Parents, community rally to save their schools

Seven ‘Save Harrison Elementary' signs sit in yards across the street from the school, at 1310 11th Street NW, in the Time Check neighborhood. Others are peppered throughout the neighborhood that still bears scars from the June 2008 flood.

“There are fewer students because there are houses down everywhere,” said Tina McNabb, mother of two Harrison students. “You have to give this place time to come back after the flood.”

The Cedar Rapids school district's enrollment stakeholder committee provided a reprieve Tuesday night, choosing to present proposals to the community for public input rather than make recommendations that could determine the future of Harrison, Madison, Monroe and Polk elementary schools.

The committee will present their work to Cedar Rapids school board members on Jan. 9, but recommendations from Superintendent Dave Benson won't go before the board until mid-February.

Benson told committee members Tuesday he will use their work, and input from the community input sessions, to make his recommendations.

Community input sessions will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Feb 2 at Grant Wood AEA Conference Center, 4401 Sixth Street SW and 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 9 in the band room at Kennedy High School, 4545 Wenig Road NE.

“I think the options are very important for community input,” Shellie Pike, one of the committee members, said Tuesday. “We want the community to feel they had a say.”

Elementary proposal 1 includes the closing of Harrison, Monroe and Polk elementary schools. Grant Early Childhood Center would become a K-5 facility and Wilson Middle School would serve sixth through eighth grade students. Proposal 2 is essentially the same, only it has Madison Elementary closing instead of Harrison.

The middle school proposal has Wilson Middle School serving sixth through eighth grade students, while both high school proposal 3 and 4 change the current high school boundary lines.

The biggest difference, though, are the elementary schools that feed into the high schools.

In proposal 3, three elementary schools - Grant, Taylor and Van Buren - will feed into Wilson, but only Grant students would attend Washington High School. In proposal 4, Wright Elementary and some Pierce Elementary students - those who live south of Glass Road and east of Wenig Road - will attend Washington High School instead of Kennedy, while all Grant students would go to Jefferson High School.

The community can address board members at the Jan. 9, Jan. 23 and Feb. 13 school board meetings, all of which will be held at the Grant Wood AEA Conference Center to accommodate a larger audience, but board members can't respond to those comments. Benson stressed Tuesday that the community input sessions are the opportunities for back-and-forth conversation.

More than 20 years have passed since the Cedar Rapids district last closed a school. However, elementary schools that closed in 1986 – Truman and Jackson – later reopened in 1990 and 1993, respectively.

The Iowa Department of Education has recorded nearly 600 school closures since 1999. However, that data doesn't provide an accurate picture, as it includes Iowa's public and private schools, preschools and day care centers, Head Start programs and area education agencies.

Notes and Power Point presentations from all enrollment committee meetings are available on the Cedar Rapids school district's Website at www.cr.k12.ia.us.

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Supporters of Harrison, Madison and Polk schools have organized to save their schools. An effort for Monroe, which serves kindergarten students only, has not yet been organized.

Harrison Elementary School: Contact the Northwest Neighborhood Association at (319) 366-1176

Madison Elementary School: http://savemadisonelementary.wordpress.com/

Polk Elementary School:

keeppolkopen@gmail.com