Committee Presents Report on Potential Third-High School to Iowa City School Board

It was a big crowd Tuesday night for the Iowa City School Board meeting, so big that latecomers were continually forced to search for more chairs to find spots to listen at the back of the room.

With that said, the actual meeting itself was fairly uneventful.

The crowd was in attendance to see the school board receive a presentation from the committee that created in the district: how much it could cost to run, what courses it could offer, and how it would affect and High Schools once it opened.

The third high school, likely to be built somewhere in the North Corridor area, has long been discussed as an antidote to constantly worsening crowding at West High and developing three geographically intact feeder system from elementary through high school. It also has been favored by North Liberty residents, especially, who argue it would provide them with a neighborhood school anchor for their quickly growing community.

Ann Feldmann, assistant superintendent, said the committee's goal was to provide a realistic cost estimate that assumed the worst case scenario so the school board could really know what it may be planning for. This includes potentially $3 million in new annual operating expenses, and the possibility that building the school would cost more than the district currently has earmarked for the new high school in its School Infrastructure Local Option sales tax fund.

"When you want to create what people will typically expect from a brick and mortar school, it will likely cost more than $32 million," Feldmann said.

Feldmann said that the district would have to find a way to deal with these costs, including potentially working to save money in the general fund.

Greg Shoultz, principal at Northwest Junior High had some good news for proponents of the third high school, though, saying that aside from not being able to offer as varied of electives as City or West, the new high school would be able to offer a rich curriculum that would be able to satisfy the needs of students based on the classes they already are looking to sign up for.

"We know that it's viable, it's just a matter if it's viable in our district," Shoultz said.

Mark Thoeny, a Coralville parent who lives in the Wickham Elementary School district, said after the meeting that for proponents of the third high school, the fact that the curriculum at the new school would be comparable to the other two schools is helpful in trying to convince doubters that a third comprehensive high school would be a good thing.

"There isn't a significant dropoff in the quality of curriculum. Some people have argued that there would be if a new school opened," Thoeny said.

As the committee actually was created to advise Superintendent Steve Murley, the board asked Murley what his opinion was for next steps. Murley said it would be best to take this information and discuss how the potential third high school fits into the district's future plans at the Facilities Committee meeting on June 19.

"The next step in the process is to return to the facilities committee and talk to them about prior decisions that the schools board has made, next steps in the process, and intergration into the longer range facilities planning at the elementary, junior high and high school level," Murley said.

The high school could compete for funding with potential elementary school building projects in North Liberty, to alleviate overcrowding at Penn Elementary, and on the East side of Iowa City, where a new school would help overcrowding at several schools and allow a practical impetus for redistricting to reduce free and reduced lunch numbers.

Jennifer Greer, a North Liberty resident and the only person from the audience to speak during the public comment on the topic Tuesday night, said she and other parents hope the district can make the decision to build the third high school soon and work with the cities of Coralville and North Liberty to help make this a reality.

"Our thoughts are: let's expedite the decision to get this started, let's find the land, let's rock and roll, let's do it," Greer said.