What Would an 800-Student Third Iowa City High School Look Like?

School board members have been debating the viability of a third comprehensive high school in the Iowa City School District for years.

On Tuesday, they'll get a look at how one might be able to work-- if they finally gave a real school the go ahead.

A study committee, consisting of building principals and district administrators, assembled to report to Superintendent Steve Murley will present a report to the Iowa City School Board outlining how a hypothetical third high school (dubbed the New Comprehensive High School -- NCHS) might work: how much it would cost to run, what courses it could offer, and how it will affect and High Schools once it opens.

The charge of the committee was not to recommend whether the third high school should be built, but instead whether it would be feasible.

The full report can be found in the school board packet for this coming Tuesday's meeting. For now here are a few highlights from the report:

The committee used as a starting point a school population of 800 with four full grades on its opening day in 2016, where high school enrollment is projected to be 2194 at West High School and 1644 at City High School .

In one scenario. the 800 students would all be moved from West High to NCHS, while in another the 800 would be 80 percent West High students and 20 percent City High students. The report found that there was little staffing or curricular difference between either change.

Using current student class requests as a guide, the committee mapped out a curriulum list that this 800 student NCHS might offer, finding that:

The results of the study indicate that an 800-student comprehensive high school would be capable of providing a quality curricular program for students. Students in the new school would have quite similar curricular choices as their peers at City and West High Schools. The areas where there would be large differences from City and West are: business, family and consumer science, and industrial technology. There would be moderate differences in advanced placement offerings and elective English classes.

In addition, the enrollment shifts at City and West would have minimal impact on the breadth of their curricular offerings.

The report estimates the annual operational costs of NCHS to be about $3 million in new costs. Some of the costs would be shifted from the other two schools, but the committee wanted to provide the school board with the most likely highest cost estimate.

The report summarizes that the curriculum offered by the two high schools now could be effectively spread between three schools in 2016. The committee postulated that any gaps could be filled by program sharing between the three buildings and the upcoming Johnson County Regional Education Center being developed by .

Although there would be some program differences, the curricular program of our two comprehensive high schools can generally be replicated in a school of 800 students. Current courses with enrollment that has developed over time may not be offered initially in an 800 seat high school. The more advanced Project Lead the Way courses provide an example of this possibility. However, such discrepancies may be addressed through program sharing among all three high schools. The Regional Educational Center will have a role in program offerings and options for all high school students in our district.

Once the report is delivered, the debate on whether to give a third high school the green light will continue.

The previous school board set trigger points for when the new school district should build a third high school: when the current sixth grade enrollment hits between 900 to 925 students and when the total high school enrollment is projected to exceed 3,750 students three years before the school would be built. 3,750 being roughly the current maximum capacity of the district's high schools. The school district has , and will complete the second next year if projections hold true.

The question remains for the school board members to decide: should they build a third high school when these triggers are met?