Iowa City School Board Approves Controversial Borlaug Redistricting Plan

After considering seven different drafts for elementary redistricting the past several months, the Iowa City School board members finally decided on the one they wanted on Tuesday night.

In a unanimous vote, the board approved the draft known as 4c for their plan for what will happen with the enrollment areas at Horn Elementary School, Roosevelt Elementary School, Weber Elementary School and Norman Borlaug Elementary School in the 2012-2013 school year when Roosevelt Elementary School is closed and Borlaug Elementary is opened at its location near Camp Cardinal Road. Board member Sarah Swisher was not in attendance at the meeting.

A graphical mock-up of this plan can be found here. The notes that explain the moves and some of the rationale behind them can be found here.

The School Administration Recommended Draft 4c

The Iowa City School District central administration also recommended 4c as the preferred option after generating numerous other scenarios in addition to the seven drafts. (Note: follow this link  and read pages 137-147 for the full administration recommendation and also a summary of the redistricting process.)

Iowa City Superintendent Steve Murley said Draft 4c was the plan that had the most broad based consensus from community members after the district received their input, and also did the best job of meeting the goals set by the board for redistricting.

"This was the plan that came out that seemed to best meet those needs," Murley said. 

Murley said the primary four goals were: fiscal and operational considerations (such as limiting transportation costs), building utilization (filling available seats with students), maintaining neighborhood schools and demographics (balancing the socioeconomic makeup of the schools)

Soon after he spoke, the board members echoed Murley's sentiment of support for 4c, just as they had done at the .

Board member Mike Cooper said he was very pleased that the free and reduced lunch numbers between Horn, Borlaug and Weber will be much more balanced than they are between Horn, Weber and Roosevelt.

"The things that we've done here in terms of trying to balance that (rate) is, I think, a giant step forward," Cooper said, "I think we're doing the right thing."

Board members Tuyet Dorau and Gayle Klouda also complimented the administration the process, indicating that they felt it had been successful in generating a good plan with sufficient community feedback.

Members of the community criticize the plan

However, the vote was not without criticism from the community, most of which came from members of the , as the plan moved more than 70 students from that neighborhood from their original destination (in earlier drafts) of Borlaug to a new one in Weber. They said they felt they had been promised they would go to certain schools such as Borlaug or Horn as a way to persuade them to accept the closing of Roosevelt, and they were now upset to find that they had been moved to Weber as a way to balance demographics.

Since the school district broke this bond in their opinion, they felt their children should have the option to go to either Borlaug, following the likely destination of their current teachers at Roosevelt, or to Horn, as some of them live closer to Horn Elementary than to Weber, especially since all three schools are so close to each other.

Ima Hamed, who has a daughter at Roosevelt who will be affected by the redistricting, told the board that he found the process extremely frustrating as he felt his input for his child's fate was not being considered.

"What concerns me here really is not the details, what concerns me is the process of the decision making," Hamed said, calling the process "exclusive" and "dehumanizing."

Another father from the neighborhood, Shawki Ibrahim, said the primary concern for many in Pheasant Ridge is the ability to keep their students with their teachers from Roosevelt. Ibrahim argued that as the children of primarily Sudanese immigrants, these students need teachers who understand and have experience in how to deal with this unique situation.

"All we asked (when Roosevelt closed) was that if you take our kids, take them to the same school where the staff was going," Ibrahim said. 

Ibrahim said after the meeting was over that the Pheasant Ridge community was also upset that by the district singling them out as a way to balance demographics, it gave the impression to the general public that the people in Pheasant Ridge are poor and have insufficient English skills.

"Don't label my kids like that," Ibrahim said.

The school board members said they struggled with the problem of including Pheasant Ridge in Weber's attendance area versus ruining the delicate balance of Draft 4c if those students were moved to Borlaug. 

Board member Michael Shaw in particular said he was still weighing these options as the decision approached.

"There's something significant about a community en masse saying we want to be with our teachers," Shaw said.

After asking questions about the possibility of moving Pheasant Ridge into Borlaug, Shaw said he decided to agree with the other school board members who backed draft 4c as the most practical decision.

Board member Tuyet Dorau also responded to recent claims that the district has been discriminating against certain groups based on race or status during the redistricting process. Saying that as an immigrant to the district herself, the claim frustrated her.

“I just don’t see discrimination as a part of this process,” she said.

Members of Pheasant Ridge (and other current Roosevelt students) could have more transfer options than usual

Superintendent Murley did say that because Roosevelt will no longer exist, the Pheasant Ridge students would have the option to bypass the district's rule of not allowing students to transfer back into schools they are moved from due to redistricting. This would allow those currently attending Roosevelt to transfer into Borlaug or Horn with two caveats: there must be seats available in existing classes, and parents would be required to transport their children to the school of their choice as the district would not require transportation (as is the case with all transfers).

Assistant Superintendent Ann Feldmann said Draft 4c puts Borlaug at 324 students before transfers. She said it is impossible to know how many spots will be available in Borlaug until it is staffed, but said that 5th and 6th grades would likely have the most room. She said the district will not accept transfers after the desired max class size of 25 students at grades three through six and 19 students at grades K through two is reached.

Feldmann said if more student wish to transfer into a school than there are available seats, the district holds a weighted lottery to determine who gets the spots, with certain students having a higher probability based on certain factors, such as if their siblings go to that school.