Repurposing Roosevelt, Changing School Bells, and Staff Cuts, Oh My!

No one said being a school board director was a glamorous job. The pay is non-existent, you make unpopular decisions; but one qualification for it must be the ability to meet late into the evening. Last night was no exception. In a meeting that went until 11:30 pm, the school board managed to make West High Principal Jerry Argenbright, elementary school librarians, teachers, district parents, and students upset. At the regular meeting, they voted to reduce elementary school librarians and media center assistant positions to save $168,000 out of a proposed $6 million dollar deficit (which will mostly be made up by using the overage from prior year budgets). They refused to reconsider a change to the school bell schedule that will make it likely that teachers will have less time to meet with students after-school at West High School. In an especially heated exchange between a concerned parent and the board in the open discussion period over the funding of projects at Mann and Longfellow elementary schools, Toni Cilek chose not to answer the parent's question saying that the purpose was to receive input and that her concern had been addressed in previous meetings. Patti Fields much later in the meeting did discuss capital items that totaled approximately $153,000 for the two schools.

Former board member Lauren Reese sympathized with her former colleagues, and challenged them to consider the boundary issues around the schools as part of their decision process about Roosevelt. Charles Stanier presented information about energy consumption at the schools and encouraged the school board to consider lowering energy costs at all schools which could save them $275,000 per year.

As for the work session, where the board discusses business without public comment, which started after 10 pm, board members listened to the district superintendent Lane Plugge's recommendation to build a new elementary at the Crossings and his new view that Roosevelt should not be closed, but should be "repurposed" without elaborating his vision of how. After his presentation, the six members present did not have any questions for him, but vigorously defended their process in front of the remaining audience of about 20 people and made assertions that the opposition to the tentative plan had been dishonest in discussing the facts before tentatively laying out their likely votes to support superintendent Lane Plugge's recommendation. At the end of the evening, the board decided to calendar the vote for approving the plan for June 9th when all members are scheduled to be on hand.

The sleep deprived reporter Gregg Hennigan from the Gazette "Live Blogged" the meeting (go here for more details).

The Bloom Is Off Roosevelt?

According to the Daily Iowan, School Board President Toni Cilek said the board is hoping to make a decision on Roosevelt by the end of the month. “We have gathered a lot of information and feedback over the past few months, and there is a lot of dialogue we will be discussing this week,” she said. “We should come to a decision by our following meeting or the meeting after that.”

Despite efforts by Roosevelt parents, community members, and interested others, it is likely that the school board will elect to close Roosevelt Elementary. The reasons are many, but the simplest one is because it is the easiest choice. With a budget that is $6 million in the red, a growable elementary school in near proximity, land to open a larger and more geographically desirable school, and the strong likelihood that Roosevelt can be used in other ways which could include taking it off the school district's hands, the positives outweigh the negative impact of angry parents and avoid the more serious problem of boundary issues and their affect on educational equity.

Although the turnout of pro-Roosevelt forces is expected to be high this evening, much of the discussion of Roosevelt's future will occur in a work session, which means that the public can witness, but not comment on the proceedings. No decisions will be reached this evening, but the clock is ticking on the future of this westside institution.

Iowa City School Board Race

With the wild summer that we have been having, it would be easy to forget the Iowa City Consolidated School Board races that are about to begin, as the filing deadline is August 1st. There will be at least four candidates vying for three seats. Incumbents Patti Fields, Toni Cilek are running for reelection and Richard Tiegs, and Michael Shaw will run for the three seats.

Toni Cilek graduated from University High School in Iowa City and received both her BS and MA from the University of Iowa. She is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. Toni is the parent of four children, three past and one current student in the ICCSD.

Patti Fields graduated from Solon High School and received a BA in Spanish from the University of Iowa. She is Director of Community Impact at the United Way of Johnson County. Patti and her husband Jeffrey have two sons in the ICCSD.

Shaw received his bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from the University of Iowa. He has worked for more than 25 years in a variety of capacities as a social worker and youth worker, including as the Family Resource Center coordinator at Grant Wood Elementary.

Richard Tiegs is a former PTO president at Coralville Central Elementary and part-time administrative assistant for the Presbytery of East Iowa.

With the change approved by the Iowa House and Senate and signed into law by the Governor to extend terms to four years, beginning in September 2009, school board elections will only happen during odd-numbered years.

In this election, the public will be able to vote at "centers" anywhere in the county.

The school board election is September 9th.