Why do we need redistricting?

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Why do we need redistricting?

(17 posts) (8 voices)

Started 2 years ago by admin
Latest reply from Tom Gill

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Key Master

I am a parent with children in the Iowa City School District and have been following the redistricting process through media reports, Web site information and by attending redistricting committee meetings. I also actively work in the Iowa City schools providing specialized therapeutic support services and several of the schools I support are designated SINA.

What I find perplexing is how the Iowa City School Board came about the decision regarding the four boundary criteria adopted Nov. 10. I am curious what the board's motivation was in moving to determine the four criteria without information they had requested regarding community input. The board had directed the consultants in October to conduct surveys in order to gauge the community's desires as the district grows.

So what is the rational for directing consultants prior to receiving community input? I don't understand why the board would instruct the committee on the four boundary criteria prior to at least considering input from 6,100 district patrons. It just seems counterproductive -- and unfair -- for the board to not include in-depth community input prior to giving direction to the consultants and committee.

Given survey results of particular concern is the board decision to include demographic considerations as one of the four criteria. The final report, dated Jan. 11, shows that demographic consideration was not in the top four concerns of the more than 6,100 people surveyed. Such results suggest that the board is somewhat distant from district patrons.

What is overwhelming with the survey respondents is that the primary factor our community wants for students is equitable access to programs. The consultants noticed this variation and provided an opportunity for the committee to address it during the Jan. 21 meeting with the guiding question, "With patron responses on the survey placing less emphasis on demographic considerations, how should the scenario maximize the distribution (explain)?"

In response to what more than 6,100 district patrons have noted as our community's desire, perhaps there should be discussion pertaining to if there are certain schools that are not equitable in terms of programs and services. If there is inequity at specific schools, why is this occurring and what should be done to remediate so that all of the children have the same access? It's not solely a demographic issue, but there are perhaps things that could be done at certain schools in terms of programming opportunities for students.

It also is a much more complex issue with regard to land use and community planning. When city planners approve permits for developers to create subdivisions that attract a certain income bracket (high or low), it is logical to assume children will attend their neighborhood school and subsequently the school's demographics will match the relative income level in that area and subdivision.

So over many years -- with little oversight regarding balancing community planning and affordable housing throughout the city -- we have a situation that has resulted in an imbalance in demographics at certain schools.

The question of fairness is, "Should our children be used as pawns to balance demographics by leaving their neighborhood schools to attend a school across town in order to 'equalize' the numbers?" This is not fair to either end of the demographic spectrum. It would certainly be hard to explain that to my 8-year-old who loves going his local school.

We also must consider the survey results. When we combine the findings, it becomes evident that there isn't a groundswell of support for systemic change right now. In fact, the responses in this research suggest that these audiences view the prospect of change with great caution -- which affirms a general level of satisfaction with the district's performance -- and they want any changes to be made only after extensive deliberation.

I think the school board needs to reconsider the entire redistricting process and how it arrived at this point. The board's four criteria don't seem to coincide with the community's desires.

-- Bill Weaver

Posted 2 years ago #
Claire Black-Hanson
Member

I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of how the district/school board thinks. But I believe part of the reason for bringing in the consultants to work on boundaries and demographics before bringing in the community input was to take the emotion out of the plan - at least at first. They can look at facts and figures of demographics, topology, populations, socio-economics without any of the NIMBY or obvious bias we all have for our schools and neighborhoods. I look for these forums that are going now to (hopefully!!) put the emotion back into the situation and allow families to have their passions and ideas injected into the discussions. Certainly, we will all have complaints about this or that part of the plan. I do think the board and the district is going about this redistricting in the right way this time: open doors and well attended forums. I do believe redistricting is necessary to even the playing field.

Posted 2 years ago #
Tom Gill
Member

So here we go again, I'm 62 years old, I started attending Central Elementary in 1956 when we moved to Coralville. I spent my 9th grade year at Coralville Central because Coralville did not vote to merge into the ICCSD. My father was the president of the Coralville school district in favor of merger. We merged the next year. Fast forward to the mid 1980's My daughter was in 1st grade boundaries were redrawn to include North Coralville. Central had become the dumping ground for that foreign Hawkeye Court problem that Lincoln didn't care to have. We loved Hawkeye Court but just needed more of a parent base. Boundaries were changed, Central was the last school in the state to be desegregated. My Grand-daughter is now at Central, 3 generations. My daughter/husband saved & purchased a home in the Central School attendance area. Now with the sweep of a pen they have moved my grand-daughter to another attendance area. They like Central attendance area the way it is 31 %free/reduced lunch. So School Board, decide what you are going to do and then our family will decide what is our next step and vote with our feet. It's been a good run 3 generations from Central.
Here is the tally of 2 generations: the 3rd generation may go somewhere else.

1 Mother 1 Neuro-scientist Phd 1 Attorney
3 Drs. 1 Self-employed
1 Engineer 1 Teacher
1Researcher 1 Filmaker

Posted 2 years ago #
Dan Brown
Member

My kids go to Lucas, which is a very diverse school. It's been great for them - in many ways. Since their mother lives right next to the school they would not be affected by the redistricting plan. I live in Stonebridge Estates - one of the neighborhoods that is currently in the Lemme District, but would move to the Mark Twain attendence area is the plan was approved. Now - we could have open enrolled our kids in Lemme when I moved there, but decided the girls were doing great at Lucas and kept them there. I think that was a good decision. I also think that(neighborhood school argument aside) if kids from the Stonebridge neighborhood became part of Twain it would help create some diffusion and diversity that could really benefit the educational environment at the school. Actually, I think it could make it very much like Lucas. I can honestly say that it wouldn't cause me any distress.

Now - here's the stuff that does concern me. Maybe it's really nothing to be concerned about, and I'm hoping someone on this forum can shed some light on these things.

If the redistricting plan was passed - as is.

1. Would my property value go down? Instinctively, I would say "yes" because my father, who was a longtime area realtor always told me that school district was a huge selling/buying factor. For example - he worked with Bill Frantz on the subdivisions south on Sycamore and as people began to see Grant Wood as a problematic school district he spoke of many homeowners taking losses and home sales in the area being very difficult. Clearly - housing growth south on Sycamore pretty much stopped at that point. I also recall that when the housing developments south of K-Mart sprang up they were very successful, home prices were strong and resale was good. I'm not exactly sure what it's like in that neighborhood now, but my sense is that the housing market is not what Southgate Development expected it would be.

2. I live in an area that is growing (one of the few in Iowa City) and there are plans for significant development in the near future. Will the developer alter, or even scrap the existing plans? Will what has been zoned and planned as single-family residential be changed to multi-family to keep purchase price points low and convert easily to rentals if necessary in the future?

3. If the east side of Iowa City stops growing, what impact will that have on the City in terms of tax assessments, infrastructure plans, etc.?

4. Will people flock to the districts that they feel are "better" for their children? For example - will builders be more likely to invest in North Coralville, far west Iowa City, etc. because of a perceived absence of significantly troubled schools. Will home prices in those neighborhoods go up? Will Realtors focus on sales in those areas because of better opportunity?

I really don't have answers to these questions. I'd be interested in others' input and viewpoints.

db

Dan Brown's opinions are his own and do not represent those of Press-Citizen Media, the Press-Citizen Editorial Board or Press-Citizen employees.

Posted 2 years ago #
Tom Gill
Member

To address Dan's item 1, I believe property values will go down, When Grantwood was built it was a fine neighborhood. My wife went to high school and lived on Sycamore near Muscatine in the 60's. My father in law sold the house in the late 90's and moved because the house next door became part of the housing authority section 8, he fought leaving but after numerous police raids for drugs next door he sold.

item 4: Coralville has it's problems as well as North Liberty. 50 kids left Kirkwood & went to Horn the 1st day of school this year. No one is immune.
Maybe the answer is the University of Iowa & the business community have to take an active role in deciding the leadership of the ICCSD. Coralville contributes thousands of tax dollars to ICAD every year. This money supports economic development of the University and the area. If the ICCSD is substandard why fund these economic organizations, no one will come?
I don't have the answers either, but the methods the ICCSD have used recently confirmed my suspicions that there has been extremely poor planning & management.

Posted 2 years ago #
Stephen Locher
Member

Can anyone explain to me if there is a relationship between redistricting and attempting to solve the problems specific elementary schools face in dealing with large numbers of incoming students who are well below age-grade level in reading and math, the very high turnover of students during the school year, and large numbers of students with disruptive behavior? A personal friend who was an experienced elementary school teacher left teaching some years back after struggling through a year with eight children in the classroom any one of which, he said, would have been a challenge from a behavioral point of view. Are these burdens related to poverty and impoverished early childhood environments? Is spreading these burdens equitably among schools an acceptable goal of redistricting?

Posted 2 years ago #
Dan Brown
Member

I guess I don't think of them as burdens as much as I see them as disproportionate challenges. As I said in my above post - my girls go to Lucas. It's a very diverse school and a SINA school. It has a pretty high level of free and reduced lunch students and a lot of special needs students. On top of it all Lucas is BIG (more than 400 students) with large class sizes.

I was raised in Iowa City, I used to be a teacher and I'm pretty spoiled regarding the level of education one can expect here in our district - and I have to say that I think my kids are getting a great educational AND social experience. They deal with lots of kids with different backgrounds, learning abilities, and family structures. They deal with some tough kids, some disruptive kids and some kids who are slower to learn. But they also deal with an equal number of kind kids, cooperative kids and kids who excel academically. It creates a healthy, positive balance that I would not trade.

If redistricting could reapportion the challenges amongst schools I think it could build more Lucas Elementaries.

Dan Brown's opinions are his own and do not reflect those of the Press-Citizen, its editorial board or employees.

Posted 2 years ago #
Dan Brown
Member

Here's a link to a story we published today about the affects of redistricting on real estate sales.

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100216/NEWS01/2160322/1079

Dan Brown's opinions are his own and do not reflect those of the Press-Citizen, its editorial board or employees.

Posted 2 years ago #
Mary Vasey
Member

I wonder if it might be a good idea to expand on some of our ideas. Why does it all have to be about drawing new lines? There is a discussion in this forum about Magnet schools but that is only one idea. What about combining two or three schools and making one a primary (k-3) and the other intermediate (4-6)? With the right combinations of schools the diversity issue would be addressed as well as busing problems.

Posted 2 years ago #
Stephen Locher
Member

Dan,

Thank you for sharing our family's experience at Lucas; wider appreciation for the benefits you have found in a school with a diverse student body would I think go a long way towards allaying the anxieties of parents who are concerned about the potential consequences for their own children attending such a school.

Paul Bellus guest opinion today (with the unfortunate headline about neighborhoods) discusses at some length the kind of evidence supporting the benefits of diverse schools. His opinion piece suggests that your experience at Lucas could be generalized in support of a plan to equitably distribute the diversity in Iowa City schools. It sounds like win-win.

Posted 2 years ago #
Dan Brown
Member

I really believe in the potential of reapportioning challenges, but I think redistricting extends far beyond education and schools. I think it points up some challenges that we face as a community - social challenges, economic challenges, development challenges, etc. - that we are going to have to address. How will redistricting impact residential or commercial development. What impact might it have on long-term infrastructure plans. What sort of cultural impact will result. To me - this goes far beyond busing and neighborhood schools - it speaks to the vision we have for this community.

Posted 2 years ago #
Tom Gill
Member

Elementary school thoughts.
Make the people who live in an attendance area stay in that attendance area. You buy a home in the Kirkwood area you don't opt into Horn. You live in a condo in the Central area you don't opt into Lincoln. You move from the Horn area to the Weber area you will not be allowed to have your child stay at Horn. Designate all elementaries SINA schools, therefore no movement in or out of an attendance area.
If a large subdivision is built next to an existing school let's say Weber. That subdivision will not have priority they will go to the new school with no bus service provided. Quit chasing new development. If a new apartment complex will greatly effect school attendance require the developer to pay an impact fee.
School buildings must be kept current. The district has many small schools outdated or becoming outdated, (Roosevelt, Twain, Lincoln) don't gerrymander to keep them open. If the neighborhood has aged and the elementary population is not there close it, if the population is there tear it down & rebuild an upgraded facility, McDonalds does it all the time. Maybe we should think like the HyVee's, Walmarts, & McDonalds when deciding locations.

Posted 2 years ago #
Jen Marshall Duncan
Member

With regard to property values, there is not a whole lot of research out there that can tie redistricting directly to a lowering of property values. There is a study, entitled "How much is a neighborhood worth?" that was updated in 2002 and published in the Journal of Urban Economics (Volume 47, Issue 2, March 2000, Pages 280-305.) In this article, researchers trace the effects of redistricting on the community of Shaker Heights, Ohio. The study concludes that property values went down very slightly after redistricting, but researchers couldn't definitively tie this slight drop to redistricting.

There are similarities to the Shaker Heights school district to the ICCSD prior to rediststricing, however there are some stark differences: prior to redrawing the boundaries, all schools in that district were considered to be equitable in building structure, programming, and services. Buildings were equally well-kept and repaired. Teachers moved from school to school rather than remaining in one building year after year. By moving teachers, the instructional style and level was rather constant; no teachers got "burnt out" by working with more challenging students year after year. Curriculum was uniform district-wide. When redistricting happened in Shaker Heights, students who moved to other buildings were guaranteed the same quality education that they had been receiving previously. With the quality of schools remaining the same both before and after moving due to boundary changes, property values may not have been affected.

This is not the case in the ICCSD. Instruction, building condition, and services are not currently equitable from neighborhood to neighborhood (Garner opening and Roosevelt closing are case in point.) I encourage you to remember that there are NOT multiple school districts in our community. We are one district. Our property taxes fund the district as a whole, not just one neighborhood school. As a district, every neighborhood should have access to a school that gives equal access to instruction, technology, and services. Did you know that there are some elementary schools in the ICCSD that do not have computer labs large enough to accommodate an entire classroom of students? There are others with newer labs that easily accommodate a classroom of students. This is not equitable. This is not preparing ALL of our students to succeed in the world. In our current situation, it is likely that property values will go down in some neighborhoods. However, if we do this redistricting properly, in the long run the value of our community as a whole will go up--because each neighborhood will offer the same high quality education that we expect throughout the ICCSD.

Posted 2 years ago #
Dan Brown
Member

I will be very interested to see what the new scenarios the district plans to roll our this week look like. I can't help but believe that regardless of what is changed these arguments over equal access to top-notch education and the idea of neighborhood schools will remain.

I see merit in what Tom suggests. I've lived here all my life and I can assure you that neighborhoods change over time. I went to Horace Mann. In 1968 there were lots of families with kids living in the North end. New developments off Prairie Du Chien Rd. brought lots of new families to the neighborhood. Horace Mann was a bustling school. Over the course of years - as those kids aged and moved on theie parents remained. So the household count was the same, but the child count dropped. I saw the same thing happen in the current Twain neighborhood. Lots of my friends in high school lived there and attended Twain. They grew up and their parents stayed - just like Mann. I think it's pretty clear that most middle-class neighborhoods in town will cycle like this over time and the temptation is to chase new development (as Tom puts it) or retrofitting schools to reflect current market conditions. The question then becomes "What is indicator that a scool should be modified? In terms of facilities, resources, etc. And then - how long can you expect these modifications to remain applicable.

Posted 2 years ago #
Drew Latta
Member

Tom Gill: "If a new apartment complex will greatly effect school attendance require the developer to pay an impact fee."

How do you propose one do this? Iowa City Community Schools already benefit immensely from this being a college town with some of the largest property tax payers in town renting mostly to college students. Though I suppose this is somewhat offset by the large amount of UI owned land in Iowa City.

To my way of viewing things large multi-family units in Iowa City are a wholly different thing than suburban growth.

As someone that has no real stake in the argument, it seems that phasing the re-districting is the best option. Is anyone even thinking about that?

Posted 2 years ago #
Tom Gill
Member

Trying to answer Dan's question "What is the indicator that a school should be modified?" Methods of teaching have changed greatly, I think there have been great changes in the last 5 years. Retrofitting should include adequate land, location, ease of access (buses), ease of retrofit. A school lunch room determines how large an elementary can be. I met with a law student last week, we were talking about all the Law & Medical students using the the Coralville Library. The explanation, the law & medical libraries are dated. Coralville has large tables to spread out many outlets & terminals for laptops. It's been 30 years since I used the Medical Library. We didn't have computers just reams of xerox copies. These are issues that the ICCSD has to address even for schools built in the last 10-15 years.

To Drew's question about apartment complexes. Trying to be clear multi-family can mean many things What is the impact on a school district when an out of state contractor decides to build a large mostly low income section 8 housing on relatively cheap land on the outskirts of town? Who ultimately pays?

Phasing would be a great way of dealing with growth but the district hasn't addressed it ever, it's a patch job. Impact fees have many drawbacks, but if not that who pays? The kids sitting in an old school, in a school district, that has no funds to be retrofitted.

I'm not wild about impact fees, may want to read this article, it's not very different than around here.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2008/mar/31/school_impact_fees_proposed_manage_growt35530/

Posted 2 years ago #
Tom Gill
Member

Scenario 3 is looking good. Finally people are coming to realize it is in the best interest of the whole ICCSD to have only 2 high schools.

Posted 2 years ago #

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