Board of Education Special Work Session - January 26, 2026

001Good evening. I now call the Board of Education special work session to order. The time is 5:30 p.m. >> Is there a motion to approve the agenda for Monday, January 26, 2026? >> So moved. >> Second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those oppos say nay. Okay. Moving on. um we decided to put comment public comment at the beginning of this meeting um in order to get through everything and before um we hear from those who have requested to address the board I wanted to share a few thoughts. So looking around this room it's clear to see that this community and everyone in this room cares deeply about children. We are here tonight to discuss a challenging but necessary topic. right sizing our district for long-term financial stability and student success. This

002isn't just a conversation about maintenance costs, enrollment trends, or budget deficits. It's about the future of our district and our community. Our schools hold history. They hold the memories of our children's first days of kindergarten and milestones that shape who they become. We recognize the emotional weight of these decisions and we do not take them lightly. There is grief in this room and fear as some of us face the prospect of losing a neighborhood school or an unplanned transition or what the next redesign of our district might look like. It's fair to say that this board feels those emotions, too. There's a lot at stake. As a board, we must weigh our deep personal affection for our neighborhood schools against our fiscal responsibility while taking the opportunity to redesign our educational system to best serve

003our students and support our staff. Last week, this board made the difficult cuts necessary to ensure that no schools will close for the 2026 2027 school year. And we did that to give everyone the breathing room to do what is right, to do this right. Doing it right means we need to be realistic, but at the same time recognize that this is a chance to reshape our district, not for financial success, but student success. And right now, we are funding square footage instead of student outcomes. Tonight is about listening. We are here to hear from the community coalition and most importantly from those of you who came out tonight. I want to reiterate no decisions have been made. No decisions will be made tonight and no formal action will be taken tonight. Tonight the community

004coalition will be presenting three viable redesign options for us to consider. Their supporting materials are posted on our website so the community can review them. We will also launch a formal survey to gather your thoughts on these models and we'll present the results at our February 9th board meeting. I hope that you will stay for the presentation tonight. We've stripped everything out of this meeting that doesn't have to do with the matter at hand so that we can hear from you and you can hear the presentation. And finally, I ask that everyone here, including our board, practice a phrase I learned this weekend when I had the honor of judging a robotics event hosted by Metro this weekend. gracious professionalism. We all hear each other better when we respect each other and listen with our

005open hearts and our open minds. As a board, that's our pledge to you tonight. With that, we'll move to public comment. Um with 35 requests, um we have to limit our time to two minutes for each speaker. Um we want to make sure we get through everybody. Um, also when your name is called and you go to the podium, we've changed one small protocol and that is if you do not feel comfortable stating your address, you don't have to. We unders we heard um loud and clear that that is uncomfortable when things are televised. So, we've made that change, too. Um, board secretary Shelty, we have requests for this evening. Yes, we do. And as President Newman stated, we have 35 requests. You all, I believe, received a number when you came in, 1 through

00635. So, if you just think ahead too, um I'll try to state who's on deck as well to just help with the transitions and to get um everyone through in a decent amount of time while still honoring the two minutes for everyone. So, we'll start first with Storm Ziggler, and then up next we'll have Matt, then Sarah, then Kim. Okay. With 35 speakers this evening, you're given two minutes for your remarks. Please respect the time limited allotted to each speaker. Board Secretary Schulty will serve as your timer and indicate when your time has expired. If you've submitted a request to address the board and choose to refrain from speaking in the interest of equality and fairness, your time may not be yielded to another speaker. To abide by the open meetings law, there will be

007no dialogue between board directors and the public during this time except to clarify the nature of questions or comments from the individual speaking. We ask that audience and speakers refrain from using inappropriate language and outbursts as a matter of respect for all in attendance. The board has zero tolerance for profanity, vulgarity, demeaning language, or threats of any kind. And lastly, I'd like to remind our speakers that the board cannot address personnel and student matters. The board policy outlines a process for addressing and resolving concerns. We ask that speakers refrain from using personal names and information during public comment. Before we begin, I'd like to remind our speakers to state their name when called to the podium. And board secretary Schulty, could you please I guess you did call our first speaker. >> I got a

008little ahead of you there. Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh Storm Ziggler, 4132 Windfall Drive. Uh nice to see you all again. Uh I know that these are very difficult decisions but as my fine arts colleagues and I have met thinking about these items uh we actually have a great deal of excitement around one of the possibilities for uh consolidation and that is the intermediate model. When I say we have some excitement about that I can tell you that it if it's not a unanimous level of support for my finite staff K12 it is very nearly uh unanimous. I just want to bullet point some of the advantages that we see. Uh we could achieve fine uh full-time uh art specialists in every building under the new model and we could do that in a

009costneutral fashion using the level of staffing that we have right now. The uh amount of opportunities that we can give to our kids would be enormously different from now. We can return from a current K uh 4-day rotation uh to a three-day rotation in all of our schools. all of our kids would have equitable access to the same opportunity pipeline. So by right sizing all of our schools and by equalizing the staffing, all three of our feeders could have the same opportunities for kids from kindergarten through high school. Um the the advantage of of full-time specialists in every building um are tremendous. But a couple of things I want to consider. Uh there's cost savings by eliminating mileage reimbursement for traveling teachers. There's more teaching time because we don't have that travel time for teachers.

010There's less setup and tear down for staff and materials. Uh concerts, assemblies, and special events are easier to plan when all of the specialists are in a single building. And for our elementary uh administrators, they get to plan and schedule their own building for their own needs rather than having to consider sharing people in other buildings, which is a huge plus for them. Um probably the greatest uh benefit that we see are true K12 feeder patterns. Uh there is a single point of recruitment and recruitment is going to turn from a transactional thing to a relational thing. We're about to start recruiting for next year. We have to hit four different middle schools to recruit kids that are going to be moving to three different high schools. The single feeder line uh prevents fractured peer

011groups. It provides a predictable story for families, K12. It provides consistent expectations and instructions. Uh, it eliminates missing instruments and unbalanced high school ensembles. Provides easier event planning for parents uh who have kids in multiple schools. So, consider your fine arts staff as big proponents of the intermediate model. Thank you. >> Thank you. Up next is Matt and then Sarah, then Kim. Hello, Matt Browns, southwest side Cedar Rapids. Good evening, schoolboard members and Dr. Lannon. I appreciate having this moment to speak with you about the plans you're being presented with for the future of our district. Dr. Landon, I appreciate you coming to Pierce last Monday, as I know is probably a hard thing to do when we are school recommended to be closed. You had mentioned you appreciated the conversations being had and appreciate

012appreciate the solution focused efforts people are putting forth. This really struck me as something that we teach our students at Pierce to do. Our Pierce community has stressed solution focused problem solving across all levels. Sadly, our community is now focused on solutions for Pierce itself. These solutions have ranged from students suggesting bake sales, students suggesting they give up their basketball courts to bring temporaries back, requests from the PTA regarding cost to remedy ADA compliance issues, and questions regarding other options for Morgan Creek and similar properties. I've reached out to several individuals about these questions, and I appreciate Mr. Schumacher or Mr. Wings answering those questions for me. And I probably will have other questions. The Pierce community apprehension seems to stem from concern regarding the proposed changes on the school capacity and classroom size. Specific

013metrics would make the proposed picture more clear for all involved. I understand we have budget issues. We need to address them before they continue to grow. I understand this is a situation where there will be unhappy people. I would like to ensure that we have explored all possible options no matter how out of the box before pursuing such a drastic change. Because just like banking, this plan needs to make sense. I appreciate we have are as the Cedar Rapids Community School Districts are in a tough situation. Not just Pierce, but the district. I appreciate your time and please let me know if there's anything I can do as an educator as this in this district and a father in this district to help to be help in this process. >> Thank you. Next is Sarah,

014then Kim, then Colby. >> My name is Sarah Cosgrove. I live on the southeast side. I am the magnet coordinator at Johnson Steam Academy and I tell everyone that I have my dream job at my dream school because it's true. JSA was the district's first magnet school and we were the first to become a certified demonstration magnet school through magnet schools of America. Co in the do had disproportionate impact on many JSA families. Homelessness and transiency increased and enrollment decreased. mental, emotional, physical, and academic needs increased and academic scores decreased. Soon after, JC experienced five principles in four years, making it impossible to have a clear vision and effective systems of support. We now have stability thanks to Jenny K. Hampton, the strong leader that our building needs to thrive and grow. At JSA, we

015are providing student opportunities not available anywhere in the Cedar Rapids area. I have had the opportunity to visit art schools across the country and I can tell you that what we are doing at JSA is exceptional. We are providing arts integrated social emotional learning every day in every classroom. Every student in every grade, every year is working with at least one teaching artist. Every teacher is receiving job embedded arts integrated professional learning and every student is given authentic opportunities to demonstrate their learning through the arts. You are all invited, those of you at home too, please come. We have a special event on Friday, February 6th at 9:45 a.m. Come to our schoolwide program hosted at St. Paul's United Methodist Church and see what our JSA kids can do. Every single student will be featured

016at that program. The trajectory of JSA has changed. We have hit the sweet spot on the trampoline that will pre propel us higher than we've ever been before. Support us and let us show us. Let us show you what we can do. >> Thank you. Your time is up. >> We are. >> Kim is next. Then we'll have Colby and then Aurora. My name is Kim Fugquay and I'm the instructional coach at Johnson Steam Academy. This year, our school theme is goalgetters. I want to take this opportunity to share some examples of that with you. This summer, our building leadership team set an ambitious goal to grow by 10% in reading proficiency over the course of this year. And our staff have dedicated themselves to making sure that every one of our students is engaged,

017empowered, and equipped to excel. Our students have been empowered to embrace this challenge and I am proud to share that JSA has increased our reading scores by 7% from fall to winter, surpassing our mid-year goals. Here are a few stories that speak to our students engaging in learning that is setting them on a path to excel. In just four months, a kindergartener who knew zero letter sounds this fall can now read 48 sounds in one minute. A first grader new to JSA this year struggled with decoding and with support grew from reading one to now 21 nonsense words. A second grader increased 59 words per minute and a third grader grew 66 words per minute. These students both started the year significantly below benchmark and are now proficient. A fourth grader who was reading 85

018words per minute in the fall set an endofear goal of 130 and last week he read 142. And a fifth grade ELELLL student who came to JSA in the middle of last year unable to read a single word in English is now reading 54 words. These students are not outliers but examples of the tremendous academic growth happening at JSA. The progress we are seeing is not accidental. It is the result of three years of stable leadership, strong relationship building, and fostering a school culture that engages and empowers every student. Closing our building would disrupt the very environment that is helping our students to thrive. We ask that you consider not only the growth we've made, but the momentum we continue to build. Keeping this school open allows our goal to continue meeting their goals and

019strengthening the neighborhood we proudly serve. Thank you. >> Thank you. Up next is Colby, then Aurora, then Whitney. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Colobby Kelly. I'm a proud resident of the Wellington Heights community. I come to you not only as an engagement specialist at JSA, but a parent to three boys that have attended JSA. I've also been a member of the Wellington Heights community for over a decade. Being afforded the opportunity to work with children in my own neighborhood has been a dream come true. I want to thank Miss Hampton for the privilege of serving my neighborhood and their families. I would like to share some behavior success and growth within our building. The change over the course of less than a year has been tremendous. This year alone, our major office referrals

020have dropped from 25 per day in September to only seven per day this month. This is due to consistent expectations building wide by all staff as refresher lessons are presented when necessary. Following a tiered system of supports to make sure students are getting the necessary support behaviorally and academically has been essential. We have a fantastic and compassionate behavior team that is proactive with helping staff and students. Anyone familiar with JSA can attest to the phenomenal growth in our students. They say it takes a village and JSA is a perfect example. Food drives, toy drives, counseling services, and much more. JSA is a pillar and beacon of hope in our community. In my community, this school means everything to me, to my family, to my friends and neighbors. Closing JSA would not only be a loss

021for our students, but would devastate our community. I have full confidence that the board will see the value of JSA and allow us choose to allow us to be the shining light of Wellington Heights. Thank you. >> Thank you, Colobby. Aurora is next, then Whitney, and then Jenna. My name is Rory and I am a JSA student ambassador. I have asked my fellow ambassadors to join me to help tell about JSA. We believe JSA is a unique school that serves unique students. >> We want to begin by sharing by sharing our mission statement. JSA students and staff, please join us. The JSA family empowers curious, compassionate, and courageous leaders who make a positive impact in our community and the world. >> JSA is the only art school and we love unique. JSA is the only

022art school and we love the unique experiences we get to have at JSA. We have music lessons during the day, guest artists every year in every grade, and special school programs like our Black History Month celebration coming up on February 6th. We are the only school that has arts integrated social emotional learning. Every day we get to build our social, emotional, and art skills together. During our seal time, we are learning about the six practices of courageous change makers. >> Practice one, imagine a better way. Practice two, own your role. Practice three, play the path, practice four, venture boldly, practice five, be curious, practice six, strengthen the team. We are proud to be JSA ambassadors and hope you will decide to give future kids an opportunity to go to our cool school. We are >>

023JSA. >> Perfectly timed. Whitney is next, then Jenna, then Brandon. All right, I got to follow that. Okay. All right. Good evening. My name is Whitney Delki. I reside in Hayawa. I served the district as an employee and a proud parent of two students and I'm also a proud graduate of the district. I'm here today to speak to leadership. Drawing from my own journey within the district, I began working 13 years ago in food service. From there, I was an attendance secretary, a paraprofessional, building substitute, and today professional school counselor. A district is strongest when it is led by educators and leaders who take pride in their district, their colleagues, and most importantly, the buildings and students that they serve. In my roles, I have worked across multiple buildings and alongside a variety of leadership

024styles and administrative teams. Like any district, CR experienced both successes and challenges. And now those moments are navigated ultimately comes down to leadership. Effective leadership requires making difficult decisions and understanding that not every decision will satisfy everyone. Jenny K. Hampton leads her staff to understand understand how fortunate we are to get to teach at JSA and serve serve the students and families who are JSA. Last year she arranged for our staff to tour Wellington Heights neighborhood with Eric Gushmet of the WHNA. We learned that many of the Craftsman homes are balloon framed, a construction method known for its durability and strength. In his words, they are the best built houses in Cedar Rapids. In my third year working alongside Jenny K, I see clear parallels between those homes and the systems built at Johnson Steam

025Academy. Like those houses, our foundation is intentional and strong. She has created a culture of accountability, high expectation for student success, and decision-making grounded in what is best for students. This is the kind of leadership that creates lasting impact and the kind of and this kind of leadership the neighborhood deserves for many more years to come. Thank you. >> Thank you. We have Jenna, then Brandon, then Kelly. Hello, my name is Jenna Aubrey and I teach preschool at Johnson Steam Academy. This year marks JSA's first year offering preschool in more than 12 years. I am truly grateful that I was chosen to help restart this program and I can say it has fundamentally changed who I am as a person. I have loved every moment at JSA and cannot have imagined begun my career anywhere

026else. I remember when I was offered this position in July and as I shared the news with people in the community, I constantly heard the same response. Oh, you're at Johnson? That's a hard school. And each time my response remained the same, that I was excited to work with passionate educators and teach kids. These comments were really difficult for me to hear because as educators, we should not be passing judgment on children that we do not work with or know personally. However, that is not the primary reason I'm here to speak today. I want to raise an important concern regarding the future of preschool should JSA close. Currently, we do not provide transportation for preschool students unless they have an IEP. Knowing the families in our community, I worry deeply about what that means for

027their access to early childhood education because they don't have the means to transport them. These children need access to equal opportunities in schooling. And closing JSA is only going to further take away that access. It takes away their access for free breakfast and lunch. It takes away from a safe space for eight hours a day. And it takes away some of the only safe adults that they know. I want to emphasize the crucial importance of early childhood education for the students that we serve. We have children entering preschool and kindergarten who have not yet learned how to sit on the carpet and engage in imaginative play or even regulate their own emotions. Emotional regulation in particular is a foundational focus of preschool. And these are skills that are essential not only for their academic success

028but for their entire lives beyond it. Thank you. >> Thank you. We have Brandon, then Kelly, and then Alyssa. >> Hi, my name is Brandon Smith. Um, Strat One special educator. uh lived in Cedar Rapids my whole life. I got a poem for all those who reside on the brick cover roads. I see your desire to live a life of love and glee. Still I see your pain. Adult pain that lingers from where you escaped. The improvement came from movement yet the hurts been replaced. I feel your angst. I suffocate your unsurityity when met with those who are blindfolded from those who we braille yet haven't necessarily felt the tales that are told on our brick cover roads. I sense your fear for the years to come as we have lived in this fear for

029far too long. The type of fear that those on freshly paved streets remain numb to the ones that sedate the treats and delicacies for those who afford to indulge in such pleasures. Starbucks, Scooters, and other Starbucks. Yeah, who does that benefit but the majority in the pinching minority like me and you? From the second the safe haven of Mickey De's crumbled where the last key kids and forgotten adults sought refuge where the old had sat around for days dropping game for trouble youth. We're hungry y'all the cause kids were lit at Wendy's. Our parents thank God there was a high ve for we had it so good. The cast are thriving. Morning full, processed food, vegetables, the fruit too, and the barbecue. The barbecue. I am blessed to have grown in the great in between

030metaphorically and physically crossing into the northeast. As the car broke down, we could walk either way. It really just depend whether it was night or bright at day. H I wonder if my community is spending uber funds to feed their children and extended families. Minuscule amounts don't add up to what should be administered accordingly. Well, at least they can go to school, they'd say. Sometimes it seems like most folks are just counting the days until a decision is to be made on behalf of who? I'm still aware of the unique youth that Johnson produced. I was a wild cat myself and y'all close that to what the right kids do. Was it too urban for you? >> Thank you. Your time is up. I'm sorry. >> Thank you. >> Please send the poem to us.

031Yes. Kelly is up next and then Alyssa and then Kathy. Okay. Hello, my name is Kelly Rosenol and I have been a teacher at Johnson for 14 years. We have exceptional students. We have an amazing staff that works with our students. We love them and give them the support they need. Our students thrive because they are surrounded by teachers who believe in them, who help them feel safe, respected, and connected. However, I've heard negative things about Johnson my entire life. from growing up in the city, from being told not to sub at Johnson, from being told not to accept a teaching position at Johnson. And as our school is considered for closure, I'm still hearing the same kinds of comments from our about our students from both the community and district staff members. We don't

032want Johnson students. We don't want those kids coming to our school. I am deeply concerned that if our school closes, our students will not experience the same sense of belonging in other buildings. If there are already comments being made about our students, about them not being wanted, that is alarming. Our students should not be made to feel like a burden simply because of their socioeconomic status, their race, or the neighborhood that they live in. When students from marginalized communities are displaced, they are at risk for being misunderstood, stigmatized, and treated unfairly. Both research and lived experience tell us that students learn best when they feel safe, respected, and connected. As school board members, I don't know how you could willingly know what you are sending our students into and still make the choice to destroy

033the place that believes in them. School closures are not just logistical decisions. The building is not just a pile of bricks. These are human decisions, lifealtering decisions that you are making. Equity should be a priority in this district and we must protect the spaces where the students who face the greatest challenges are already experiencing success, stability, and care. I wholeheartedly believe our students deserve to be welcomed everywhere in the district, but until that can be guaranteed, closing the one place where they are unquestionably supported and loved would cause real harm. Thank you. >> Thank you. Alyssa is next, then Kathy, then Aaron. >> Hello, my name is Alyssa Jubbeck. I'm a first year kindergarten teacher at Johnson Steam Academy. Every day I watch students walk into school carrying far more than just their backpacks. Many

034face challenges at home, in their communities, and from assumptions made by them before they ever even walk through the door. Still, they show up, they try, they learn, and they grow. For many of our children, uh JSA is more than a school. It's a place of safety, stability. It's where they know they will be cared for, fed, and supported. It is where they receive academic help and encouragement from adults who truly believe in them. For some, this school is the most consistent and secure part of their day. Closing uh Johnson Steam Academy would do far more than shut down a building. It would disrupt access to meals, resources, and trusted adults. Students would lose the sense of belonging that allows them to feel safe enough to succeed and learn in a school. Families would face

035added stress and instability and staff who have built strong trusting relationships with those children would be displaced. Most importantly, our students would lose critical support systems. These children's families and educators deserve stability, care, and the opportunity to continue growing together. Thank you. >> Thank you. Up next is Kathy, then Aaron, and then Sarah Climber. I'm Kathy Millian, and I have been a teacher at Johnson Steam Academy for the last 12 years and I've been with the district for 24. A vote to close JSA will seriously seriously impact even gut the surrounding neighborhood known as Wellington Heights. Why do I say that? Because the children of Wellington Heights depend on JSA in many, many ways. for just a few moments. Please set aside any negative narrative you have heard about our school and set aside any

036data you have seen about JSA. I'm going to talk to you about what the narrative and the data do not show. Johnson is a safe spot. In a neighborhood that has unfortunately experienced violence, our students feel safe at our school. Several years ago, two of our former students encountered a person with a weapon in a nearby alley. They immediately came to JSA to report it and to be safe. Our children feel safe in our school because our staff has developed meaningful relationships with families. Families know our staff truly cares about their children. Johnson provides essential services such as mental health support, basic health care, free breakfast and lunch and wraparound care. We are open 12 months a year providing these services to help alleviate the difficult stresses our neighborhood students face. The Boys and Girls

037Club just opened a brand new building half a block from our school to support the children of Wellington Heights. Johnson provides consistency and stability for children who experience more than their fair share of chaos and trauma. Every single day, our teachers show up for them. This staff here this evening, they are not here to save their jobs. They are here because they want to continue to serve this neighborhood. They are passionate about that. >> Kathy, your time's up. I'm sorry. Sure. Your time's up. >> Thank you. >> Aaron is next and then Sarah and Megan. >> My name is Aaron Kyper. I am a parent from Johnson Steam Academy. I moved here from out of state last year intentionally to enroll my son at JSA over other schools and other districts. JSA is a fantastic

038place. I couldn't be more impressed and my son loves it. Everyone who is considering a charter STEM school should seriously consider JSA. Please keep JSA open. Consider that preserving neighborhood schools increases integration. Integrated students are more likely to collaborate, show empathy, assume good intent in others rather than fear. Integration creates a sense of we, not us and them. Integrated communities create broader networks sharing information. opportunities and support with each other. They make us safer, healthier, and stronger. When we take a kindergartenner from a low resource area and bust them out of their neighborhood to a less diverse school, we often say we're giving them access. But changing location does not actually lead to integration. It often leads to isolation. These children are more likely to be tracked differently and socially separated. At JSA, a neighborhood

039school, integration is happening. There are so many languages spoken inside of these kids' homes that you would think some kids would have a difficult difficult time communicating. On the contrary, JSA is instead focused on teaching universal language to all students. Sign language, music, art. They have become the common ground for students to represent themselves. JSA creates a sense of we in these children. I see a culture of collaboration, showing empathy, and assuming good in others rather than fear. Cedar Rapids should be proud of JSA. Thank you. Sarah's next, then Megan, and then Brandy. Hello, my name is Sarah Climber. I'm here today to represent Johnson Steam Academy. I've been a teacher at Johnson for 12 years and I'm also a former parent. Johnson isn't just where I work. It's where my family grew and where

040countless other families have found stability, support, and hope. Last year, Cedar Rapids Schools adopted the theme barriers down, achievement up. Johnson Steam Academy doesn't just say those words, we live them every single day. When families are forced to attend schools outside their neighborhood, barriers go up. Transportation challenges can prevent parents from attending conferences, PTA nights, music programs, or school sponsored family events. Even something as basic as picking a child up becomes difficult if their child is sick. A neighborhood school removes those obstacles and gives families easier access to education and engagement. At Johnson, we take care of the whole child, often the whole family. We provide holiday meals and gifts so children have something to open on Christmas morning. Our community can access free meals all summer long. During the winter months, we maintain a

041closet full of coats, hats, gloves, boots, and snow pants for students who need them. We help families get their children to doctor appointments even as far as Iowa City. We've picked up medications from pharmacies to ensure students are getting what they need to be healthy and ready to learn. Our JSA cares team exists to build family engagement, provide support, connect families to resources, and strengthen communication. In November, our entire school community came together for a themed food drive and created a no questions asked food pantry that now also includes toiletries. We've hosted community events like our fall barbecue. We serve 250 free meals and created space for families to connect and belong. Johnson Steam Academy puts barriers down so achievement goes up. Closing this school doesn't remove barriers, it creates them. I urge you to

042keep Johnson open because when you support Johnson, you support an entire community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Megan is next, then Brandy, and then Britney. >> Good evening. My name is Megan Johnson and I live on the southeast side of town. Thank you for holding this session and for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here tonight to ad advocate for keeping JSA open. Our family is one of the lottery families at JSA, which means we chose to send our kids to attend JSON. When we were choosing a school, we carefully considered and toured all of our options. We looked at parochial schools, our neighborhood school, and another magnet school. JSA stood out immediately. It offers a truly unique educational experience and a richly diverse student body, which is exactly what we were looking for for

043our children. Over the last four years at JSA, we've come to understand that Johnson is far more than a school. It's a beacon of stability and hope for families in Wellington Heights. Keeping JSA in the neighborhood ensures access to essential supports that families rely on. Education, transportation, food, and most importantly, strong and trusting relationships. JSA is a relationship centered school. It has taken four years with consistent leadership to build the momentum and progress we see today. Keeping JSA open preserves that progress. It is an investment in our students, in equity, and in a thriving future for this community. I understand this is a difficult decision, and I urge you to choose this future. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Bry's next, then Britney, followed by Craig. My name is Brandy Parsons and

044I live on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids and I'm a teacher at JSA. Although I've lived in the northeast side for a few years, this is the first time in nine years that my community involvement hasn't primarily been on the southeast side. That change is that change came as my oldest child entered 9th grade and attended a neighborhood school for the first time since first grade. My son began at JSA the next year as a kindergarten and is currently in seventh grade at McKenzie and I followed close behind as a teacher. 9 years ago when my daughter was accepted through the JSA lottery, our family became part of the JSA community and truly the JSA family. The opportunities my children experienced at JSA were truly remarkable. From my daughter meeting Ruby Bridges to my

045son returning as a middle schooler to participate in a GSA family steam night, these experiences are what make JSC a special place. One of the most exciting aspects of GSA is a wide variety of enrichments offered to students. I've taught explore engineering to first and second graders and reader theater to third through fifth graders. My older child participated in orphan and gospel choir. My younger child took part in the JSU ambassador program and a sports enrichment. are an adult that they can actually trust. And I'm done. Okay. Thank you, Craig. You're next. Uh followed by Jordan and then Brian. That's right. >> I want to thank you for this opportunity. It's a privilege. The last time I was here, I forgot to mention that when the public schools started, their first textbook was the Bible.

046Closing schools, neighborhood schools is one of the worst things you could ever do. transportation is going to mount just so high you won't believe it. Um I want to talk tonight about the four dominant learning styles um kinesesthetic tactile visual and auditory. This book is called Cherishing and Challenging Children by Jodie Kapart. And she really gets into the four dominant learning styles. Naturally, their subdominant learning styles. You can so go against a student's learning style that they don't know how to cope. And so they start disruptive behaviors, especially the kesthetic and the tactile, and then they put them on. What a solution that is. Some psychiatric drugs, you just don't you can't help yourself when you're taking them. And when I talked to people that were on rolin and finally got off of it, they

047said they ended up not caring. And you kind of wonder why kids are so messed up. Now, um, you can test. is proven in this book. You can test for dominant learning styles and it's something that you should do as soon as possible. It is ridiculous not to do. That is the way the good Lord created them. So I hope that you realize closing schools will be more expensive than keeping them open. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Jordan, then Brian, and then Chur. Hi, I'm Jordan Echelman and I've worked in education for over a decade and I'm currently a special education teacher in a Cedar Rapids high school. In response to the budget crisis, the school board has proposed many solutions. I will speak on two of those actions tonight. adopting a

048new staffing model for the 26-27 school year, which will effectively eliminate 33 full-time teaching positions across the district, and for the 2728 transitioning to a new school model, which will redistrict and redistribute some of our student population. I'm here today to ask one thing of you. Wait to adopt the new staffing model until after our new school model transition. If we don't change our current approach next year, 33 full-time employees would be surplused or cut, starting with the least tenured in each building. The very next year after the plan to redistribute students would also cause the least tenured teachers to change positions yet again. These types of actions erode trust between the staff and the leadership in the district. How can new employees join a community when they may get moved around the very next

049year? and how can families trust schools when the staff changes year after year. As you consider consolidation and boundary adjustments, changes that will impact every member of the CRCSD community, I urge you to prioritize short-term staffing stability as a bridge to long-term sustainability. It does not make sense to remove staff from their buildings for next year only to restructure the district and potentially move them again um the year or two after placing educators in two or even three different assignments in a two to threeear span requiring them to teach multiple new courses, grade levels, and under new principles. This will push good educators out and our students deserve better. If we keep our current plan of action, I can foresee eroding trust between our school communities and the district leadership. Let's plan to adopt the

050new staffing model after the transition to intermediate schools to minimize disruptions of our school communities. Thank you. >> Thank you. Brian is next, then Cher Marorrow, and then Andrea. >> Um, good evening. I'm Brian White. Most of you know of me as Coach White. I'm currently the head football coach, assistant athletic director, United States History teacher at Kennedy High School. I'm also a loyal employee of 31 years of the Sar Raps Community School District. I'm dressing you tonight because I think you have an opportunity to make a decision that could save our district. I feel it's my duty to to speak up and give you some perspective that you may not otherwise consider. The opportunity I'm referring to is the intermediate model of schools. Moreover, the schools in that model and the potential impact. Obviously,

051there are plenty of academic upsides to this model, but I want to highlight the athletics and activities upside. As we know, being involved in athletics plays a critical role in the high school experience. Students that are involved and connected to the school perform better academically and are less likely to get in trouble. Every year, we lose ground to schools spending millions of dollars on their athletic facilities while we remain stagnant. I understand the financial situation of the Creeps Community School District, and even though it would be nice to get a fraction of what they have, that's just not possible. However, the intermediate model is where we can close a gap. The way to do that is to build a solid culture and pride through school alignment and location. The best model for us, Kennedy speaking,

052is Kennedy Harding Junior High, Violet Gibson as a 56, Pierce, Hayawa, Maple Grove, and Harrison as our elementarymentaries. This model creates a community of pride where all of our schools are within our attendance area. As you know, there are plenty of options, school options on the northeast side of town for uh for our students. We need to do all we can to keep our students here in the district. As a head coach, this would allow me to work closely with the junior high and fifth six uh grade schools and their athletes. As it is now, we get middle school students from four different schools, all doing something different. The intermediate model allows coaches to create relationships with kids and families at an early age and will allow our coaches to establish a positive culture with

053them. To me, this is the ticket to keep families in our district. Three years ago, we lost in the playoffs in North Walke Northwest. A Gazette reporter asked me, "What do we have to do to compete with those schools out west?" And I said, "Give me the tools. Here's your tool." Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is Cher Maro and then Andrea and then Craig Brown. >> Good evening. My name is Terrain. >> Sorry. Thank you. >> So sorry, >> Terra. My name is Terra Mororrow and I'm here as a as a neighbor, a parent, a witness. Uh I'm here as a as a neighbor, a parent, and a witness to the lifeblood of Wellin Heights. I know we're here to uh address uh buildings and budgets, but I want to keep my focus on

054uh I want to keep my focus about home. um for 392 children, two of them minds, Johnson Steam Academy is is not just a facility, but it's a place where they first realize that it's a place where they first realize that their zip code does not limit their future. 80% of our students at Johnson face economic hardships and most of us can only imagine for them this school is the great equalizer. It's where a child who might struggle for a meal at home gets to command a robot or print a 3D masterpiece. We earned a national excellence award. We became a a a demonstration school. We told these kids, "Work hard and you can achieve anything. If we close these doors now," what messages are we sending these children? Are we telling them that excellence

055is only for those who can afford it? Are we telling them that their anchor is just an entry on a spreadsheet? Consolidation isn't just a move of of of of lockers and and desks. It's a loss. It's a loss of the move of walk where a child feels safe in their own neighborhood. It's a loss of of the parent who who can't even afford a car, but they can walk to school to check on their kids. When you pull a school out of a neighborhood like Wellington, you leave alone. >> Time is up. I'm sorry. Thank you. Andrea is next. Then Craig Brown, then Pat. Hello board members and everyone else here. Thank you. My name is Andrea Christensen and my kids go to Kennedy High School, Hardy Middle School and Kennedy Elementary School. Two

056of my six kids wanted me to come tonight to talk. Um but first I want to say thank you to JSA. I used to have sat there and lost. So it's a very important school. Okay. So as well, let me read the question of what needs to be done to make CRCSD the district of choices come up. Some students and families in the district do not feel when viewing CRCSD as a district to want to choose. And one aspect I was thinking about was this morning my high school junior came up to me and said, "Mom, it's it's - 23 chill temperature this morning. Have they called yet? I said, "No, those walkers are going to freeze, man." Having Amanda, we have a neighbor who walks 1.9 miles to Washington High School. I was not

057able to take her because I have elementary kids that need to get ready for school at that time. She walked. She froze. I've spoken with the high school um student before. She has much to say about the district and its current choices as it relates to her experience at Washington. Not many remarks have been positive. Many districts today chose to delay because they care about the welfare of their students above worrying about the hours that they'll have to make up later on. Uh contributing to frostbite is not funny. This might seem piffy um with so many decisions that you have to make, but it sends a strong message to the students and families. This decision compiled along with many other decisions that have to be made or have been made previously makes up CRCSD's reputation

058and character. Your reputation and character are at the forefront when being considered for being chosen above other districts. If you want to be the district of choice or even simply the district your own students remain in, listen, not only listen, drop your agendas and then really listen. >> Thank you. You're welcome. Your time is up. Thank you. Uh next is Craig Brown, then Pat, and then Sophia. Good evening. My name is Elder Craig Brown and I live in the Oakill Jackson uh community uh right here in the city of Cedar Rapid. Members of the board, I come before you tonight not to inflame but to demand clarity, accountability, and integrity. What many in this community are feeling is not confusion. It is a growing erosion of trust. And trust erodess when transparency is absent when

059decisions are rushed and when accountability feels selectively applied. Let me be clear. This community supported the bond. We trusted the vision that was presented. Support was given in good faith with the expectation of responsible stewardship and transparency and long-term stability. That trust must be honored, not managed, not spun, but respected. The community is not asking for perfection. We are asking for honesty, deliberation, and leadership that aligns decisions with values. Transparency is not optional. Commitment is not a talking point. Integrity is revealed in how you handle pressure, finances, and people. The question before this board is simple this evening. Will you slow down, tell the truth, and lead with courage, or continue to move fast, manage fallout, and watch a trust quietly slip away? Thank you and have a good evening. >> Up next is Pat

060and then Sophia and then Julius. Hi, I'm Pat Nielsen and uh I'm going to switch the topic a bit here. Although I support everybody here loves public schools and is talking about what they would like you to do. I'm kind here tonight to talk about well first of all to thank you for supporting our schools by volunteering to be on a board that is facing so many pressures and so much um so much push back and I know that our board throughout the years has always been able to take um criticism has listened to parents. I was a teacher in this district for over 39 years. I never once walked into my classroom thinking, I'm not going to do what parents want. We are there to serve the public and to serve parents. And I

061know that that is um what almost every principal asks their um teachers to do. I'm here to say mostly that I support the resolution of this school board to ask our legislature to um increase funding. I started in this district in 1976. Most of the funding of my career was 2% in this district. Very seldom did it move from there. When I started, most of you in this room weren't even bored. But 2% worked because we got a lot of federal funding, too. We're not getting that funding that we need now from our state legislature. We have a consistent uh methodical effort to reduce the strength and the vitality of our public schools. And I think um I just want to say thank you for having to deal with that kind of pressure. And I

062understand the kind of pressure that you're under and all of you in this room that are teaching are dealing with that pressure because you're seeing your schools not supported adequately. >> Thank you. >> Is that it? Okay. Thank you. >> Sorry. Yep. Sophia is next and Julius and then Denise. >> Hello. My name is Sophie Pionic. I went to school in this district from kindergarten through graduation and I'm currently a social studies teacher at Washington High School. I wanted to address the board to request more transparency regarding the calculation of cutting teacher FTE in the district and highlight the significant impact cutting 7.2 positions would have on Washington and our community. We have been kept in the dark about the data and calculations that have been used to decide where positions should be cut. What

063information is being used to inform this decision? What is the formula to determine where the cuts will be? Cutting 7.2 positions at Washington will be absolutely detrimental to our students and our ability to operate as a building. We lost six teaching positions at Washington last year, and losing an additional 7.2 would put us under the minimum number of staff required to operate our school. These cuts would lead to more instability in a community that has experienced great instability in the last decade. These cuts would mean losing electives, losing opportunities for students to explore their passions and future careers before graduating into the world. These cuts would mean losing AP offerings, losing opportunities for our students to gain college credit. These are the programs that are some of the biggest draws to our district that we

064have. If we cannot meet the minimum amount of staff in our building, we cannot function as a school. This threatens our ability to graduate students, fulfill IEP requirements with fidelity, and meet the basic core requirements from the state. Cutting 7.2 teachers and putting us at critical capacity while not doing the same to the other high schools poses a serious equity issue regarding the quality of education that is available to the students on the southeast side. Our students should not have to be bust across the entire district to receive an equitable education. This may mean more students leaving Washington or even possibly the entire district. In your upcoming conversations regarding red redrawing the boundaries of our district, please keep in mind the geographic challenges of Washington High School. With the changes made regarding the staffing cuts,

065Jefferson will have 7 27.5 more teaching positions in Washington and Kennedy will have 29.2 more. This is inequitable. I asked the district and the board to share with the Washington administration and staff the financial process that is used to justify losing 7.2 FTE in our building clearly and explicitly. Thank you for your time. >> Julius is next and then Denise and then Edward. >> My name is Julius Mitchell. Dear Cedar Rapid School Board, please don't close peers. It's not just a school, it's a family. I like the people, the students, and the kindest. We even get to do clay. I always catch up with sports talk with my friends and sometimes with the teachers and we always have something fun planned. I like the teachers so much that I go in their room in their

066room and talk with them. And I I like when we go to Kennedy for a play. Please don't close beers. Julius Denise is next, followed by Edward and then Kim. Good evening. My name is Denise Bridges. I live in Marian, Iowa, but I'm a community leader in the Cedar Rapid area. I want to begin by acknowledging there have been so many harmful and misinformation publicly shared about Dr. Islamian and I do not support any misinformation and I believe it is important to say things clearly and truthfully all at the same time we cannot allow misinformation to distract us from a deeper truth with the Cedar Rapids Community School is facing a serious issue that if left unressed we will develop into a much larger problem, one that will cost this community more in the long

067run. And the people who will bear the cost are those of us committed to living there or living here. Declining enrollment is not a new issue for the district. What is concerning is how little we have publicly examined why families are leaving instead of repeatedly focusing on the vouchers and charter schools. We should be asking a more important question. What will make Cedar Rapid Community School the number one choice for education in Cedar Rapids? This year alone, more than 600 students left our district. That number represents family, classroom, staffing, and future stability. The question is not how many students will we f will we lose next year, but what will our district plan to prevent that from happening. What we need is a plan that goes beyond calling parents and asking them to come back

068or simply offering families the privilege of choosing another school within the district. Uh what we need to see without meaningful improvement is not we need to find a meaningful improvement and that is not a strategy. We want to see the data on who is leaving and why. The district shares many form of data with the community. Please share this as well. Transparence matter and trust cannot be be built without it. If the district close schools I'm so sorry your time is up. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, you're okay. Thank you. Edward is next then Kim and then Libby. >> Hello members of the board, members of the community. Uh good evening. My name is Ned Kelly and for the past two years I've had the pleasure of working at Washington High School here in Cedar

069Rapids. I was a very late hire officially. I was hired on Thursday, August 14th, 2025. And I started uh I started my first day of work in orientation the Monday afterwards. So I was not surprised despite my 12 years of experience previous when I found my name in the surplus pool last year. Um I was lucky enough this year to be placed again at Cedar Rabbits Washington as the academic interventionist of the freshman academy. However, with further cuts looming and no great additions to the tail end of the seniority list, I further expect to find my name back in the list. Um, especially given the suggestion that seven of the 33 cup positions be from Washington. During these short two years, I was student senate sponsor, uh, picked to be part of the academy teaching

070team, helped with the implementation of freshman seminar and 3DE, uh, with some really wonderful people, and helped support the creation of new plans and systems this year with the Washington Freshman Leadership Academy team. Um, I say all this mostly to highlight the benefits of bringing in veteran teachers or teachers who are hungry and willing to jump in head first. I am a veteran teacher and I understand the need to protect seniority. It has really really great value. But I need to talk to you about the perception of this situation to potential teaching candidates. I spoke with Dr. Julie Kaine in early August of last year in response to a crisis at Washington and I came running to Washington because of the need for that community and for an opportunity to do some really, really good

071work. educators know what we're signing up for. Um, we know the obligations required, but we still have obligations to ourselves and to our families. Is Cedar Rapids still a destination district for teachers in Iowa? I believe that it is. But for how long? If new employees can only feel secure in their jobs from August until October. I understand the complexities of this problem. I really do. I don't have solutions. >> Your time is up. Okay. Sorry. >> Thanks a lot. >> Thank you. We have Kim and then Libby and then Cara. Good evening. Um I am here tonight to um talk about why I removed my daughter from this district. I keep hearing that budget issues are largely due to students being left the district. The blame game needs to stop now. You need to

072figure out why parents are pulling their kids. Nobody's bothered to ask me why I pulled my kid. This is my daughter Rihanna. She has severe mental health issues at K. All through her school, this district has failed my daughter. Numerous times. We asked for an IEP evaluation. We were told she doesn't qualify. We'll have to see if she does qualify. When you're getting office referrals weekly or daily and getting calls from your t your kid's school saying, "We can't find your kid in the building." It's a red flag to have an evaluation done. When she went to high school, she was diagnosed with conversion disorder. This is a disorder that causes her due to stress and anxiety to go into severe seizures. She would fall. She would make noises. She would have seizures that the

073paramedics thought were manic. Our daughter was told by the nurse at Kennedy that she would have to sit in the back of a classroom and have a seizure while the other kids in the special ed class were in that room. This is not acceptable. So then we were told she can bring a pillow and sit on the floor. That's not acceptable. The next option was she could go through the homeschool program, but they won't adapt to her level. We removed our daughter out of this district because the district didn't work for her. This district has been financially irresponsible and transparent. Not not had transparency for years. Our children, our families, our neighbors are paying the price. It is time that we figure out why people are leaving this district because our kids are not safe

074or being treated right or getting what they need. We bought our house so our daughter could graduate from the district. We wanted her to. That's not happening. I leave you with tonight with the fact my daughter is graduating in May thanks to a school in this town that was willing to do what she needed and care about her. Thank you. >> Libby is next, then Cara. And then David. Good evening. My name is Libby Flity and I second much of what has already been said tonight about student displacement. Our district's biggest challenges come from years of overspending despite the declining enrollment, especially at the underfilled middle schools. I appreciate the work that has went into the proposals. However, there are still still serious concerns with this. Consolidating elementaryaries will impact the most kids in our

075district. Have we truly looked at the impact of transportation or special education to name a few? Schools are more than just brick and mortar. They are communities and disrupting that results in major uproar for student progress. This would be hard for typical developing students but even more for students who have disabilities that rely on consistency and stability. Additionally, the plan took only into consideration the infrastructure of buildings and that's important but so are other factors. Look at the teacher retention rate specifically at Pierce. I'm one of the newest teachers in the building and all of my colleagues have been there 7 to 20 years. that reflects the strength of a family relationships and student culture in our building. Look at the test scores and the office referrals in our building. We are at 27% of

076the major office referrals that we were last year. That and that's something you can't do without work and dedication. Another concern is that with the even with enrollment declines, Pierce and Nixon would not fit into our other area 3 schools and the lack of clear boundary lines adds confusion and highlights the absence of a comprehensive plan. I have concerns about how decisions will be made about where staff will go if buildings are closed. How are you going to determine what buildings are closed beyond just physical infrastructure? An example of this is the lack of clarity around the bond in November. Staff expected cuts, but the public was never told a failed bond result in school closures. I voted for it both times. I'm in full support of public ed. I hate that ESAs are playing

077a role in this problem. But even not even 90 days ago, we asked the public to sign a multi-million dollar bond where it was quite clear we could not possibly use the middle schools as a long-term solution. But now that's our plan. >> I'm sorry, your time is up. Thank you. >> Cara is next. then David and then Blake. >> Hi, my name is Cara Bentley. I'm from the northeast side of Cedar Rapids. I'm also a teacher, a parent, and I've um also attended all of the Cedar Rapids schools in my alumni. While I appreciate the work that has gone on in the intermediate model, I still have concerns, especially about where the elementary students will go. Many of our larger elementary schools are already almost at capacity and the numbers simply don't work in

078some areas. I propose that we close two middle schools and three elementary schools. This will follow your guys's 6 to7 million plan. For elementary schools, I propose we close one in each area so we still have schools within five minutes of people's homes. I also propose that we close two middle schools so we can still again have those schools closer to people's homes. In contrast, the intermediate model for area three simply does not work. I have looked at the math. I've sat hours and hours and trying to figure this out. We would still have 60 seats that would not be currently in your intermediate model where students would have nowhere to go. So, I need you to look into area three a little bit deeper. I also want to emphasize the impact of closing elementary

079schools. Elementary schools serve six grade levels, the most in our district. Closing them leads to larger class sizes, increased behaviors, and less individual attention for students. All of which affect student achievement and put added strain on the staff. We've already seen this reflected in the prior board meeting where the larger elementary schools are request requesting additional funds just to function efficiently. Finally, attendance matters. When schools are removed from neighborhoods, attendance suffers. Students and families will not be at open houses. They will not be coming to conferences like we hope they are now. We need to rethink our approach and ensure that middle schools enrollment challenges do not come to the expense of our youngest learners. Our elementary students deserve stability, access, and thoughtful planning. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. David is next,

080followed by Blake, and then Jennifer. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm truly saddened as I read the paper and watch the news to hear that the school is faced with this decision to cut $13 million in 8 to 12 schools from the Cedar Rapid School District. It seems like it leaves the schools and the teachers as out on an island and they are the true victims. Our kids went through Piers Franklin and Kennedy and they had great success for life. They had great success, but it seems like a lot of the success has been lost as the school's customers, the schools and the families are leaving the Cedar Rapids school system. I have two main concerns. In other sectors of life, if people don't like your product and service, they leave. You must

081meet their needs or they will continue to leave. It seems like your customers are questioning your product and service, which means they are they are leaving and you must change too. If you don't change, you can cut 13 million this year. How about the next year, the next year, and the year after that? Is closing schools really solution, or is it just a short-term band-aid to get through the near future? I think this is evident that you are offering the wrong product and service to your kids and families. is why private schools are busting with enrollment and our neighborhood towns have capped their open enrollment. How many more students want out of the Cedar Rapids School District at this time, but they have nowhere to go as other schools have capped enrollment? As you close

082schools, there's a whole new set of problems that do exist. Busing kids around will increase frustrations for the parents and kids, thus losing more kids. So, it does sad me as I stand here tonight to see something that was once so great in our area has been lost and the appropriate changes aren't being fixed to address the main problem. It isn't a school here or there. It's the total enrollment that's leaving the system. And why are they leaving? Seems like we are doubling down on the same problem instead of seeking a solution. Ultimately, you will fail until you listen to your customers, which are your kids and their families. We can blame others for the shortcoming, but ultimately the changes and solutions always have to come from leadership. If no changes are made, I'm scared

083to see where our system will be in five years. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Blake, then Jennifer, and then our last speaker is Jonathan. My name is Blake Genine and I'm a second grade teacher at Pierce Elementary. A friend and co-orker of mine, Emily McDonald, had a great idea that I wanted to share with you all. Create a Google survey sent out to all families and staff in the CR school district. There should only be one question on the survey. If the district decides to go through with the intermediate school model and close the elementary schools down, will you still have your child stay in the district or will you as a staff member stay in the CR school district? yes or no. Once you collect the data from the survey, this will be

084a great indicator of deciding how many families and staff will decide to stay or consider leaving. Now, I want to speak from a parents perspective. I'm a proud parent of a son who has Down syndrome and is enrolled in a school through the CR school district. When we talk about the possibility of consolidation and closing schools down, these decisions affect all of our families and all students. This includes students that are neurode divergent like my son. Students like Nolan need consistency and structure in order to thrive and succeed in and out of the classroom. When this is taken away, their chances of success decrease. According to research study from Cedaropoulos at all in 2024, children with Down syndrome are at a higher risk for negative transition experiences due to the challenges they often experience in

085schools. It's more challenging for students that are neurode divergent to build those positive relationships with staff and students when they're getting moved from school to school to school and another school. What will our future look like with our students with special needs? Will these students all be lumped into one classroom? Will the future you envision for our school district help or harm my son to succeed as an individual? With this being said, I want to invite all of you to come to our schools that you're considering for consolidation. Not for five or 10 minutes, but enough time to observe the student and staff relationships, getting a chance to meet our families and truly experience our school culture. We want to show you why peers and our other schools are a necessity to our community. Come

086see us and see who you are. The question is, will you accept my invitation? Thank you for your time. Go Panthers. Thank you. We have Jennifer next and then Jonathan. >> Good evening. My name is Jennifer and I have students at West Willow and Taft. While I work for the district prior to having children, tonight I speak to you as a parent and a community member. The district currently finds itself in a situation with the budget where every way you look at it, you lose. Someone loses, there's loss. Tonight, I propose two areas where the losses need to be more closely examined before decisions are made. First, there has been a loss of integrity on the part of the district. Integrity. Integrity is defined in part as the quality of being honest. It's not that

087far of a leap from integrity to transparency, a word you keep using. Yet, you have not collected data and presented it with integrity or transparency. specifically as it relates to the feeder system and intermediate model. Your survey generically asked what types of things we would like. From that generic question, you are now purporting 70 some odd percent of people support the true feeder schools. That's not being transparent or honest. 70% of people don't want the true feeder schools. They said they liked the idea of a feeder system. There's a difference. One of those is reporting with integrity and the other is manipulation. Yet you continue to dishonestly throw that figure around. Once families saw how you would accomplish the system and how absurdly disruptive it would be geographically, transitions and otherwise, we don't want it.

088The same with the numbers for staff support. When you disagregate the data into staff with families who support the chew feeder system, the staff support is no longer there. Integrity and transparency would be sharing and using that data instead of the aggregated data that gives the illusion of staff support. Honestly, the word that comes to mind is weaponizing. I urge you to choose today to stop weaponizing the data that wasn't collected with integrity and transparency. It impacts too many in a negative way. Second, there has been a tremendous loss of trust. Deciding school closures based on capacity simply because you're pushing the feeder system. You can do better. I won't deny schools need to close and know what will be an incredible loss for those families and neighborhoods. I urge you to separate the school

089closings from the feeder system and re reject the feeder system altogether. Now is not the time for major upheaval across the district. Minimize the loss for as many people as possible and focus solely on school consolidation. Do that with integrity and do that with care. Thank you. >> Our final speaker is Jonathan. >> How y'all doing? Can you hear me? All right. Uh my name is John Slottic. Uh I grew up in Czech Village and I live in Linton Heights now. I'm a realtor. I'm a business owner. I'm a product of public schools. Let's go Jay-Hawks. Uh I'm standing here today with y'all because I generally owe a lot of my success to teachers and frankly the system that invested in me. Alexander the Great said, "I owe it to my father for living and

090to my teacher for living well." In my work, I see how deeply schools affect property values, neighborhood stability, and whether families choose to stay in a city or leave it. Strong, well-run school districts create confidence. When that confidence erodess, so does investment. Right now, Cedar Rapids is facing a real economic pressure. Declining enrollment, rising costs, limited state support. We can't pretend those rallies don't exist. And doing nothing is also a decision. And it's usually the most expensive one. We all shouldn't be here right now. We all should be in De Moine. We should be asking the governor and legislature why ESAs in the voucher program defund public schools and cost Iowa taxpayers 129 million in 2023 and 248 million in 2024 25 and estimated cost of 315 million 2025 and 2026. The strong plan, the

091resolution that was passed by the school bit here represents responsible I believe represents a responsible use of data, consolidating resources that we need and aligning the system with students we actually have, not a system we had 20 years ago. Consolidation I don't believe is a failure. I believe it's a strategy and I think it allows us to protect classroom quality, retain teachers and invest where students will benefit most. From an economic standpoint, this is how communities stay healthy instead of slowly shrinking. As someone who markets to Cedar Rapids families investors, I want to be able to say the district is honest, forward-thinking, and willing to make hard choices for long-term stability. I believe before any decision is made with any of these models, we need a robust study on how each closure and how each

092consolidation will affect property values and therefore property taxes, which is what we are dealing with right now. This is why we have a budget shortfall along with the ESAs and I mean and frankly a lack of stewardship, right? the lack uh let me get back on track there. I get a little passionate. Uh what I believe we really need is we need that robust study on how closures and consolidation is going to affect each property value. Uh >> I'm so sorry >> man. All right. Well, thank you all and thank you for having us and letting us all talk. >> That concludes our speakers for tonight. Um before I call for a quick reset, I want to thank everybody for being here and for those that are able to stay for the presentation. Um I

093think it will be great for you to hear that and be able to provide input to us as well. I I just want to thank you for an extremely respectful um and thoughtful public comment section. At this time, we'd like to take a recess before beginning our work session. Is there a motion for a 10-minute recess? >> Second. Second. All those in favor say I. Oppose say nay. Okay. We will reconvene at 7 05. No, we can see that way. We both have one. I'll give you the >> It is 7:06. So, if you're back, would you please take your seat? Thank you. At this time the the board will reconvene. Uh we will having heard from those who chose to speak tonight the board will now begin the work session on the school redesign.

094We will start with a presentation from members of the community coalition and ELT. But first we'll have a mo a word from Dr. Lannon. >> Wonderful. Thank you uh to our team that's going to present. I just want to take a few uh minutes here. First of all, just to thank everyone for sharing whether you share tonight or through emails or phone calls or other ways of engagement. Um really sharing with us your heart as well as your individual stories. I really appreciate it. um hearing about the progress of our schools and seeing our students here tonight and what it really takes for a community to come together when we're talking about our schools and now we have that same opportunity to come together as a school district. Um I want to just maybe take

095a look back in terms of we're thinking about where we're going but also how far we've come. the process that we are discussing as it relates to school consolidation. It didn't just start tonight. It started back in 2018 and maybe even before that, but during in 2018, the school board adopted a formal resolution um related to some people call it the elementary plan. This was during the leadership of Dr. Buck and it continued during the tenure of Dr. Bush. When I joined the district, um the plan um we were on our way to opening trailside and there was a clause within that plan that really talked about evaluating the current circumstances. When that plan was adopted in 2018, no one knew that CO and other situations were going to occur here within our community. And

096so with that reality um there were some things um out of our control and certainly um some things that were basically tragedies but at the same time there was growth happening and so there were some adjustments that were made to that plan. For example Hoover and Van Beern they continued to grow and we needed two schools to accommodate uh the growth in their particular areas. As we move forward, we are still we've still been faced um we attempted a 2023 bond as well as a 2025 bond um in order to rightsize our school district. Neither one of those plans were overwhelmingly accepted by the community. Although we saw great progress as was mentioned tonight, there were a lot of people that put effort um behind it, but we still fell short, but yet the needs

097in the district, they still persist. So, we started this conversation early, really thinking about a budget conversation, and the board last week took steps to reduce um the budget by almost $13 million. And that was a process that was done with our community where we heard voices um that helped to guide their levels of support for certain reductions. While we still know that some of them are quite challenging to embrace, we are still working with our community to move forward to make our district financially stable. This is the transparency that I am offering to our school community um is to understand our financial state and what it's going to take for us for long-term sustainability. But more than that, once we got into the conversation, it really became how do we become a better, stronger

098district? How do we serve our students better? The same things that you're asking for here tonight. Through your surveys, we were transparent in the fact that boundaries might be considered. Through my newsletters, I have communicated that consolidation would probably have to be a part of this process. And why do we need it to be a part of our process? As our president noted earlier, moving away from all of our funding going into brick and mortar into where we can put it with our students and with our staff, the question has been asked, why are people leaving our district? I really do thank um the people that shared here tonight as well as the people who have been willing to share with us in a form of survey. They have shared with us that the number

099one reason that they are leaving it is due to safety and security within our buildings. A lot of that related to behavior. The other reason they're leaving they want advanced course offerings for their students also relating to the fine arts in other areas. They've also expressed concern around flexibility within schedules and our offerings that we have within the school district and individualized supports for our students. So, as we began this process with our administrators, I really do applaud them. They took the reigns of this conversation and it really be moved into how can we serve our students better. So, I really hope that you are able to hear that tonight. A few weeks ago, uh, we introduced that consolidation plan in order to create a true feeder pattern. We heard a lot about that tonight.

100And honestly, I've been hearing about the feeder pattern ever since I came to the school district. Now, we have that opportunity to create those guaranteed experiences for our students. You asked us to slow down and explore more options. I am very proud of our community coalition who continued to hang with us and work diligently to create a conceptual model um that represented additional feedback. So tonight you're going to see the results of their work of their conversations, their considerations. They'll be presenting three models here tonight. I also want to be clear that no decisions have been made and that we're committed as stated earlier to not starting any school consolidations for the school year of 2627. We're also committed to continuing to engage our community in this process. A survey will follow tonight where we

101will continue to uh provide more details in order to gain more input and it will not stop there. In order for us to have a true picture, we must have some idea of what model that we are approaching and we are committed to bringing back more robust details as it relates to transportation staffing and other areas of impact. So, thank you for staying with us tonight and being part of this conversation. And I am just so thrilled that we have this many people within our community, our families, and our schools being a part of this process with us. I'll turn it over to our team now. Thank you. Okay, great. We're up, Chad. Uh my name is Jillian Schulty. I'm the administrator to the office of the superintendent and I'm here tonight with Chad, our

102director of operations. And we are really just going to tee up um the presentations. You're going to get to hear from our executive leadership team and from the community coalition representatives who had the opportunity to vet and now they're here to champion um their model really to teach you about what their school consolidation model is all about. We have had four community coalition convenings. one in December that was virtual and then we've had three in January. And in the last two convenings is really when we got to bring people to the table to start to talk about let's throw you all of your ideas also on the wall. So we talked about at community coalition number three it was all about ideiation. Let's let's get all of that out here. And then the last community

103coalition that we held last week was really about taking that and then seeing what does this really look like when implemented and let's start to vet that. And so we were able to uh talk about some guard rails from which we could innovate within to really test those models out. So that's what Chad and I are here to do tonight is just to get give you a little bit of that context to paint that picture and then they will come up and present. So, we started the night last week with six school models that were we were going to explore to see if anyone wanted to champion those to go through that vetting or that guardrail process. Um, what we it's okay, you know, you best intentions of having animated slides. Before we began, we

104talked about what must be true. what are the guard rails or the non-negotiables that we are going to provide so that everyone understands the rules that we're playing by. So we talked about having those true feeder patterns meaning that clear pathway from elementary school to the next level to the next so you're really moving forward with your community cohort. Um we talked about needing at this time to think about our existing building inventory only. So, we talked about movein ready. Like when you um if a home is is movein ready, I can come in. It doesn't mean I don't paint the walls or change a few things here and there, but really structurally it's got to be movein ready. We needed it to produce some meaningful cost savings because we want to be able to

105bring back those programming, the things that that families and staff and communities say that they want. We need to be able to invest in those things. There needs to be a cost savings through that. Then we want to be able to improve our building utilization and um be responsiveness to those family priorities of having preschool and their neighborhood elementary schools to having enhanced fine arts and athletic opportunities. So those were the the guardrails that we talked about right away. Then we set some norms. We talked about being criteria based and that we are all here. We're going to assume positive intent. And the other thing that we introduced was it's okay to let go of ideas. It doesn't mean the idea is bad. It doesn't mean that it's great. It just means that not advancing

106a model definitely is not a failure. It's just evidence that we are working together to make decisions based on the criteria that we have all set together. So then we gave resources and we brought those viability scores. uh when we thought about what capacity do elementaryaries have um what um buildings might need to be upgraded for ADA compliance, those types of things, the cost um of of operating a building. and we gave people the opportunity to bring schools back online um that were originally introduced as options for closure just with the caveat that wherever we see red it's just a opportunity to go that's a risk that we might take in order to bring that building back online and we really need to be thoughtful about that. We provided building capacity data district level enrollment

107by grade and then the current uh maps the boundary maps. So we went through this model vetting in four phases. The first two are really important because in order in those first two um after we went through the feeder pattern check we did a stop and if the model wasn't viable after we thought if there were cracks in the feeder pattern it couldn't be a true feeder pattern. That's when groups said our model isn't viable. Um same thing was true with capacity in the utilization check. If after creating a feeder pattern we go, gosh, this won't work because we're we would need 200 or 300 more seats in this model, then the group had the opportunity to say this doesn't we've hit a roadblock and it doesn't pass that viability check. We never told anybody

108you're not viable. Groups themselves um came to that determination that that model wasn't viable. Um there were many you can see there's a there's like a frown face on the not viable behind you. Um, after people made that determination, they I I talked to them, how do you feel about that? And they said, I'm sad that this model doesn't work and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go through this process so that I have a better understanding. Then we got into the three and four around cost savings and family priorities. It wasn't that if it didn't meet a certain uh a certain threshold that it wasn't viable. Just meant at some point we really have to start thinking about if we don't get much return on our investment, are we willing to disrupt

109our whole system for that? Um and we wanted to make sure that we gave all of our uh groups the opportunity to think about how those models would deliver on the family priorities. So then we dug deeper into each of those and we did that feeder pattern check. And one of the things that I always find helpful, Chad, so if you would say it again, um, is Chad helps me understand the difference between the feeder pattern and the boundaries. And that's something that I think our our community, we continue to want to try to to teach people about. >> So we wanted to make sure that when we talked about feeder patterns and then we also talk about boundaries that we made that distinction. Feeder patterns kind of feel uh we we think of it

110like this. the schools that when where we start the next school we go to the next school feeding into one high school whereas the boundaries are the address where I live determines what school I will attend. So feeder patterns are the the flow of the schools up through the system the boundaries are where I live the address of where I live and what school I would go to. So we wanted to make that distinction that we're really talking about the feeder patterns right now. Once we land on the model, then we can start to talk about uh true boundaries and start to figure those out. So we the first thing we wanted them to do is to go through the feeder pattern and say is this model viable in the feeder pattern system. It's important

111to also understand that all six of the um models that were worked on at the community coalition were developed by the community coalition. uh there was um no model that they vetted on Tuesday night that wasn't a product of their work. So that was very important uh distinction. So again they went through they looked at where do I start, what elementaryaries do I start, which elementaryaries would remain open in that model, which elementaryaries would close and how would they flow through the system. So then the next thing that we um asked them to do was to put that on a chart paper and to uh make sure that it was on um documented which schools would be in the feeder patterns. And then we had a stop point at that point and we said are

112there any models that didn't work at that point. We'll talk about uh what models worked and didn't work here in a little bit. But there were a few that uh did not get past the feeder pattern uh stage. So after that it was kind of like a caucus. I'm sorry your candidate didn't work. Uh there's not enough uh support. You're going to have to join another group and and start going through that process. So then we went to the next stage which was the capacity and utilization of the buildings. uh we we provided that information to the to those groups. Uh they went through and they looked at uh do the buildings have enough capacity to hold uh in this model. And so we evaluated the buildings for that. And then after that we had

113another stop and we talked about does it work or does it not work and there was at least one or two that uh were not viable after that point as well. The nice part about this process is the community coalition was going through this work themselves. uh we were there as resources. Uh the this district support people were there for resources, but they were going through the process and they were determining whether or not their model was viable or not. Then we went through and we did a quick cost savings check. Um we approximated an elementary was approximately savings of a million dollars. A middle school is 1.5 million that night. Um Carla Hogan did a great job of doing some quick math that night and also came up with the value of a a

114high school at approximately $3 million. So we did a quick um cost savings check and made sure that that was also going to give us um the biggest bang for uh what we were trying to do. So we went through that process as well. Um and we allowed them to also then decide do we want to continue with this model depending on the cost savings that we went through at that point. Then finally, we talked about the family priorities. Uh preschool access and all elementaryaries, fine arts opportunities, competitive athletics were some of those driving um considerations that we took into consideration. We asked the question, does this provide that? Does this model provide those opportunities for our families and for our our kids? >> Perfect. Thank you, Chad. And then after we went through all

115four of those, we go to the next slide. This one has so many animations. So hang with me, Justin. Um the Ksix model was one that um was on the paper like people had ideiated about it. They threw it on the wall. They designed for it. And then when we came back for community coalition convening number four, that one did not have a hand raiser to say, I want to go vet this and I want to champion this. Again, doesn't mean it's not a good idea. It just didn't have a champion there. And that's okay because our commitment was it's okay to let go of ideas. Then next, the the cluster model was smaller um tighter grade level bands. That was not viable after our feeder pattern check. And then our 511 model was not

116viable after the capacity and utilization check. They did kind of hang in there for a little bit longer because they're they were like right on the cusp of being viable. So uh they were able to get dot votes at the end. Uh the K8 model made it through the viability check and in the end when it was time to place your dots on a model that you believed would would strengthen our district that didn't receive any dots. So that just shows you kind of where the models um fell out during that convening. Uh as I said just a second ago, each participant got two dots. They could spend them how they chose. They could put them both on one or um split them up. We had one person only use one of their dots, so

117they got to choose how they wanted to use them. Uh and then you can see next kind of how that all played out. And so that's why there are three models that between the ELT and our community coalition they'll be sharing with you. Uh they'll be really showing their work with you and talking to you about that model and the feeder pattern and all the great things that they've they've thought about um to present to you tonight. So with that we'll turn it over to our first group which I believe is the intermediate model. All right. So, we are the uh champions for the intermediate model and we agreed to wear uh clothing res resembling the three areas uh today. Uh I'm Jason Klein. I'm principal at Kennedy High School. U and I'll get us

118started off here and let everybody introduce themselves as we go. Um our plan focuses on uh the idea of having five six and then seven eight buildings. Um and two options have come uh out from the conversations that have been that have been had. First option was the option that was presented uh earlier uh where um you had uh in area three uh you had an intermediate school that would be outside well both of the middle schools in the intermediate school would be outside of the area 3 geography. Um but this did give us the opportunity to utilize all of our existing middle schools for that 56 and 78 buildings and required less reconfiguration of existing buildings. Um, in order to do that, uh, it resulted in the closing of Wright, CRA, Cleveland, Nixon, Pierce,

119and Truman. And Johnson, uh, was asterised on both plans as a possible keep or, uh, remove, and we'll talk a little bit about capacity and how, uh, that might play out in making decisions down the road. Option two is a different uh view um focused on preserving geographic unity for areas three and areas two um and it reduces boundary disruptions though none of these plans that we'll learn about tonight um eliminate boundary disruptions. There will probably be changes to boundaries no matter what happens. But in this particular plan, um, we would be able to keep the intermediate school within area three, making that Violet Gibson, uh, which, uh, we'll talk about the capacity, uh, and and what, um, Violet Gibson can do in that particular realm in a minute. Uh, that would result in the

120three elementary schools for, uh, area 3 being Hayawa, Harrison, Maple Grove, and Pierce. It would then mean that we would need to use Franklin uh use Roosevelt and Taft for area 2. That would keep uh a little bit more geography in place for area 2 um by allowing Roosevelt to be that intermediate school and Taft to be the middle school. And Wilson would be utilized as an elementary school. Uh that would result in uh the change of what schools would be closed. Uh Wright, CRA, Cleveland, Grant, Nixon, and Truman. And again, Johnson is asterisk up there. Uh might or might not depending on what the board would decide to do down the road. Again, um these two different options uh can be played with a variety of different ways, but does give a little bit

121more flexibility and both have uh benefits uh and drawbacks. Next, we're going to talk about capacity. And Joselyn's going to present some data uh that she has found on each of these ideas. >> All right. Jasine Hannah, principal at McKinley Steam Academy. And so we took the information that was shared uh through the community coalition around capacities, enrollment in buildings. And the next slide, Justin, we went through each one of the buildings and put their current reality. So how many kids they currently have preschool through fourth grade. So those numbers are going to look a little lower because we took the fifth graders out. So you can see what each one of the buildings has uh PK for. And then if they have preschool or AK, um you can kind of see them to the

122side. I separated that out just so we could see how many preschool versus K4 in a building. And then at the bottom, we kind of give a total number of kids in the area. Um this is just on current schools that are currently in those areas is kind of how we did that knowing boundaries can shift as you adjust these numbers. And so when you look at option one, um that would be without Johnson. Uh we took the Johnson 215 kids uh kindergarten through fourth grade and then Writes 186 um kindergarten through fourth grade. If you add those up, it's about 400. You divide that by four amongst the other. I have to add about a 100 to each one of those schools. So it gives a new number of Erskin being 375, uh Grantwood

123365, Trailside about 500, and then KLA close to 400. And then how many sections of preschool can fit in there? Um the capacity size of Erskin would only be able to get you one section of preschool at Erskin. When you look at all the maps and how many actual classrooms are in all of those plus the other buildings can do year two plus your AK. Um in this model both Erskin and Grantwood would both be at their capacity numbers that they can hold in a building. Um there would be some room left in Trailside and KLA. Not a ton, but there is space still in capacity wise in those two buildings. Option two brings Johnson back into the mix. And so those numbers are really calculated off just taking the 186, dividing it by five,

124adding about 30-ish kids to each one of their numbers. And then you can see um how they do now have space to have equal preschool around them um in their buildings. We would be operating at a much less capacity in those buildings, but gives opportunity for growth on that area. one side um keeping Johnson open. You can see the 56 numbers. Those would run about 534 um and then 543 in the 78 building. So that's kind of at area one. Area two here, same thing. We took the current reality of preschool through 4th. You can see their numbers up there. You can see if they have preschool. Area two, those current buildings there, none of them have AK in them. And so that's just a consideration you have to remember is there's not an AK

125in this area right now. Um and so option one um is taking CRA 177 plus Cleveland's 215 again get you about adding 100 to each one of those buildings to see what the new capacity of those buildings would be plus preschool and then an AK somewhere. In option one grant is your smaller number. They're very similar to Erskin that can hold about the 350 and one section of preschool. Um, when you look at their map and the number of classrooms they have in it. Um, but you would have capacity in Van Beern and Hoover for about 100 kids still with some wiggle room in there at their 600. And then option two goes down to having the Wilson um elementary with Grant CRA and Cleveland closing. Um and so those would be taking um those

126numbers and adding um Wilson Elementary I just added the CRA and grant together and that's where you get the 425 plus some preschools and then you will see the bigger buildings would have lower capacity in those um with that and Wilson's capacity is like 550ish kids. So there would be some room in that building in that option. And then you would see oh one more Justin uh Wilson if your 56 building was Wilson they'd be sitting about 621 in option one and 631 in uh the 78. And then if it was Roosevelt those numbers stay the same but I just put the schools there so you could see what the capacity numbers in those buildings would look like. And then area three is the Kennedy feeder system. Again, we took all of those numbers, added

127them up. Um, you can see that two schools have AK in the current Kennedy area 3 feeder system. And so, in option one is closing Pierce and Nixon. And so, for that, I just took 246 plus 213. Divide that by four. You can see what we added about 115 kids to each one of those buildings plus your preschool. And then you'd have an AK in there. um those buildings would be getting closer to to capacity, but still some room um in option one for movement. Option two leaves Pierce open um moves Gibson down to a 56 building. And then you see those new numbers. So in option two, I have to take the 404 plus 213. So I have 600 and some kids that I have to now divide amongst four buildings. Pierce is about

128that 350 um when you look at their map. So they can do a three section building plus one preschool room still leaving some classrooms for special ed and those available within the space. Um so similar to your Erskin and your grant and then you would see Maple Gove would move up to 580 plus one preschool would fit in there because their capacity is about 600. Um, Hayawa is 450 with two preschools would be pushing them at 500 which would be close to their capacity as well. And then Harrison um would have 525. If you had two preschools in one AK, that'd also be getting them close to their capacity of 600. So in option two, you really max out the capacity in the buildings with that. Gibson is your other one. 736 is very high.

129Um I think there was some figuring in the community coalition around the 600. 736 would mean some very like 28 to 30 class sizes. Um the spaces there, but it would be very tight. But knowing boundaries could be shifted and kids could be shifted to the others depending on where those lines are. You would have some numbers that you could shift there. >> So we look at those numbers. Um it is important to keep in mind that that is if we were to stay with the boundaries we have exactly right now. So obviously as we've said before all of these plans would require probably some evaluation of boundaries shifting some more than others. Um but we do believe the option two gives us a little bit more of a opportunity to minimize those boundary shifts.

130Uh both of these plans close six elementary schools uh in the end. So that would result in $6 million approximately in savings. um a pretty uh common thread that we're seeing in all these different plans we'll be talking about tonight. Next, we're going to talk about um family priorities and whether these particular uh programs or these these particular plans meet those priorities and Condra is going to talk a little bit about that. >> All right. Um I'm going to talk a little bit about preschool here. Um one of we've heard clearly from the community that preschool needs to be back in our elementary. So that that is what we're trying to do here. make preschools available in every single elementary. We've heard that loud and clear. We also know and I've had multiple families tell

131me that that's why they stayed at Cleveland. I'm the principal at Cleveland Elementary and multiple parents have said we start they're permitted into our building and they stayed there because they went there as preschoolers. So, I think it's a great way to retain students in our elementarymentaries. They start in CRCSD, they stay in CRCSD. So, I would love to see those preschools back in the elementaryaries any way we can. fine arts. We heard Storm Ziggler talk about how the fine arts are excited about the intermediate model. It creates that equity across the district, more programming starting at the fifth grade level. I think about my experience starting band in fifth grade and how great that would be for all students in our district. Um it um stabilizes um the viability of all those offerings. So,

132if we have um five, six buildings, seven, eight buildings, we're going to be able to offer all of those things across all buildings, band, choir, orchestra, whatever. We can we can provide give students more opportunities at a younger level. Um I really like the idea of starting that band at fifth grade. Um we don't have a solid plan yet because we don't know if we're moving forward, but the opportunity for students to start earlier will create that success as they go through the feeder program. It also gives that equit equitability across all three feeders. So we're not trying to steal from this school, this school, this kids going to that school. So it would it would be great to have that feeder system. And for the fine arts and um athletics, um Brian White talked

133about this tonight, allow students to engage in sports at an earlier age. Whether it's going to be inter murals at the 56 or whether we're going to compete against the uh schools within the city, we we don't know yet, but it it's a great opportunity. Um Brian White tonight talked a little bit about in his statement about how coaches could work down their feeder system so they could really work with those coaches. And as a former coach myself who coached at Cedar Rapids Jefferson, I I know what it was like to have those Blue Devils for softball players. So we want to get that going again where we have true feeders. We have those junior Jay-Hawks, those junior cougars, and those junior warriors. Um, getting them getting them those feeder systems. Um, so we can

134have that for athletics as well. Next up is the research. Oh, I'm sorry. >> Um, I'm just going to Hi, Dr. Carl Rolls from Jefferson. Um, to tag on to some of that equity stuff as Storm alluded to with the staffing efficiencies. Um Emily Barnes, our general music content lead, um spent the time to look at our music staffing across the district and she figured that we have about 43.75 FTE of music teachers across the district. And if we went to this proposed intermediate model, we could staff every building with a full-time specialist in each area with 45 FTE. And then we already have the existing equipment that we would need to teach the students. Um that does mean the general music teacher is teaching choir in our 56 intermediate buildings at 45ft FTE. Um

135and to split that job apart into a general music and a coral specialist would mean that like districtwide only going to 40ft. So like we are almost there of what we can really provide. And when we first heard of this intermediate model, um, we were really kind of shocked because it can alleviate, uh, I I estimate just with no information really like nine out of the 10 problems that we've been bringing and discussing, um, with you since July and with the the district personnel um, in those meetings. So, it really has the potential to shift us in a really positive direction. Um but then equalizing that FTE and enrollment and job duties would mean greater equity to uh additional opportunities whether that's honor bands, honor ensembles, um small group instruction, leadership and performance opportunities, those

136become more equitable across the district as well. um into the research slide. Um Jeremy Nhard has been doing a lot of writing on what higher fine arts enrollment means when it comes to staffing, especially at the high school level. Um great large ensembles are designed to absorb a lot of students without necessarily adding staff at the same pace. So we could easily take on another 20, 40, 60, 80 students um with our existing staffing. And so that that means you have more students who are fulfilling elective requirements, especially as our freshman and sophomores are required to do seven of eight. And then students who are in marching band and show choir then can also get their PE requirement waved um per the state accommodation. So they are killing two birds with one stone which creates

137more efficiency in the system. It also alleviates um some pressure that our PE teachers face of having to get every student in the entire building. Um and then it also alleviates pressure in creating additional like lower enrollment electives that students would need in order to fill those requirements. And so we absorb complexity in scheduling. It adds more flexibility um to the master schedules. Um and as alluded to, the true feeders would allow more vertical collaboration through our fine arts programs. I would love to be able to work straight down to the beginning band of blue. Um and that's that's what all of our colleagues across the 4A systems are doing and have tremendous success with that because they have that strong vertical alignment. Those high school directors are building relationships in the intermediate and the

138middle schools and so those students are retaining more and the consistency of teaching and expectations is what creates retention and performance. >> Some of the other I'm going to quick go back one just one some of the other research uh that I that I looked up and uh found really focused on sixth grade and I if wants to add anything since you know about sixth graders and I really don't. Um, sixth graders are a real special group though and a lot of the research uh indicates that um where you place sixth grade makes a really big difference and when sixth grade is the bottom of the rung um they tend to suffer more than any other grade level in that rung. So, seventh graders don't suffer as much and even fifth graders don't suffer as

139much. But because of the developmental age of sixth graders, um these researchers, for example, found that um when sixth graders were not at the bottom, they experienced a lot less bullying and they did better on tests. So, when they were in either a K6 model or in this situation, a five six model, um they would theoretically perform better on their on their tests. Um, meanwhile, the fifth graders wouldn't necessarily suffer from being the quote unquote bottom dog. Uh, because in that model, you're only down low for one year and then you're back up at the top again. Um, and so there isn't a lot of research out there on a 56 model on an intermediate model that we've been able to find. Um, it's not a it's not a common model. Um but it it

140seems to take the benefits of that K6 um model and also al alleviates the problems that you get um when you have sixth graders working alongside first and second graders uh where you have them separated out. Um the other thing is that um most of the research shows that being exposed to older behavior is not good for kids of that age group. uh when you're talking about 11 and 12 year olds um and that they are not mature enough to process those things um and so they fit better with that fifth grade group or they fit better if you have to choose between the two with the younger students than they do with the older students. I don't know if there's anything you'd like to contribute to that Jocelyn from your experience. I think the

141transition in um to middle school from elementary um they're used to in most schools staying in their little cohort of kids or teachers. They go out for specials. Um in middle school we kind of throw them into you have eight transitions now. And you're trying different methods to help them with those transitions and now seven, eight different teachers personalities throughout the day. And so I just think if you can ease them in and practice in that five, six with two, three, four transitions, start to practice it in that cohort model, and then really when you hit middle school, they're now used to having what passing time looks like. Um, you can control passing time a little bit differently. Um, and I also think the K6 laws makes that really hard to do within a 68

142building. Um because seventh and eighth grade expectations from the state look very different than sixth grade expectations when it comes to the laws and they look much more like fifth grade which is why they're kind of running two schools within one in a 68 building. Not sure what's on it's mine. Here are some other benefits that were kind of shared here. Um really um Jason just hit on that developmental appropriateness for fifth grade. It really allows for some more targeted focus instruction. So your fifth and sixth grade teachers um have similar certifications. And so in the state of Iowa, you are certified K6 or you're certified 512. So those are your two certification pieces. And so for example, in our building, none of my fifth grade or none of my sixth grade teachers can teach

143anything but sixth grade. And so if you have a section of kids, if you're really over that 150 160, you have to start having teachers teach two grade levels. In for example in our smaller buildings that gets much difficult when you start looking at certifications of teachers and so we can really target that instructional focus and it provides some teaming opportunities. So teachers maybe are teaching two contents. You're limiting that things. You really get to know the kids in a smaller model versus a whole team of eight staff members. Um that peer stability. So you from fifth grade to 12th grade you're now with that same group of friends where not every couple of year from you know middle school you're trying to reestablish kind of who's that new top dog and then when you

144go to high school you're mixing again and you're trying to reestablish and figure that out in ninth grade it's the one time in fifth grade you get that group and then you're all the way through. Um we've kind of hit on the fine arts. I think athletics, when you think about that, we're able to compete with our area schools because we have enough kids to do an A team, a B team, a C team when we try to compete with others. Right now, we can compete with others with one team sometimes, sometimes two teams with that. Um, but then there are added costs when you think around coaches, referees. So, doesn't matter if that referee refs one game or three games, we're paying them the same amount because it's a set cost. And so, let's

145give our kids more opportunities around those things. um uniforms, facilities, all that comes in there with cost savings and providing those opportunities for kids that we're doing across six buildings. And we could really target that within three. Um I think you can really target that behavioral social skills and expectations with those fifth and sixth graders um a little bit differently than your seventh and eighth graders. Um you really can start that identity and pride as I talked about. You're a warrior all the way through a J-Hawk or a cougar. So they know that and you can really build that feeder system. our resources. Um, you know, right now we have to put an interventionist in sixth grade and really because sixth grade has to have intervention based on state law, seventh and eighth grade has

146to look different and so how we have to operate those. We can really think about our resources across the board. Um, and then really that elimination of the transition from preschool to kindergarten. we're building their identity from the moment they walk into that school that they know um what school they're a West Willow student to build that as well as a J a junior J-Hawk for that. Um but we know there are things of consideration transition dips staff lure and how that all works and there are some disruptions to families. >> Are there questions that we can answer? You spoke about the benefits around teacher license lensure but it's also on the considerations list. Can you explain that a little bit about why that might be a drawback the teacher lensure? >> It it's about

147I can do it. It's about I understand it enough >> at the elementary level. Uh, it's about putting 5'8 together is what the consideration is. Six. So 56, we all have the same teacher license. So I'm a K6. I'm a K6 certified teacher. So I can teach anything in that building. It doesn't matter. I can teach science. I can teach math. I can teach social studies because I'm K6 certified. Whereas in when you're in seventh and eth, you got to be highly qualified. I can speak to my husband who teaches computer science and he's only K math. So the only thing he can teach in middle school is that computer science class or that math class. So like that's the that's the you got to consider and we're going to have some of both. So

148we can't it will talk about staffing when we if we would go to this model and you would have us explore we would have to talk about how we're going to staff this because you can't just do unilateral say we're going to put all sixth grade teachers down in 56 because they might not be certified to teach K6. They might be certifi Yeah. they're 512 or they might only be math or that kind of stuff. So, it does take some consideration in how we're going to staff the buildings. >> And that's important to the fine arts because one of the greatest things that can assist in growing enrollment or can diminish enrollment immediately is scheduling. And an intermediate model where fifth and sixth are separated from seventh and eighth provides more scheduling support for students

149to be in those beginning band and orchestra classes and in general music and choir. Um whereas if those were all in one building that would create blocks in the schedule. Also because of room use you would have further constrictions on when and how often those groups can meet. >> Thank you so much for the presentation. And I know that this has taken an immense amount of additional time, so we really appreciate um what you put into this. So um we heard a lot tonight about how there was some equitable access uh issues with courses, programs, numbers of teachers and buildings, specifically WASH having significantly less um than the other two high schools. So I'm trying to think about this kind of long term when I'm looking at these numbers. The area one feeder, it looks

150like, has about 200 less kids in each of their five, six, and seven, eight buildings. So, um, as we're just thinking, you know, how we we don't want to perpetuate the issue that we already have. >> These are raw numbers right now. This does not take into border changes. Okay? So, we're going to have to change some some boundary issues. Like, those were raw numbers. Okay? We're not going to put 730 kids in Viola Gibson, right? So, we're going to have to if you would say we're moving forward with the intermediate model, we would have to then go to boundaries and we would have to rightsize the buildings. Like this is just pure numbers right now. So, I don't I don't think we can necessarily say yes or no right now. >> Yep. And that's

151I'm thankful that you kind of touched on the feeder pattern and the boundaries and the timeline around that. Um, so maybe you as an added question then what is the timeline of you know establishing the feeder pattern and then determining boundaries? Do we know how closely those two things happen? >> Well, I think I think it comes down to what direction we get from the board and when that direction comes in and then we start working on the nuances of how that happens so we can make it a realistic answer. Um, I don't know that we're going to have boundary answers before we decide this is the model we're going to go with or whichever model we're going to go with because to get into that minutia is going to take a lot of time

152and it's going to require a lot of of exploration. But to speak to the point about equity, um I would point out that one of the big benefits of going to this particular model, uh having that separated 56, especially when it comes to fine arts and it comes to um athletics right now, if you look at our our current situation, athletics is very much dictated to what access kids have to athletic activities in elementary school. And right now, that is club sports. And that those club sports are very expensive. And so the schools that have more money sitting in them, not the schools themselves, but the parents are are getting access to sports much earlier. This would level the playing field for all of our students by giving every kid in this district access to

153sports and music much earlier that otherwise they'd be paying out of pocket for. Um so I think when you talk about the the equity aspect of this, I really think that the 56 model offers us that opportunity. Um, not to mention that having those feeder systems then means that those kids not only are going to get access, but they're going to get access to the high school and middle school coaches working downward to help build a system up. Um, that's going to be a much more effective way for them to learn than learning one way, then going to a middle school, learning another way, and then going to a high school and learning a third way, which is the way that it is right now for our system. And then when it comes to the

154academic aspect of things, um because we're going to be consolidating buildings and even though um the numbers that you saw the raw numbers up there, there is going to still be disparity, right? If you just take the raw numbers, we can definitely even them them out. But we're going to have buildings with more students in them, which gives us the opportunity to put more teachers in those buildings because it's a simple formula of of how many teachers are there, which then means that we can make sections of those advanced classes more available to all of our buildings as opposed to just the larger buildings. So, um I think in the long run, what this provides us with is earlier access to advanced coursework, earlier access to to arts, and earlier access to athletics um that

155right now not every kid necessarily has the same access to in this district. just before you start to answer your question. Oh, I don't have the answer to your question regarding um how all this comes together. That would be part of the studying aspect of it. So if we advance a model, if we advance two models, whatever that might be, the next steps are to really dig in and and have a group study that and figure out the answers to all of those questions. >> Begin by just again, thank you. Um I know this is not what your normal day job is and and so and I know there's a lot of extra work that's gone into this and meetings in the evening and that sort of thing. Not that many of you don't spend

156your evenings already doing uh school work, but uh I do appreciate it. Um first question was just around the uh I noticed we talked about there not being a current AK in the area too. Um again knowing the the flex there still is in numbers and schools and that sort of thing. Would that be a consideration as well of of making sure there was an AK available in that area? So um first uh want to also thank all the community members that were part of this group too because they certainly don't spend their evenings working on these things. So very much appreciative of all the community members that have been part of this. Um the answer short answer is yes. Um we would be looking at that as part of that study to determine where

157it's feasible to have AK where it's needed. Um and again because boundary shifts might happen the students that move or don't move might change where you need to put AK and where you don't need to have AK. Thank you. Yeah, you you touched on this a little bit, but I just wanted to maybe see if you were could help us drill down a little more. A lot of our public comment tonight uh centered around, you know, what what is it? Why is it that we're losing students? And there's many reasons for that, right? But, um certainly we know and we've seen stats that behavior is a big item. Uh we also know that when it comes to having choice in schools, there are a lot of families with uh students that have IEPs or or

158special education needs that don't have choices and the Cedar Rapids Community School District will be continue to be their choice. Can you talk to, you know, how those pieces fit into this plan and and the benefits u and maybe the challenges as well of uh this model um in in serving those students well? >> Yeah, Conra Conra wants to speak. I can tell. Well, I want to talk a little bit about special education because that's my that's my realm. Um uh I think we're going to have to really dig into that in the next steps for special education students and making sure they have the correct opportunities that they deserve. Um but I will say our special ed model right now does look at the needs of students and it's not it's not necessarily based

159on all programming. It's what the student needs and so we do have we do try to meet the needs of all of our special education staff and students. Um, so we haven't decided, I don't believe, if I'm correct, like if we go into the intermediate model, this school will have this special ed programming, this school will have this, but that will be part of the next step, I believe. So, I I truly believe that we will take that into consideration. Um, we have programs now in all our buildings and we support all special education staff. This would also I want to go back to somebody who talked a little bit about staffing needs and and the staffing model. Right now, the way our staffing model works, for example, I'll give my third grade's at almost

160completely at capacity, but we might have a third grade building at I'm making this up, JSA, so I'm just looking at you. They might only have 14 in there. And so this by right- sizing the I know you don't. It was a joke. Um, but what I'm saying is but I do know there are buildings like I'm at 22 in kindergarten and there are other at 15, right? So by consolidating and going to this K4 model, we hopefully would address those as well. So, so I think if this is the model or there's two models we move forward with, special education is going to become the next thing we look at behavior. I I do believe moving fifth and sixth grade. They're a unique group. I taught in a five six building. They're a very

161unique group of children and I I do believe we can focus on their behavior and mental health and drill down farther in this model. I truly believe that >> I think it provides the age appropriateness uh for that 56 group especially, but also it allows us to focus on the younger kids with the things that they need as well. Um the other thing I'll let you Sorry, I didn't mean to. Um the other thing I'll point out is that again the the feeder patterns allow for us to have expectations that go vertically. uh that allow us to start from the top and move down so that what we want to see students graduating with in terms of behaviors we are able to start in kindergarten and we can have greater consistency because again the students

162are going to be following a very clear pattern of expectations from school to school. Uh the other thing I would point out too is this model does allow students to be in the same peer groups from fifth grade on continuously. Um, and part of that behavior that we see happen, especially I think at the sixth grade transition, is this I don't know who everybody is and I have to show off to them. I've got to prove who I am to them. U, we see that in the high school level, too, with our nth graders. Um, and so I think that when you already know everybody that's going to be there, the only thing that's changed are the walls that are around you. uh we'll see a a greater um uh lesser need I should say

163from students in that kind of showing off that kind of showing out um because they they've already established their peer groups they know who everyone is um and they're able to kind of function as a as a family moving all the way up from fifth grade on >> um also when you look at like the schools and like their capacity and their number pieces of things when this was calculated I also took every building map and went through them and said like here's where first grade second grade no granite I can go anywhere. But also left three classrooms for special ed support ELLL title to make sure we were not missing that support in every building. Plus, we know there's like offices and weird nooks and crannies that can be for other support people. But

164every map that I went through also built three support classrooms in there so that could be used for special ed and those services in all the elementary models. So when you look at those numbers, it also ensures that there are three support classrooms around for special ed, ELLL, title, packed, all those additional services. Um, plus we know they have offices, but actual classroom sizes. Okay, I was trying to think a lot of numbers here, a lot of things to crunch. Okay. So, I was thinking back to um well, a lot of conversations around kind of what families are looking for, these smaller class sizes, the neighborhood schools that keeps coming up. So, in these different models, it looks like, you know, there's an opportunity to potentially um save a couple of the schools that are

165on the chopping block that would allow for that to um we could have those smaller classes in those scenarios. Am I thinking of this correctly that in with that option we would then close one of the middle schools and there would be a cost savings there. So instead of the >> No, none of them none of those close a middle school building. Wilson would be an elementary school. >> So now you would add Grant to the list. >> Yeah. >> Trying to figure out where Roosevelt >> Roseville actually might be one of You're right. I think in maybe >> under one of them depending on how it shakes out there could be a middle school savings. >> no they the Wilson takes the place of Sierra and grant >> grant it comes together. >> Okay.

166>> So that's another elementary. >> Okay. Just trying to think through how what the cost savings looks like. Thank you for that. Um because there was someone who was speaking from one of the large elementary schools. It might have been West Willow. I'm not sure. But of just us having to add more supports, right? So I think that that's just another important figure if we are going to have to bolster the support in those larger schools at some point in time like we are doing retroactively. um just worth considering how we can um you know still achieve those smaller class sizes and not have those extra added supports. And these were calculated based on like the staffing model from last year and those class sizes of you know preschool's got to be under 20 like

167we know that number with it and it was hard to calculate like are we get how many sections a full day how many half day because that's 40 for a teacher versus 20. Um, and so put that number about 50. Just average it out when you look at it and how many kids we have across the board. Kindergarten, you know, you're sitting at that 21 uh first grade 23 and then 3 through 5 is 25 and then it goes up as you hit into the secondary ages. Um, with that class size pieces to honor that that has been part of the staffing model. >> It feels pretty easy to get distracted about the numbers, right? So just thinking earlier that we were talking about feeders and then we'll talk about boundaries because when we look

168at the numbers they're not even right the areas are not even because that was the thing that was glaring to me is that Biola Gibson goes from 404 to somehow 736 and I don't think the math works at all so that's not really an option but the idea is would we go to feeders in this 56 78 type model and then we would have to look at those boundaries to start to get those numbers a little bit closer. Okay. So, that's that helps a lot. >> And Gibson would have to hold about 28 to 30 a class. So, I did do that map and we went through all the classrooms to it, but it would need modifications. It has preschool lockers. It has those kind of things and you'd have to look at adjustments, but

169736 would be pushing the boundaries of capacity in that building. >> Great. Thank you. And this is probably I don't know if it's a question for your team or just a question overall. The numbers that we're looking at, it's million dollars for an elementary school. I heard $1.5 million for middle school, $3 million. Those are just estimates. Those seem to be really nicely rounded numbers. So, when would we get to like an actual like elementary school number so we can really get really close? I mean, is it really that tight that it's really close to a million dollars per elementary school? >> Matt, that's not us. Yes, closing an elementary school is about a million dollars of savings and that's because you have at the size that's figuring the one purse. So, count guidance counselors

170principles um your specials that um right now are shared um that's not doing any increase in specials. We did that. We'll we'll do that outside of the model. Um secretaries, custodians, all of those um costs for an elementary school. Middle school also includes the one purse, but it also includes um the coaching, um all of our schedule B con contracts for speech, debate, all the things that middle schools have, um robotics, um and then high schools include sports and um all their facilities too in their model. And I think just one piece of clarification because I I think I've heard from the community too. You close a building, you save money. There's changes that happen, right? So then there's increased enrollment in other places. So just want to make sure that we save a million

171dollars by closing a school. How much does the cost increase in the other places? And I think that's just the point of clarification that that I feel like I'm hearing. >> Yeah. So teaching is um won't change based because teaching is still based on enrollment. So using the same enrollment strategy, if we have the same enrollment we have today in fewer schools, the teaching model won't change um for uh a a kindergarten teacher, first grade, second grade, because you still have the same amount of students that you need um teachers for. And another point of clarification, we were talking about closing schools, not selling schools. I'm I'm assuming there's costs associated with maintaining these buildings. So maybe you can elaborate on closing, selling. >> Yeah. And so we haven't talked at all about what to

172do with the buildings that are closed. Um that will come later. >> I have a question that might be for Chad. It's more of a a pondering, but I noticed that um in this model, it looks like we're shifting middle schools down to be elementary at the 56. And I'm just wondering, have we or could we um perhaps look at shifting elementaryaries up like you did with Gibson, for example, like area two and area one? Is there a potential that a larger elementary could be looked at as a 56 and close our middle schools? Yes. Yes, there is potential for that. I think it would we would have to take a look at the number of uh students that are in those buildings. Uh whether or not we have enough classrooms. When you start to

173talk about a 56 building, you're really talking about teaching those in uh quads or or pairs because you um in a 5-6 model, you you think about having four teachers. Uh usually two teachers would teach science, math, and the other one would be English, social studies, something like that. Then there would be some changing of classroom. So, it's really the number of classrooms in a building, not necessarily the number of students in a building uh in having x amount of students in a in a uh class. Does that make sense what I'm saying? So, you you kind of got to have the the appropriate number of classrooms to be able to have a 56 building. So, we just have to take a look at that. Some of our newer newer buildings um uh Hoover, Van

174Beerren, Harrison, uh they have additional classrooms because prek classrooms are a part of that uh plan. So there's um four section grade levels K5 plus the pre uh preschool classrooms in those buildings. >> I think the other thing when we ran the newer buildings for that is that the new ones like West Willow, Maple Grove only have 28 classrooms and you need 31 if you're going to offer like your choir, band, orchestra. Gibson does have 31 in it. It was built differently where the new buildings have a lot of like small like office title one teacher pack teacher like smaller spaces where Gibson actually has the number of classrooms necessary which is why they went with Gibson on that just that's kind of a shift with it. >> That's a really good point. So those

175other uh support um services that you need those bigger classrooms for if you're going to do orchestra in addition to band and that type of stuff. I also think it's a little bit of a preschool concern because our newer buildings like West Willow and Maple Grove, they were built for preschool to be in there and so you've got the playground, you've got the thing already built. So I think preschool is also a concern if you would say for some reason they could fit a 56. I mean, they're already made for preschool. And our buildings, the ones that we're building right now, um, Hoover, uh, Van Beerren, and Harrison are far enough along in the design process that it would take significant changes and probably significant, um, investment to be able to change where we're at.

176We're we're pouring footings and foundations as we speak. So, it would take a a big a lot of investment to to change those, um, footprints of those buildings. right now. >> I was looking at the dots on these pages of the community um coalition and the model they were looking to endorse, it looks like this does had the most support there. Um you know, I truly believe if uh staff are behind the model, parents will follow. Um, so I'm just curious uh which model if this generally speaking which model is most endorsed by our staff, teachers, admin and maybe you can speak to in your own respective buildings just what you're hearing um so we can get an indication of um staff support. >> Okay. So I can for us we've had a little bit

177of conversation um at McKinley about this though my sixth grade teachers would be very very sad to leave us. They say every year we talk about what are we going to do like our sixth graders. What are we gonna do different to help them in? What are we gonna do to ease them in? And they do believe the 56 is the right thing. It's something different. Do they want to leave the building? No. Nobody wants to leave where they have found home in their family. But but they see what's best for kids is the 56 because every year we talk about our sixth graders. What can we try this year? What can we address? And every year we address something to try to figure it out. Um, but it's still we're still with it and

178they're they do believe it's the right thing and they can see the power behind what you can do with our seventh and eighth graders. Now, I don't have a vote and a number on that, but that's been our conversation like in our building leadership and those kind of things um with their questions. >> Um, from a from a I'll speak two perspectives, staff perspective, especially as we're working to integrate teaming and instructional empowerment and it's something that we kind of naturally do in fine arts. Um, I can tell you that there are significant hurdles to current the current setup and getting freshmen to collaborate and work together because they don't know each other that would be ostensively remedied by being in the same peer group starting from fifth grade. So, they're already familiar with those

179same students and getting them to work together can be integrated a lot faster, which is going to increase their pace of learning. um from a theater perspective and just like the secondary fine arts, we are almost unanimously absolutely in support of it. We believe that the current um feeder path is one of the greatest hurdles to the success our of our programs. Um parents are very prideful in their schools. Um, and so we are very cautious of how we recruit students because if I go visit Taft, I could upset a Kennedy parent that thinks I'm trying to poach their kids and vice versa. Even though we could say, I don't care what school your kid goes to, just as long as they keep playing in band. Um, this alleviates a lot of that and it

180addresses some inequities that occurred as a result of the staffing model. Um on the one hand, while we appreciate the autonomy given to building principles, it inherently created um inequities across the district as those individual decisions were made. So if we look at our current middle schools and what those directors are teaching and their workload, it's vastly different from school to school and what kids are offered is vastly different from school to school and what they have access to. and shifting to something like this would rightsize that chip. >> I wouldn't add much more to that. You heard from two of my teachers, both of whom came to me and talked to me about these things. Um I would say that I don't know that teachers have really been presented the two high school model

181or really even the 58 model to be able to weigh in on that um in in a lot of depth. But when they were surveyed and then they were given more information and surveyed again, um this model came up as very very positive with teachers at all levels. Um and the feedback that I've gotten from staff has been uh over overwhelmingly positive though cautious because this is something new and something that's not been tried before. So um it's not something that I I think we could say they like they preferred over the others. I don't think most of my teachers would be very pleased about the two high school model, but that's just me. Um, but I think that the the idea of that has not really been talked about. So, I don't know that

182we could say definitively that they would be in favor of this more or less. >> I appreciate those sentiments and just sharing um because someone alluded in public comment to the 70% of the survey where parents, community members were interested in this model, then once the closures were presented, that might have shifted. So, I'd be curious as we kind of roll out these these models and we and we dig in further and better understand them just where where our staff is falling and if we see a significant um change in that. So, >> you need to ask us again then. >> Thank you. >> New data. You need to ask. >> I would like us to move to the next model at this point in time. Um if the board is okay with that, >>

183thank you for presenting. And can you make sure you all introduce yourself when you start speaking? >> We'll do. >> Thank you so much. >> Yep. Um, my name is Sarah Hail Kaisman. I am a member of the community coalition. I am a parent of students at Trailside and Franklin. I'm a PTO PTA board member at both of those schools. Uh, professionally, I'm a lifelong middle school educator in Minnesota and Iowa. I've taught in buildings that are 7 through 12, 6 through 12, 6 through 8, 5 through 6, and 7 and 8. Um, so I've taught in a lot of different models. Uh, I now teach in the Lindmar district and I've been there through the middle level changes that they've rolled out. Um, I also have a doctorate in educational leadership from the University

184of Iowa and I'm a former school board member in Minnesota. So, that's a little bit about myself. And then these guys are going to introduce themselves. Ariana was set to be in our presentation, but she's ill tonight. And then we're going to talk a little bit about our process, too. >> So, I'm Eric Beyer. I'm currently a staff member here at Jefferson. I also am an alumni of Cedar Rapids Schools, uh, K through 12. I had two I have two kids. One one student is still in the district. One has graduated last year as a senior. Um professionally I've been a teacher. I've been an administrator in other districts. Um and I have an extensive background in multiple buildings. A PK through2 building, a 612 building, and uh certainly a 912 building as well. So

185bring some variety there as well. >> Hi there. My name is Tyler Turner. I am a parent of two elementary students. Uh I live in the Nixon school district, but my children go to Hayawa Elementary. Um so yeah, I'm not a teacher. Uh before we do start this, uh I do want to have one little call out. Um so we all have been members of the community coalition and we've worked through the process to kind of come up with these different models, champion these and all of that. Um the model that you were just presented was outside of that. Uh so I do want to make that distinction as that was not part of the community coalition. So um please keep that in mind which I think is a little bit of a missed opportunity

186because that kind of was already presented once and then you guys all pushed back about that. Um and then we kind of did the same thing tonight and I wish that more people would have been involved in that discussion uh from the community coalition. Um, so for that p I don't feel like we were necessarily heard on that model. Um, that being said, also if you look at the votes, it got the most votes out of the community coalition. So I do want to say both of those things. Um, but I do think it was a little bit of a missed opportunity. >> And so the other side of that too is that the people in the community coalition heard the pitch for the intermediate model. And when we went through these processes as a

187community coalition, um people didn't really have have an opportunity to hear the pitch for the 58 or the two high school models um as we did those votes. So, we're just really hoping that people can listen to kind of our pitches. The other thing that we want to point out as we introduce ourselves is that we're the ones who have the capacity to be here. Um our district has nearly half students of color. um 60% almost 60% of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch and those are the faces and the people that you don't see up here making these pitches. So I think what you're going to hear a lot from us um is in addition to the board meetings that we've all been to, the coalition meetings, you know, the time we've

188spent on our own planning for this is that we're hoping to kind of speak for those people who do not have that capacity to be here. So it might be a little less uh polished than the last presentation that you guys saw. Uh but yeah, let's go ahead and get started. Um so this 58 model kind of mirrors and piggybacks on kind of the initial um intermediate model that that was presented already and kind of that option one that they went through again tonight. So the feeder pattern check is pretty much the same as that only instead of uh four elementaryaries going to one 56 building, it's going to be two elementaryaries going to one middle school and then there's still two middle schools that then go to high school. So I think it's pretty

189self-explanatory there. Um we left Johnson up there same as the other one as optional. Um so obviously one more school closing would have more cost savings associated with that. The other thing to note too is that areas two and three have those elementarymentaries that are big elementaryaries and area one only has trailide. So when you look at numbers, there really probably is the need to throw Johnson in there to just to balance those numbers out. >> Okay. So same thing with the with the capacity and utilization. So again, we're just piggybacking on the numbers that were already ran and presented um back on the 12th. Um, so I don't really want to go into too much uh depth on that. We didn't go into every classroom. I don't have all that information. We also spent

1902 hours on a Zoom meeting yesterday uh and that was it. So I don't have all of that. But if you look at the the total capacity for the 58 level and the PK4 level and the 912 level, uh it's greater than the enrollment within the district. Um which again is going to create the whole realigning the boundaries to make those numbers work. But on paper they they do work. Yeah, and I think you can go to the next one. Again, we're just going to breeze through these first ones. So, the closings are kind of the same. So, the same six schools are are kind of earmarked there with uh Johnson being an additional option. Um, but one thing where this differentiates from the intermediate model is there would be some savings on the transportation

191costs uh because you now have kids that are not traveling to the other side of their area. Um, so like if you look at me, I live in Robbins. I'm a long ways away from Roosevelt or Taft or wherever that might be for my children. Uh that would probably mean maybe depending on where the boundaries are, which could definitely change all of this. Uh you're not driving as far for middle school. Um so that's going to cut down on on transportation costs there compared to the intermediate model. >> Okay, I think I think we're ready for the next one. Uh in this particular model um very similar to what you heard in the first presentation uh our model does allow PK through four buildings. So we would have the preschool in each building. Um the

192other thing that we are also in favor of is the fifth grade uh fine arts activities in these buildings. Uh you would have the staff already in the building. Um being a 5 through eight building. uh you would still take advantage of that and allowing fifth grade to be in band uh choir orchestra and some of those things as well to be able to start early. The biggest thing with athletics is some schools have enough kids to have more than one team. Some uh schools don't have enough to have one team. This allows you to take advantage of both things and potentially have schedules to meet those kids. Um certainly we're in favor of everybody being able to participate. So if there's not enough at a particular 5 through8 building for them to compete at,

193we're going to combine with their their other mere middle school. But if a particular middle school has enough teams and both of them have enough teams, you now have two two schools that have players that are able to participate at the high level, medium level, whatever that case may be. So you still have the feeder system pipeline for the athletics. We still get that with this, but the other thing is we get a lot more flexibility to where you don't have kids potentially if they're not on the first or second team, it's harder for those kids to show up, you have more first and second teams at that middle school level for them to participate. So, uh, those family priorities are present within this building model. And those neighborhood schools also encourage uh or you

194know when they're closer, kids can get to and from those activities a lot easier than if they're traveling clear across the district. Um when we look at this model, the big lens that we look at is through the lens of equity and the lens of behavior. Those are two things that we've heard a lot about tonight. We heard a lot about equity tonight. Um and we all kind of know that behavior is the big white elephant in the room because it's a big issue with our district. So when you look at the research, the research shows that multiple school transitions are associated with decreases in self-esteem, grades, test scores, engagement, and attendance and along with increases in disciplinary infractions and suspensions. Um there are pro uh let's see Schwarz noted that there are strong positive

195effects for students who transitioned from a K4 to a 58 model finding that moving in fifth grade was less disruptive than moving in sixth grade. So some specific research pertaining to this model. Um the let's see people have mentioned that transition dip the lower academic achievement but in particular for minority groups for lowincome students and these same students are the ones who have difficulties making up those losses in subsequent years. When we look at the you know what we're doing we know we need to consolidate schools at the elementary level. There's also that stage two of that students are transitioning um they're already going to be transitioning at the middle or at the elementary level as those schools consolidate. So that's even, you know, a kind of an extra transition that we're throwing in as

196we look at these things. Um let's see, they found that student achievement in middle grades is higher when they attend schools with a wider gradespan configuration. And kind of the kicker for me when I was doing this research was um this it's a research piece presented by handover research for school boards who are looking at grades span configurations and they declared after doing this whole review of the research that intermediate schools are not beneficial for fifth and sixth grade students. Um so uh just again really want to hit those lens of equity and behavior as we look at those things. So, we kind of split up these. So, we're going to pass the microphone around on this, but some of the pros, we're going to roll through those preschool in all the elementaryaries. Okay, that

197was one of the big things. We already kind of talked about this, but reducing the number of building transitions for a student. Uh once you get there in fifth grade, you're going to be with that same staff. you're going to be with those that same group as one, you know, one part of the school transitions out, but twothirds of the other other grades will be with you at the same time. So, it just reduces those transitions and you don't have as many of those. >> Uh, this model works on continuing those trusted adult relationships during that time of physical and emotional changes that all of our adolescence, all of our middle schoolers are going through. Um, so just a really key part of growing up. >> The music ensembles, uh, you're able to start in

198fifth grade. That's certainly a pro. It's what everybody's been wanting in terms of the district for some time now. This allows you to do that. >> Accelerated. >> Oh, next one's mine as well. Um, this is one that we It doesn't really fit in a in a great spot, but when you have a staff that can do five through eight in a building, you don't have somebody in sixth grade that potentially could be at the seventh grade level. You can take advantage of that because they're in the same building. So, you have more chances for acceleration in particular areas, particular grades, things of that sort. You don't limit your acceleration based on the people that are in there or have to make up a new situation for a kid going from sixth to seventh. You

199can you can get them accelerated faster for what they as a student needs as opposed to what the district is saying what grade they're in. We >> talked about the cost savings with the decreased transportation, but we also have just the time savings, right? So that's going to impact students, give them more time, less time on the bus. Same thing with parents who have to travel to the schools. They're going to have closer schools to where they reside. We keep on talking about wanting to make Cedar Rapids a destination district, the district of choice. And um we like this model because rather than adopting what our other nearby districts are doing, it does differentiate us for the unique populations and the unique strengths in diversity that our district brings to us. um one of our

200community coalition members um kind of said,"Well, if we're just doing the 56 model, it's like Cedar Rapids is kind of like the same as the other districts but worse, you know, and so wanting to come up with something that is um creating uh creating a model that embraces our differentiation our diversity. That's the word I'm looking for." >> Oh, and I think the next one is mine, too. Is it? Yeah, I think we were both going to talk a little bit about just PTAs, PTO's. Um, so Sarah and I have both been heavily involved in in the PTAs at the elementary level at Nixon. Uh, spent four years working with with that organization. Uh, it's hard. Okay. I think people here that have been involved in it, it's hard. It's hard. Like the first year,

201couple years that we were in it was like, can we exist? Can we exist? Okay. Yes. Can we do a little bit better each year? Um, it's it's really hard to get people involved in that. going to like a five six building. I don't know if it's going to exist. Um because you got people moving in and out, you got parents graduating. You know, you might have uh students that backto-back students where you might have a parent who's going to be there for more than two years, but to expect somebody to come in and be a part of the PTA for two years and get up to speed and like I was a treasurer and like just to get stuff signed over at the bank takes a year. Um and then to have to do

202it again. uh it's going to put a lot of stress on on PTAs and I think it's gonna probably just go away. >> Yeah, it's really tough to maintain that continuity in parent organizations. Really hard even just, you know, as I moved from Trailside to Franklin and trying to see, oh, we've only got three years here where I was like, you know, struggling to keep up when I had kids at Arthur and Trailside even though I had been there for six years on that parent organization. >> So, a couple things with the mentoring and role models. Um, I'm going to date myself a little bit. Um, I happened to be the first sixth grade class at McKinley when we transitioned that one side of town to a sixth grade before they went districtwide. Um, and

203I know there's some hesitation in in bringing fifth grade to middle school. I've heard it when I've been in the coalition and things of that sort. I the thing I would bring up is now we don't consider anything different from sixth grade going to middle school and the communities kind of wrap their head around it. I think that can also happen with the fifth grade model. The the other thing I will say is being a PK through 12 administrator, the mentoring opportunities that older kids have with younger kids is phenomenal. And so if you're just in a fifth fifth and sixth grade building, you're looking up to a sixth grader. If you're in a fifth through 8th grade building, potentially those eighth graders can have a positive influence on the fifth graders. Yes, there's going

204to be some behaviors that may not be great for a fifth grader. We're going to have buildings that can keep fifth grade in a pod that they're used to in elementary. We can do that with sixth grade. I'll be honest, at McKenley, my sixth grade year, I didn't see all of McKinley that I mean, it just wasn't. It was one hallway that we were in with four classrooms and then we were given the opportunity to either stay at McKinley or go to Franklin. I was in the Franklin district, but I chose to stay. I talked to my parents this past week and said, "Why why did I stay at McKinley?" And it was just because you were already there. You wanted to stay there and I stayed there even though I was in the Franklin.

205So that particular year was my uh experience with that. But there are some positive influences that kids can have with other kids and I would hope that you would look at that to take into account with this model. >> I mean I think right now I have a fourth grader and a and a kindergarter at Hayawa and they do big buddy little buddy, right? My fourth grader is a big buddy. She goes down to the lower levels and my kindergartenner has a big buddy. And I think this is kind of an opportunity there and and I think you could look at it maybe as a consideration as well. Um some downside there, but I think there's also opportunity there for eighth graders to be the big buddy for for the fifth graders and be positive

206role models as well, not just negative, which I think is what a lot of people are trying to think of. When we worked as a community coalition team in this meeting where we were sussing out these models, we had about 15 people who were with us in our group and we had people who there was a staff member in our group who has kids at Mount Vernon who said, "I was so worried about sending my kids to a 5 through eight because the o other districts around also do 5 through8. Mount Vernon, Anamosa, um there was a third one that's not coming to mind right now, but she said I was so worried." She was like, "It's been great. It's been amazing." So um and yeah and then the other things you know some of

207the other things that you heard peer stability maintains throughout this that's something that people have been talking about and then that identity and pride continues on um just like you've heard in the other models. >> Another consideration uh we mentioned the athletics keeping them separate but potentially making them come together if they need to. you're going to have to work through some busing issues with athletics. If you start to combine, say, McKinley and Franklin for basketball, how are they going to get back and forth? Because they don't have licenses. You know, you don't hit that till your freshman year in college. So, there are going to be some issues. Yes, we're going to save on the transportation, not only for the district in terms of getting them to middle school, but parents are going to

208be driving less, but potentially there's going to be some busing with athletics if a team isn't sustainable at a particular building of this size. Um, go ahead. >> Um, we heard from a few different music people tonight and all of the pros that have been mentioned by those music people are achievable in this model. So they start at fifth grade, those specialists, all that kind of stuff are all achievable here. >> Uh, so one consideration, you guys kind of talked about this and asked some questions around special education in in middle school. Um, uh, I think this is a consideration cuz I don't know what the capacity are is for each of the different programs, but if you look at level two and level three, um, this could be something that we we need to

209kind of get into of like how many schools are actually going to have these programs. Uh, so this could be a pro depending on how many it is because if you wanted to stay with the feeder model, if you had three elementaryaries that had these programs and three middle schools that had these programs and then they could all feed into their high school still. Um, so you could keep that peer group all the way through. uh instead of bouncing between the different areas. Um but that's going to be dictated on numbers which I don't know what those are. So another consideration uh the PLC's obviously for splitting up sixth grade teachers into multiple buildings there's a potential that they might have to meet across buildings. The one thing I would say is hopefully we're doing

210that anyway because we're wanting to have all the sixth grade together whether we're in separate buildings or not. Um, but there might be some uh challenging scheduling things that might be aware of. And then uh recently uh the state of Iowa changed from the the roof model in terms of what you're certified and what is in your building to specifically you have to be K through six and potentially 5 through 12. Um that's an issue, but at the same time, you know, you're already looking at potentially fifth grade starting that model of switching rooms, not doing it full-time. that brings the five through 12 teacher that could potentially fill in a gap if you need to or that K through six teacher that can certainly do everything like they've talked about in the past. So

211there is some with any of these models you're dealing with a lensure issue but there's some creative things that you can do even with the new situations where 5 through 12 and K through six can only do do those things but still be content oriented. um you would have potentially with a 5 through 12 science person as a science teacher, you would have a fifth grade science teacher teaching science. That is an option to you. And currently right now the fifth grade, you're not going to put a fifth grade science teacher that's only 5 through 12 certified in your elementary per se. Um you could, but it's not really a viable option in our current elementary. So I think we're ready for questions. I just want to thank say thank you so much for championing

212this model and bringing a lot of good information and good research and and obviously you were very student focused in this. So I just wanted to say thank you. I don't have a question at the moment but I just want to share my gratitude. >> I agree all familiar faces. Thank you for the time you put in. I know similar to what we were saying about our educators, you're also out there crunching numbers, doing the things and um and you clearly have a lot of experience and expertise between the three of you. So, um I'm going back to that because this is the thing I heard most about developmentally fifth graders, eighth graders being on kind of different extremes there. Um those big age gaps, then you have potential for bullying or some other social

213emotional um tensions. So wondering just I'm trying to get a sense of and maybe someone can tag in how we can paint a picture of what that looks like in our in our current buildings, right? So um when we're when we say keeping them separate um or even just transitions between lunch periods and special and all of those things, do we have a sense or maybe someone can speak to this of how we would configure those spaces to accommodate for those um developmental differences? I guess I would go back to my sixth grade year where we were in that one hallway on one floor in that building. Um, and I would say if I remember correctly, some of the teachers moved instead of the students. Uh, but also at different times during the day, we

214as the students moved like to specials and things like that. Uh, but it was very intentional about where we were going. And I think with the multiple levels of the building, sometimes we think of that as being a negative, but it does offer some separation in those middle schools that we have. uh currently in our at our disposal. So I would say I think strategically the administration could be planful about that. Uh depending on who if you're moving teachers, you're moving students, that sort of thing. We could take that into account. So >> okay, now I do have questions. Um so in middle school, you know, the specials are the exploratory teachers, which look kind of different than they do at elementary school. And I know you guys might not have this, but this would

215be something we'd maybe want to explore before we adopted this models. How would that work in terms of specials, exploratory teachers? Um because they're different, right? You don't take engineerary tech when you're in fifth grade, but could you, you know? So, like, how would we just look at that differently? I think um and then I lost my other thought. >> I do think that's one of the advantages of this model is it opens that opportunity as opposed to kind of closes it at the elementary level or a 56 re 56 building. you might have a 7 through eight person that can take advantage of that. You know, some of those flexibility and schedules within that building would allow that. So, I almost think it's a positive as opposed to a concern, I guess I would

216say. >> And with both these questions, I think, you know, we were not administrators in the district and we've just put this together and haven't had the luxury of the time and the, you know, multiple meetings and things like that like the intermediate model has had. But we have great faith in the leaders in this district that you know the creative thinking when you think okay so what would it look like you know would fifth grade be moving up this stairwell and sixth grade be moving down this one or you know what can we do can we do engineering tech in fifth grade too to bring that exploratory in you know and those kinds of things that would be really interesting to think about but definitely would need more thought. >> Yeah. So I just

217want to echo what everyone has said here. Thank you so much for being here and for being familiar faces. I just I love um that we have so many advocates just in the room, but that you all took um a chance to stand up and talk to us. And so, thank you. Um I just wanted to point out maybe just a couple things. Maybe I'll get to a question, but just some stuff for us to to consider. I think um I really thought that um your approach. I appreciate the equity angle and the lens that you came to us with. Um I I really think it was an interesting um just thought with the PTAs and how um we engage and keep you know families engaged in those with those transitions. Um I just think

218that's not something I was thinking about. So I appreciate that. Um the other thing too is those opportunities for acceleration. I can think about you know some of us who were when we were kids taking those advanced level classes um what that looks like and how that structure um is available to maybe those gifted students as well. Um, so first of all, I just I guess I just want to say thank you. But I as a board, you know, that focus, that lens being on student achievement, I guess the one thing I would ask uh of each of you is if you had to say one thing um that you think about this model particularly that would be most advantage advantageous for improving student achievement. What would you say? I guess for me it would

219be the ability to have role models within the building. I mean I I think the best uh influence you can have as a as a peer or potentially a peer that you meet um and I think that's something that we in this model if we don't leverage uh we're not going to be as successful as we could be. >> Um so I'm going to go back to some of that research and talk about that a little bit more. So when we look at you know uh multiple school transitions and attendance when you've got you know the kids who are currently routed to Johnson and um they are going to McKinley it's in their neighborhood it's easier for them to get there. They don't have to drive. You look at someone like Tyler's family going from

220Robins down to Taft or something like that. So you look at that attendance piece of being more of a neighborhood area. Um you look at the engagement uh the those trusted relationships with adults as kids are going through adolescence. Um when they transition buildings that frequently it's not only you know we've talked a lot about that peer coho cohort staying together. Um but also you get into a new building and you're like what do I do for lunch? Um who do I go to if I have a question? Um where's the line? You know middle schoolers some of you guys have worked with middle schoolers. You know that middle schoolers are like, "Where's the line of behavior? How close can I tow before someone's going to really re me in, right?" And so even if

221things are aligned 5, six, seven, eight, you get into that new those new buildings and those middle schoolers still bring that up to the line and want to know where those boundaries are. And when those, as we know, those behaviors when those behaviors happens, that starts to impact the student learning in the classroom. And so I think it's those kinds of things for me that are the biggest piece in this model. >> I'd say like the consistency and the stability of being in a building for four years. Uh so same as elementary, uh kids need the routines, the patterns, and now you're having that from 5 to 8. Uh so yes, the transitions are, we talked about that, but you have the consistency with your peer group, your friends, but also the staff. I think

222that's that's very important um to be familiar with what the building's going on, what has going on. And then to add to that, like half your building will turn over in these buildings. Like I mean, if let's say five and six are equally divided, half your building is going to leave every year and half the building is going to come in every year. at these five through eight buildings. Theoretically, if everything's balanced, I know it's a big if, a quarter of your building comes in and a quarter of your building leaves. >> The other thing too that this model kind of puts together is you kind of maintain those school communities. You maintain a McKinley, a Franklin, a Taft, a Harding rather than if you're totally flipping over all of those teachers and all of

223those students, you have an entirely new community to build from scratch. um you know and you've got to you've got to go through those PBIS expectations and that whole process again and all of those kinds of things. So it's kind of more like absorbing a grade level when you talk about that you know creating a new building. >> Thank you for that. And to my earlier question I think that was also maybe not posed to you but to our staff just to consider so we as a board understand what that would look like physically in the space. movement of students in a 58 building with our current facilities. So, I appreciate your um you drawing attention to that. Um Sarah and Eric since you both have experience in these buildings, correct? Like a 5'8 model.

224>> Okay. >> Yeah. So, I'm curious if there were going back to the earlier question around kind of social emotional supports. Do you have are there other layers of supports baked in for those fifth grade students for example or counseling services or in your experience have you seen um anything that we might consider as we're looking at this model? >> I know you didn't ask me but I'm going to answer it. Uh, I'm married to a special ed teacher, Kate. Um, and she teaches in an elementary school at Lindmar, actually. And so transitions is like the thing that she talks about all the time. And how hard it is for her students that she works with for 5 years to transition to fifth grade and then knows that they have to do it again in

225two years. And specifically for her students, that's a huge deal. and we talk about this at our home and like we don't know which model we think is best necessarily. There's a lot of different considerations, but that's something that's like the biggest thing for her in in her world. >> I think one of the things is the the the supports we have in place for the sixth grade. Well, I I know it's not apples for apples, but we'll be able to transition some of that to fifth grade. So, it's not like we have to develop a whole new thing for fifth grade because it's truly that new building aspect. You know, the sixth graders are going to be used to it. The sixth graders, I would argue, are not going to need as many supports.

226And so, you can rotate those supports into fifth grade. Um, but if you have two buildings where they have to transition to, now you've just ballooned who's responsible for those, what resources you have to have, and things of that sort. So, it's not a matter of me seeing a difference in it. It's just where it takes place. And yeah, it'll look a little bit differently for a fifth and sixth grader, but not dramatically. I I would I would argue that. >> I'm trying to think of things that I've seen that work well. Looping of counselors to maintain those relationships um is one of the things that I've seen in buildings that works pretty well. Um maintaining those those counselor ratios I think are really important, especially at the middle school level. you know, the recommendation

227is one counselor to every 250 kids. Um, so yeah, >> I think with any of these models, we need to talk about how to support the kids that are transitioning from one building to another. I think there's a gap between any of those. The current model, all of these different ones that we're talking about, I don't think any of the kids are probably being served as well as they should be in these transitions. Uh, one question that I had and again I've kind of been looking through the data that you were given and and there may not be enough here but so this may be something that um we need to get a little more research from. Would based on the size of the buildings I'm just thinking you know Taft right now is fairly

228full. Um fact I guess I have that in front of me. Taft is 86% full right now. So, if we were to add another grade, uh, that likely would require us and and we're talking about redistricting anyway, right? That's on the table, but that that would, you know, have some transitions there as well. Um, and I assume, was that part of the conversation that you had in trying to figure this out? >> That was one of our challenges is just, you know, we kept coming back to what are the new boundaries going to look like? How does that affect the areas that you're going to serve? And you know, I would say the response we were given and and it makes sense once we start to narrow down what we're looking at, then we can

229get into those numbers. And I think any of these models with the right distribution of students in terms of the seats in the room and and the rooms and the maps that you saw from the previous presentation, all of those things with the right people can take place and I think you're going to end up with a a model that's going to be sustainable for the population is what I would say. >> Yeah, appreciate that, Eric. And again, I I'll just echo. I appreciate all of the time and effort spent on this. I know uh Sarah, I appreciate your emails and and data there. You you had uh referenced the uh let me see if I can find it. It was that last the the last one on your slide of uh >> handover. Yeah.

230Did you get a chance to kind of share you said it was kind of overwhelming there. Did you have a chance to share kind of what maybe the top one or two takeaways from that research was? So I kind of went and I looked at first because I was like, "Oh, so the district Cedar Rapids wants to do a 56 model, right?" Um, and so I went there and I started reading that and I was like, "Oh, there I mean this review of the research says that there's really not a case, a researchbased case for a 56 model." So that's was my big like, "Oh goodness, you know, and then started looking through it, talking about transitions and um behavior. It's a lengthy document, but it was specifically prepared for boards, which I thought was

231interesting is they're tackling questions like this because we're not the only ones doing this. Um, so just looking at then kind of the next thing I took a look at was the equity issue. Um because when we look at the districts around us that are doing five, six, seven, eight, the populations at Cedar at College Community and at Lindmar are drastically different than the populations that we have here at Cedar Rapids. Um and so wanting to think, well, what can we do to make our district unique to fit our populations? um you know the parent thing came out of looking at that and some conversations that we had as a PTA and a PTO but they have a list of questions like what kinds of questions should you ask when you're looking at adopting a

232new model and one of them was in there how is this going to impact um parent involvement and I was like yeah so those were kind of some of my key takeaways as I went and read through that >> thank you appreciate it again thank you for the effort and time that you've put into this particular model and being part of the community coalition as well. It's appreciated. >> I don't I don't have a question because you guys have done such a thorough job of presenting. I just want to echo my appreciation for all of the extra time and energy you've put into this. Thank you very much. You've did an excellent job. >> Thank you. We all appreciate the effort that was put into this. We ready for the next for the high school

233model? >> So, we're just going to introduce ourselves first. And we recognize that this model is way out there. So, it's a model that um when I first saw it, I was like, "Oh, no way." So, that's why I chose to go to this model and then it kind of as it evolved, I was totally on board with it. Um my name is Stacy Jackson and I have been teaching at Metro for 20 years. I have four kids that all graduated from Kennedy. I graduated from Washington. So, this is home to me in all aspects. So, I try to look at it from a parent lens, an alumni lens, and a teacher lens. >> I'm Caleb Klaus. I'm the freshman academy lead at Jefferson High School. And before we begin, like we just want to

234acknowledge the the time and the effort that was put into all of this, not only by the board as we're sitting here at almost 9:00 in the countless hours, the the district and building staff and then as well as like the communities and and families and parents. So we just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge um and show appreciation for all that time and effort that was put into all of this really. >> All right, next slide. Okay, so as we think of our feeder pattern, we are going to have a true feeder pattern just like the other two models. So what we designed was based around the river and highway 100. So we were already kind of thinking boundary when we were thinking this. So it would be a true east side west

235side model. So if you're on the east side of the river, you would be in area one. If you're on the west side, you would be in area two. And then we looked at so it would be Viola, Grantwood, Erskin, Trailside, Kenwood, Haywata, and Johnson. And Johnson was a big one that I felt a like absolutely needs to stay open just as far as the community aspect. Um, and then you'll notice in area two, I also have CRA just because that is a very similar school as far as Johnson with the same populations and the support that that school provides um to families. So you will notice the numbers behind the elementary school that is the viability score for that building. So the viability score was administrators looked at the capacity, the physical condition of

236the building and the operational costs and they were able to get award a number to each building with 29 being the highest. So ultimately when we were looking at the elementary schools we were looking at what is the capacity number and then we were also looking at that viability score. Is it a school that has a higher viability score? Um then if you were on area one you transi trans transition to Harding. So again we're keeping the intermediate model where you would have the PK4 5 6 7 8 and then the 10 through 12 or 7 9 sorry. So that is a difference is that the 9th grade would then be down with the seventh and 8th. So high school would just be 10 through 12. Um so the intermediate building would be Harding, the

237middle school building would be Kennedy High School. So that would be then transitioned from a 9 through 12 building to a 7 through 9. And then the high school would be Washington. And then you can see down for area 2, we split it into two sections just because we do not have a building on the west side of Cedar Rapids that could house the number of students that we would need for an intermediate model and a middle school model. So that way then we had to have two schools for each of those. So the West Willow, Hoover, and Van Beern would go to Maple Grove, which would then go to Taft and then to Jefferson. And then the CRA grant in Harrison would then go on to Wilson and Roosevelt and then Jefferson. So still

238looking at trying to keep as much of the neighborhood school as possible. So that way if your elementary is closer to that 56 building which is then closer to that 79 building and then the high school. So after we constructed the feeder system, we next looked at capacity and utilization and made sure that a all the schools in our areas and zones had the capacity for the enrollment that we currently have and then b are we matching the utilization that we would want to kind of reach. So up on the board, if you take a look, our student enrollment at the top is our current enrollment. And one of our goals with two areas is to try to balance the two areas as equally as possible. So when you see the target each area number,

239that's that target number that we were trying to get for capacity for each of the area zones. So when we look at the elementary level PK through 4, our current enrollment is 6,242, which means our target capacity we would try to reach is 3,121 per area. When you look down the east and the west side for the elementary, you can see for area 1, we have a capacity of 3,365 and area 2, 3,128. Again, making sure that we are utilizing the building spaces that we have. When you total all of those numbers up uh and take our total enrollment divided by the total capacity, we're at 95% capacity for PK through 4. Taking the same sort of logic to our intermediate, we would have 1,971 students in our 5 through six buildings across the district

240equaling 986 each in the two areas. Harding with a capacity of 138. And then with the two schools in the west side area would be 1,146 again reaching that 90% capacity for our intermediate ages. Uh a little bit of context for the only way for this to work for the two high school model was by creating that true junior high feeder. So when you see the ninth graders down with the seventh and eighth graders, part of that was for capacity to to do the consolidation for the two high schools. But then in doing research, which we'll get to a little bit later, there's a lot of data that supports 9th grader 9th grade success at a junior high level. Moving into the middle schools, again, 7 through9 total enrollment would be 377, roughly 1,539 each

241area. We achieved that at 91% capacity with the schools that are listed. There was a little bit of confusion with the high schools because on the the data that we were given, the total enrollment for 10 through 12 was 356. When we initially divided that by two, that's 1750, which would not match the current capacities for our two high schools. When you take into consideration some of our alternative programming such as Metro, and subtract that out of that population, now we are well within the capacity numbers that we would want to see with Jefferson and Washington. Those all numbers also do not include the new construction uh and the new additions that are going on to both of those buildings. So that capacity would only increase as both of those phases finish up. When it

242comes to family priorities, again like Stacy had kind of mentioned, we are following all of the benefits that the intermediate model kind of introduced earlier on with the added benefits of the junior high model and consolidating down to two high schools. the biggest benefits uh when it comes to our family priorities which are shown up there. Our families in the community and staff shown that they value things like fine arts, athletics and extracurriculars, dual credit opportunities, mental health and wellness supports, early childhood education. All of these pieces, those things only grow when consolidating at the high school level. Right now, what we have is all of our all of our resources for high school students split up and divided across three schools. This would allow us to look at all those funds and resources, pull

243them together, and then only divide them up two ways. So when we think about things like fine arts, not only do we have the opportunity to introduce those fine arts at a younger age, like with our our 56 intermediate model, we are now taking our students who are involved and pulling them together together, creating more successful programs, pulling together the resources and equipment that make those things successful. Same thing goes for athletics. When we look at our athletes who are spread across three buildings right now at our high school level, we would funnel those down to two. In theory, our e athletics and extracurriculars would all improve. When it comes to mental health and wellness supports, the added supports that we have introduced at each building, it's the same sort of logic that right now

244they are divided across three schools. You will now get to add all of those supports in just two. When it comes to the advanced placement, honors and dual credit, this leads to our elective courses at the high school level that we offer, but the capacity for those classes is extremely low due to either qualifications or student interest. We offer elective courses that are just above the cap. So, we offer APs and specialty electives with 10 students or 12 students when our ratio for all the other classes are 30 to1. With consolidation, when you think about the numbers across all three high schools, you are now pulling together again all of those students who have those interests and those considerations. You get to pull together the teachers and now we are teaching full sections of AP

245dual credit and honors courses or the specialty electives which would free up a section for another teacher, free up some staffing elsewhere to hopefully bring down the ratio of 30 to1 in all of our other classes. All right. So then when we look at the cost savings, we would obviously be closing five of our elementary schools. So it would be Wright, Nixon, Truman, Cleveland, and it shouldn't say Madison up there. It says Madison, that should be Pierce. So it would be Pierce. And so that would be five elementaryaries closing on this model. We would also have Franklin and Mckenley that could close. Now again, these are just like suggestions. So there is a lot of w room to wiggle and figure out different configurations if need be. But those two would close, which would be

2463 million in savings. And then obviously there's additional savings in the sense that like thinking about ELSC staff, we wouldn't have to staff three areas, we would just have to staff two areas. Um, Kennedy could also be converted to a SE would be converted to a 79, which Chad had shared would be saving money as well. So, moving from a high school to a 79 building, that saves. So, really, we're looking at 8 million plus. >> And to expand on that, that is mostly due to building utilization. When we think about high schools and athletics and events, they're running until nine o'clock, 10 o'clock at night. Um when most middle school events end at 5 or 6. Um you know, with Kennedy having the pool, they that would be an option to utilize, which I

247know is a huge use of energy and uh electricity, there would be options there to consolidate additional savings by converting Kennedy to a middle school. >> Okay. Okay. And then when we got to looking at the research, so when it the research that the intermediate model shared was basically talking about like looking at the fi fifth grade and should they be in the elementary should they be that whole thing and sixth grade. So we found the same research and then we also found so when it comes to um 9th graders it is more beneficial for 9th graders to be either in their own building or to be in the younger um middle school junior high model. So what they say is that um creating a junior high buffer, a safe space for early adolescence to

248grow socially, emotionally, and cognitively before the full weight of high school hits. So, it allows them to truly work on getting ready for the high school model where you have to pass classes, where you have to think about your GPA, where you have to be thinking about college already at that younger age because currently 9th grade, your nth grade year impacts your GPA for when you graduate your 12th grade year. Your ninth grade year impacts your applying to colleges. So then it kind of allows for that ninth grade to be pulled out of that high school setting and allows for them to get used to that and get prepared prior to being based on those same criteria. Um there was also it also said that a study by Duke University found that the sixth graders

249so going back to sixth grade who moved to middle school faced more behavioral problems and lower achievement. So by keeping them in a 56 building, sixth graders are not necessarily ready to move on to that middle school level. they still are more um academically and more maturity-wise at that elementary level. So, keeping five, six together and not having them move up where they're surrounded by 9th graders and eighth graders was more beneficial for them. to expand a little bit on ninth grade with some of my background uh working with freshmen at Jefferson we place there's research out there that supports how important a student's freshman year is and direct ties to success and graduation. So making that shift down from uh ninth grade in high school to nth grade at junior high knowing that there

250is a link to success there is a link to failure rates and the decline in failure rate in that junior high model um would only be beneficial to our freshman and therefore their entire high school career. The other piece again working with freshmen is that we spend so much of our year with them preparing them for high school. The problem is that we are preparing them for high school in high school. So allowing them to have that separate space where they have that opportunity to prepare before they are fully embedded in the system would only lead to to huge benefits for our our nth grade students. Another piece that I found in regards to our 9th graders was the fact that um by having them in a separate building or a separate um wing of

251the 7 through 9 building that they benefit by focusing on building those relationships prior to going to high school. So they would be together from 7 8 and 9. So they would already have that group of students that they have a core relationship with. So that once they get to the high school, the main priority for 9th graders is their relationships and their social social being in the building. And so what we are finding is that 9th graders go into that high school and they feel like they've got to um prove something to everybody and to those seniors and juniors. And so if you kept the nth grade out of that, then you see less behaviors with the ninth graders. So when it comes to pros and considerations, uh the first thing I want to

252address is actually the big table at the bottom of the the screen. So my curiosity, I went to the department of ed website and I pulled enrollment numbers uh for all the schools across Iowa. My curiosity were was if we were to consolidate into two 10 through 12 buildings, how would that rank us compared to other buildings across the state? The first thing I found is that when we we introduced this topic two weeks ago and introducing a junior high model, the first question that came up was, well, who else runs a junior high model? And I didn't have that answer off the top of my head. I could think of one, maybe two schools. In doing this research, the rows that are highlighted in green, you can see that their grade nine total is

253zero, meaning they run a junior high model. The notable ones up there would be Valley High School, Southeast Pulk, Johnston, Northwest, Walke High School, Ankeny Centennial, Walke, Ankeny, and Cedar Falls. As somebody who's involved in athletics, those schools all ring a bell as very notable and very successful programs in both fine arts and athletics. If we were to consolidate our schools and tally up the total compared to the other buildings with their 10 through 12 total, there's a big red arrow that points roughly to where our two high schools would be compared to the remainder of the schools out there. The other one to note is that depending on kind of the trae uh the path that uh different larger school districts take. Another notable one that's already kind of taken the lead on this

254is the Waterlue high schools and the Waterlue school districts. When they consolidate, they will also be running a junior high model and they will be second on this list as far as total enrollment for their 10th through 12th high school. So in comparison, we had members talk earlier about being competitive with the west side of the state and the central, you know, central Iowa. This is one of those factors that would allow us to be competitive when competing in those sports and those fine arts. Uh some other things to consider and other pros. Um again, our current high schools are operating at 81% capacity when you total up all three. With this model, we are at 90% or higher um across all levels. one fear or one reservation that with our current high schools at

25581% capacity, if the trend in the decline in enrollment were to continue, seeing that capacity or that operating capacity of our high schools drop below 80% or continue further, this would end up being some conversation that we would have to have in the future anyway. So seeing Waterlue, seeing some of these other school districts, seeing where it would stack us compared to larger schools across the state, is this something that our school district should consider? Now, uh, we've touched base on a lot of these ones already. So, we've talked about our special programs and our our specialty electives. Uh, when we talk about special education, I know at Jefferson, some of our staff are spread thin. So again, being able to refine and target the resources that we have available uh would be beneficial to

256both high schools available. When it comes to considerations, really what we're looking for here is that when we drafted this model, we were trying to create the maximum efficiency in terms of capacity and the maximum savings. With that, there also allows a lot of flexibility with what happens with those savings. So, for example, the buildings that we chose aren't necessarily the buildings that we have to go with. There could be a swap with Washington Kennedy. There could be a swap with uh Franklin and McKinley that were not used in our model or the any of the elementary schools that were not used in our model. There is flexibility in that budget to be able to allow for some of those things. If not, knowing that uh we heard earlier that some of that funding and

257that those estimates come from staffing, would that allow us to put some of that funding back into buildings for that additional staffing um in our schools? Um when we first drafted this two weeks ago, not utilizing Kennedy as a school was a big concern. So full transparency, the first draft that we had, we had McKinley and Franklin in as those 7 through9 buildings. And the push back that we received was that what are you going to do with Kennedy? We can't sell the land. There's charters moving in. So this was an option that would allow us to continue to use Kennedy in a capacity. Um and then again free up our middle schools. Um similar to some of the the other two models and what they've talked about, obviously with this, we would have to

258look at redefining the boundaries. We had drafted up what it would be with the river, but that's not necessarily what it would have to be. We would have to look at our populations, where they live, and get into that nitty-gritty work with that piece. Um, but knowing that we would have two high schools would help level the playing field when it comes to those as opposed to three. And I think one other thing that really hit home was by doing the two models, you're helping with distributing the diversity and socioeconomic status among two areas within our city. So right now there is a disproportionate number based on which school you're at and this would help level that field. The last things I'll note is I I appreciate uh the 5 through8 model and the acknowledgement

259of the transitions and now how hard they can be. All data again supports that the ninth grade transition is the hardest um and hit students are hardest. So anything that we can do to ease that transition even if it means holding that development um and allowing them an extra year to prepare um would be beneficial. The last thing that we have up there in our flexibility is that um if it stems around the junior high, I know earlier uh it wasn't one of the models presented earlier, but this model would also still work uh with a PK or K through six model leading into junior high and then leading into high school. So again, just things to consider with the flexibility of this model. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. Um that was very thorough

260and I appreciated so much that you started with this out this idea is way out there. Sometimes thinking way out there can lead to great solutions. So um I really appreciated the walkthrough of this and all the work that you did on that. My question really kind of goes back to that ninth grade piece of it. So kind of model aside with the freshmanies and I I believe you're involved in freshmanies and you're at a high school as well. Um, do the freshmanies in your opinion achieve some of that separation for ninth graders or could they um in the future? >> They could. The the separation with ninth graders is not it's not a it's it'd be one thing to separate them 100%, but the other part of it is that they are taking electives.

261So working in the freshman academy space and this may be a question I'll just get ahead of it now with the new additions targeted for freshmanies that was kind of the intent but our freshmen will also have global electives that are outside they'll have other opportunities fine arts athletics all of which will be outside of that freshman academy space so I think it's less about separating them entirely from the 10 through 12 but giving them an additional year at a junior high level that focuses on preparing for the next step. Um if if the with the career pathways in mind, then it's also a clear divide of when you are moving to your high school and that 10 through 12 high school. This is what we're here to focus on. We're we're in our nth

262grade year. will continue to have there's a possibility of continuing to have freshmanies at the junior high to ease with that transition, freshman seminar to focus on a lot of those pieces, but then by the time they're in that 10 through 12, they are fully immersed in that high school experience instead of using an extra transition year when they're already there. >> And what I would say just from the perspective of Metro High School, we try not to take 9th graders. We try to have the ninth graders be at their conventional high school. So with this model, the ninth graders would still be at their junior high building. So truly it would be 10 through 12 at the high school model and then Metro would just get see 10 through 12 students. >> So I

263know the other models referenced the lensure issue that we'd run into. Um and I'm just not familiar with this and maybe someone else knows but the 79 only because we've been we've been 68 for a long time. Um, but you're showing us that other schools around the state are doing 79. So, they have to figure out the lensure. I'm just how like how are we going to work through that? And then I also thought of like sports and competition. You know, ninth graders, will they still be a part like could be potentially a part of their high school? >> Yeah. I mean, it's it's something just to think about. I know that >> it was definitely going to still be the true feeder model. So right now we have the junior cougars, junior warriors, and

264junior um Jay-Hawks. So we would still have that. So the 56 could still be like that junior model where they're playing um extracurricular in the evenings or whatever. And then the 7 through 9 would have the actual sports through the school. Um and so those kids would stay together. And so they would still have sports. They would start at fifth grade. Same with the fine arts starting at fifth grade and then just building up. >> I would wonder if with ninth graders being at a junior high if that would actually lead to more encouragement being in a familiar setting, more encouragement to participate in things like fine arts and extracurriculars just because they've they're in a familiar setting. They're in it for three years that they would continue to pursue the things that they did

265in seventh and eighth grade. And then again athletically as they begin to develop when they're in that 10th grade now they're ready for the JV and varsity competition. >> Uh continuing in that conversation about the ninth graders. Um I'm just wondering about the opportunities for ninth graders then to enroll in advanced classes. Um I know they have some opportunities for advanced placement classes when they're housed in the high school. Would that be something that could still be an opportunity for them? >> I would say yes. Um, and actually, as you mentioned, this one pro that I forgot to to mention earlier is that we had the same issues and are having the same issues currently with our eighth graders. >> And so, our eighth graders who want to come up and take classes at for

266high school credit, they are currently being busted to a high school to be able to take one to two classes at the high school level and then bust back for the remainder. So, one thing to add on to this was that a there would be an easier access to high school credit for seventh and eighth graders leading to a path of more students in advanced AP dual credit classes. Now, if there was enough to warrant AP sections, then I would say yes, it would be offered there. If not, then it would follow what we do currently with our eighth graders and we would find modes of transportation to get them to the high school for those AP courses. >> Okay. So, I think what I'm hearing you say is that there would be potential to

267offer AP classes for 9th graders in that 7 through9 building. >> Correct. So when I think about our freshman academy now in our freshman academy core classes we are offering AP world AP human geography. Um the remainder of the AP courses are electives. Um, but again, depending on the request and depending on the need, if we were to go back and analyze our current nth graders and what AP courses that they are taking, if we could justify staffing and housing those AP courses in middle school, I would say we absolutely should do it. >> This is all really interesting that I appreciate you being here. And um, you made the cut for the top three. It was the one that had the least number of dots in the room. Was there a general sense of

268you know is it the loss of identity and legacy and just it's a big was there was there any overarching theme there as to why it was third place? >> Yes. So the big overarching theme was the fact that we would be losing a high school. So there is that huge pride in this town. So you're a proud Jay-Hawker. You're a proud Cougar or a proud warrior. And so that is going to be something that is going to be really hard for our community to kind of swallow. Um especially I mean I went to school here in Cedar Rapids kindergarten through 12th grade. So like it is something that's like ingrained in you. So that is going to be a huge change that would be a big difference. Um, but the whole idea of Kennedy

269not being a high school and Kennedy then being a building that sits empty and what do we do with that building and then do we try to sell it but we don't want to lose it to another charter model. So that was the big reasoning behind not a lot of support behind it just was the idea of Kennedy not being a building that we're utilizing and then possibly you losing that to our competition. >> Yeah, I appreciate just this like longer term thinking, right? Our job is to be fiscally responsible not just this year but in years to come. So when you talk about consolidating resources and supports and centralizing um efficiencies, I would be curious if we have information on what that like cost per pupil could look like if we you know consolidate

270in that way just what that savings just as a district might look like each year. And then another thing that I'm Stacy, right? >> Yeah. >> That I appreciate you mentioning is um looking at potential redrawing of boundaries that split and the demographics. I'd be curious specifically looking at socioeconomic race ethnicity breakdowns. I know that's something that we have quite a um you know wide gap in between our high schools and so um I'm not sure if we can get that information but I definitely be curious to see what that could look like in this model. Another positive real quick um was that when we were doing the capacity and we were doing the numbers, it would start students with a smaller amount of students in a building and then it was a gradual increase

271in size. So you would be going from a smaller population and then it's not like you're jumping to an extra thousand people in a building or an extra 500 students in a building. It was a gradual increase so kids could get used to just a few more students and then a few more and then build up to that high school. >> Can you speak a little bit? So the on the feeder pattern when I'm looking at the east side there's seven elementaryaries they feed all into one intermediate and they stay together and then on the west side it's the six to two to two to one. So feels like a big difference between having kids get together in fifth grade versus 10th grade. So maybe can you speak to that and what the discussion the

272group was like? >> Yes. So ultimately we would love the elementary going into one building. We would appreciate what we're doing in area one on the model. Unfortunately in our district we don't have any bigger schools on the west side. So all of the schools that we have built to larger capacity are on the east side. And so when you think about that, we don't have a building that can house that number of students on the west side of town for the number of students we would need for the intermediate and the junior high. >> Yeah. I I think going back to some of the slides that we had earlier, I think our target number to keep the the two zones balanced was 900 and something. Um, and none of our schools aside from Harding

273and Kennedy have access to a capacity of 900. Now to kind of like the counterpoint, we had talked about the flexibility and on the on area two, it does follow a nice feeder pattern with three elementaryaries feeding into one, feeding into one, and then eventually getting to the high school. That could be reddrafted for area one with Harding and Kennedy. However, that would be a tough bill to swallow not utilizing either of those two two schools knowing that they're some of our largest capacities. So, it allows us to still utilize those spaces, keeping the true feeder patterns. Um, we just don't have, as Stacy was saying, we don't have the buildings to be able to replicate that on the opposite side. We could go the opposite way, but again, not using Harding and not using

274Kennedy would be difficult. >> So, I don't think this is going to be a question, but we'll see what it turns into. I just wanted to say thank you to both of you. So, Caleb, Stacy, this is a true testament. Stacy, I was sitting next to you at the third community coalition meeting and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you said, "I just don't know much about that one. I'm gonna go give it a try." >> And it was amazing because afterwards you came back and you said, "I actually really like this and it seems viable." And so it was just really fun to see that evolution and for you both to champion that and take it on. And I've watched also it evolve like you mentioned closing Kennedy to then turning it

275into the middle school and I just think it's a testament to sort of the onenuity of just the district and also a larger testament to this conversation tonight about um transitions and thank you for bringing in that high school perspective. I think it was I think it's very valuable. Um it's not a question it turns out. So thank you. That's what I want to say. >> Absolutely. >> I I do have a question. Um, you alluded earlier to switching out some of these buildings and so I do want to revisit that. Uh, McKinley and Franklin right now would be closed according to your plan. Is it would it be possible um to switch out Franklin McKinley say for Harding and Taft? I'm just like based on our some of the work we did in our

276facilities um meetings, Harding and Taff seem to be like facilities that are going to be harder to maintain into the future. >> Would it be like would that work and maybe you don't know without sitting down and reconfiguring? it would be having to reconfigure. But looking at so currently Franklin's capacity is 806 and Mckenley's capacity is 824. So when we look at those numbers, we would not be able like we would be way over to use those buildings as intermediate and we would be under using them as a middle school model. So the that was the issue with that area one is that we ran into schools that either gave us where we're not using the capacity up to a high like a 90% or an 85 or higher. Um or we just didn't have

277enough room. >> Okay. >> And again part of part of that is proximity and location that neither of those two schools would be able to be utilized on the west side just due to the locations. Um when we talked about flexibility again, we can look at swapping out something or doing something different between intermediate and middle school. Um I know as part of the community coalition meetings uh last week and two weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about the the potential for utilizing those spaces for like some of the alternative programmings if those buildings could be repurposed for those as well. And then again saving funds elsewhere as far as renting spaces or leasing spaces, those are options. Um but again with with this option there just seems to be flexibility with the

278additional spaces and buildings that are not being used. >> And I would say one thing that we kept in mind was also trying to keep that neighborhood or close proximity be so that we wouldn't have somebody living in Robins and having to travel all the way to Roosevelt or Taft. So we're trying to still keep you in the same area vicinity so you're not traveling so far. I wanted to thank you for bringing this um comparison of some of these other high schools because I think that tends to be a part of the conversation often where we're saying why why aren't we as competitive but so to see just a sidebyside of what other people are doing and uh at the same time the waterlue conversation I'm curious if there's facing um similar issues do

279we in your experience outside of water are you hearing or is anybody hearing of um this consolidation to you know from multiple to um whittling down of high schools. Um curious if that's been a common theme. >> I'm not hearing of any conversations, but I know of another very large school district in Iowa that is also facing a very large budget deficit that potentially could be visiting the same conversations that we are. >> Yeah. I just think it'd be helpful to learn from them and just as we're considering the different models, especially since water is going through that currently. Correct. it would be helpful to you know have some insight there. So >> and it is possible like if this is the path that we want to pursue there there are examples of schools that

280we could visit and see what works for them um all within the state of Iowa. >> Yeah, similar to that 58 model at the Mount Vernon um location, a site visit, you know, for a similar model might be helpful. So thank you. Yeah, one thing I do want to touch on, um I alluded to a little bit earlier about the the additions um and then kind of what would happen with the additions with the two high schools. Um ultimately that's why we chose Wash and Jefferson uh is because they are getting the two new additions. Uh the one benefit with utilizing those two is that guarantees that every single high school student then has access to the new CTE automotive construction materials and equipment that we would have access to at those two buildings. Um

281one question when I was exploring this was how how would we utilize the freshman academy spaces that are being specifically built for freshmanies. And the idea there is that there are many ways that you can get creative and utilize those spaces. One that quickly came to mind is that as we continue the career pathways that that space could be a a potential fit as a career center and then now these spaces are housing your career electives uh as you continue to move through these pathway options. So I just wanted to address that with our construction with ninth graders moving down that does not mean that the space wouldn't be utilized. we can get creative and find great solutions on how to utilize that space for our high school students. >> I think this is the

282one because I think the number that you already shown was 8 million plus, right? So, the other two are showing six. So, I'm just curious if the community really would have an appetite for going from three high schools to two, but that idea that there's additional money there that's potentially getting saved and how that might get deployed. So just lots for this community to think about certainly for this board. So really happy we're not making a decision tonight because this is this is wild. So I I would comment you again Stacy that like I appreciate you you know as others have already said I mean I spend most of my uh day job in crazy ideas. So hearing you say that and just embracing that to at least kind of come with an open mind.

283I think that's what we were hoping for from the community. So, I appreciate you. >> I'm glad we can bring it here for you, too. So, yeah. >> I just want to make another comment. When you I was walking by you guys at the community coalition, I was like, "Oh, that's never going to work." And you guys, like, kudos to you. You made this like, "Oh my gosh, this is a viable option. Um, and and maybe a really good one we need to explore." So, I just really appreciate the hard work that you and your team put into just really figuring it out, all the nuts and bolts of it. And >> it's Yeah, it's good. Yeah, we we we wanted to to show that all ideas are out on the table and that all

284things were considered and so that if we are even if this is the model that isn't chosen and this isn't the one that is being moved through um that the board has reasoning and the community has reasoning that it was at least considered and shown for people to know and then that way all things truly are on the table and all options are on the table. I just hope that everyone in the community does take the time to watch these presentations uh because we will be doing surveys and talking to folks out in the community. And I think once they hear the presentations and have a better understanding, they'll have a better appreciation for how viable some of these other options are, too. So, um, if you're, yeah, we just, we need the community to

285to listen in and be informed >> and while they're listening and really centering like you all have on student success and what's best for our kids and our community long term and trying our best to remove our personal bias or our personal experience because we got to think about the here and now and moving forward. So, thank you for centering that with all of your presentations. I know that that's super crucial. >> Well said, Director Buyers. Any further comments or questions? All right. Well, first of all, I'd like to thank our Shark Tank contestants for the night. >> Thank you. >> I'd also like to thank everybody who's serving on the community coalition as well and to our staff for being here as support and to everybody who came out uh from the community and

286um it was such a productive and helpful evening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With that, I want to provide provide a reminder that the time we meet for for reg our next regular board meeting is Monday, February 9th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. Do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. Nobody say nay. All right. With no further business, we stand adjourned at 9:34 p.m.