the area, said the majority of the parents in the neighborhood approved the move in #4b to Weber Elementary School.

"Our point is we're a part of Iowa City. We have Iowa City addresses," Bell said. "We have no connection to (Hills.)"

Feldmann told the audience the public forum was not the last word on the redistricting discussion. Another forum is scheduled before the regular board meeting on June 14. At that board meeting, the school board will discuss the public feedback but not vote on the boundary change.

Feldmann said a vote could come as early as the second board meeting this month on June 28, but that isn't set in stone.

"A decision may come on June 28, but from what I've heard board members say, if they feel like they need more time, they will take more time," Feldmann said.