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Third high school not in 5-year proposal
Rob Daniel
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Roosevelt Elementary on Benton Street would be replaced by a new building farther west of town and a third high school would not be in the works under a proposed facilities plan for the Iowa City School District.
The new Roosevelt Elementary would be built at the Crossings, a 400-acre residential development off Camp Cardinal Boulevard in western Iowa City and Coralville, Superintendent Lane Plugge said Tuesday. The new school, to be built on land the district already owns, would draw students from Roosevelt, Weber and Kirkwood elementaries, all of which are currently over capacity. Some Roosevelt students also would be sent to nearby Horn Elementary, which would have additional classrooms built on to boost its capacity to 400 students, up from its current 270-student space, he said. The proposal comes after a review of the Roosevelt building by architects Shive-Hattery and the Durant Group, a consultant, showed $5.1 million in needed repairs and additions at the west side elementary, Plugge said.
The new school building would be among $51 million in construction and repairs to be made during the next five years, using either revenue from the district's physical plant and equipment levy, or PPEL, or the district's share of the School Infrastructure Local Option, or SILO, sales tax approved by voters in February 2007, he said. The school, built in 1931 and one of the district's oldest, has handicap accessibility issues and is over capacity with 350 students enrolled with no room to add on, the report said. The school also was cited by the Iowa Department of Education last year as being "racially and socio-economically isolated" because of a higher percentage of minority and low-income students, according to the report.
Plugge said replacing Roosevelt, which could begin as soon as next year and cost about $11.5 million, would allow the district to save an additional $378,000 per year in operating costs. The district could sell the current Roosevelt building and site under the plan, he said. "We're trying to make sure our facilities are safe ... and provide rigorous educational opportunities," Plugge said. "We know we would have to build at this site eventually. We look at this as an opportunity to become more efficient as well."
Several parents and teachers at Roosevelt Elementary who attended Tuesday night's school board meeting said they were generally supportive of the proposal. Parent Melissa Ruhlow said she was somewhat disappointed that her daughter would not finish her elementary years at the current building. However, she said she regularly hears about maintenance issues from her daughter and her daughter's kindergarten teacher, Carol Rajagopal, including reports of classrooms with no screens on the windows, no air-conditioning and plaster crumbling from the walls because of water damage.
"I love Roosevelt," Ruhlow said. "I see both sides of (the issue). But the disparity in the classrooms is noticeable."
No schools would be closed under the proposal, Plugge said. Parents at Mann and Longfellow said they had feared their schools, the oldest in the district, were on a short list to be closed because of handicap accessibility issues and because no money was earmarked for upgrades at the schools in the plan.
The plan also calls for a 12-classroom upgrade at North Central Junior High, but not for a third high school within the next five years. Plugge said while West High is projected to have 2,100 students enrolled by 2011, the total enrollment for West and City High would be at a level below the 3,193 enrolled in 2005-06. It also would cost an estimated $3 million per year in staff and maintenance to operate a new high school, money the district does not have, he said. In addition, he said he did not want to sell bonds to help pay for a new school or any other project.
The school board did not take any action on the facility plan, with plans to discuss it further at its next meeting on Feb. 9, board president Toni Cilek said. |
