Scenes from the School Board - The Public Weighs In

So parents and other concerned folks got their first chance Monday night to publicly weigh in on the possibility of school closures and boundary changes in Cedar Rapids.

A committee of community stakeholders turned in its recommendations to the School Board at its regular meeting, including the possibility of closing Polk and Madison or Harrison elementary schools, among other changes. In roughly a month, on Feb. 13, Superintendent Dave Benson will make his recommendations, after consulting with by "internal staff and external advisers." And March 12 is D-Day, when the board makes its final call. Things are moving right along.

But before we heard about any of that, we heard from the public. Nineteen citizens spoke, by my count.

We heard from several parents who heaped praise on their neighborhood schools, some with kids who have faced challenges but are making progress in those schools. They fear what the disruption of moving would mean to the fragile stability they've worked to create for their kids with teachers and staff.

"Orion loves his classmates," said a mother whose third-grade child attends Polk. "This wouldn't have happened in a larger school. He would have gotten lost in the shuffle."

Ruth White, an educator who retired after 33 years with the district and now directs the Kids on Course program at Harrison, said she was "surprised and dismayed" at the possibility of closure. She contends when the program, funded by the Zach Johnson Foundation, began, there was no inkling that the school might be shuttered. Now, its hard-won success is in jeopardy.

"It's important that you keep your promises," White told the board. "Especially when you make them to children."

There were common themes. Bigger schools are not necessarily better than neighborhood schools. A schools' academic record - such as Polk working its way off the No Child Left Behind deficiency list - should get at least as much weight as  enrollment figures or repair needs. Some questioned the enrollment committee process, which featured months of meetings closed to the general public.

"I have doubts about transparency and the ethics," said Steven Hill, a Polk parent.

Harrison defenders argued that closure would be another blow to the school's flood-hit attendance area, which is working to recover. "When does this neighborhood get to stop fighting?" said Amanda DeWitt, a young education student at Mount Mercy whose family has lived on the northwest side since her great grandfather made his way here from Ellis Island.

After those emotional, but largely civil, comments, it was Jim Craig's unenviable job to deliver the enrollment committee's recommendations. Craig was a parent representative on the panel.

He explained, based on two main sets of objective data - the district's enrollment and facilities reports - that citizen committee members came to the difficult conclusion that elementary closures are necessary. Polk and Harrison/Madison are in proximity to other elementary schools, he said, so the committee felt closing one school in those "clusters" would be prudent to balance shrinking enrollment. He also said the committee looked at socioeconomic data and tried to achieve some better balance between schools.

"No one told us we should close schools," said Craig, insisting that they were not steered to pick a preset plan.

When it came time for board members to ask Craig questions, board members' immediate impulse was not to probe the recommendations, but to defend the process.

"Did you feel the meetings were secretive?" Mary Meisterling asked Craig, who answered no. After all, a Gazette reporter was at every meeting.

Actually, the meetings were not secret. Their location and time were not an issue. They simply were not open to the parents and other members of the community who might have wanted to witness a deliberative process with the real potential to change their lives. But as long as one reporter had access, I guess that's OK in the district's book.

Was the committee steered by any preconceived notions? Again, Craig said no. Board President John Laverty asked whether the district's purchase of land on the west edge of town figured into its deliberations. "I'd never heard about it until today," Craig said.

Later, Board member Keith Westercamp asked Benson "why did we buy the land?" Benson gave the same answer he gave me last week, that the school district is trying to get out ahead of development it expects to pop up once Highway 100 is expanded through the area. But it has no specific plans at this point for the 37-acre parcel.

And board members, with the committee's recommendations now in hand, realized they're still missing some data. Little stuff, like how much money closing schools would actually save and academic data from the schools on the chopping block. Have other efficiency measures been explored? And what would the effects be on programs and student opportunities? Lots of big questions yet to be answered. The superintendent promised to fill them in.

There will be multiple chances for the public to ask those and other questions, but whether your questions get answered is less certain. There are board meetings and workshops that will allow for public comment, but not a give-and-take between citizens and board members.You might catch them at two open houses in February, between storyboards, one-on-one. Or, you can submit written questions.

Basically, there is nothing scheduled between now and March 12 where elected board members or the superintendent  ever have to take a question in public that they must answer directly in public. I'm going to say it until I'm blue in the face - open house chit chat and questions on cards stuffed in a box and public comments the get no direct response are not substitutes for a real, open forum where everyone hears the questions and gets answers. I said it when the city used the same process. Now the school district is following the blueprint.

A good old town hall, and yes, without  a net, would be better.

On the other track is Benson's review with internal staff and external advisers may actually be the more important process. I doubt much of that will be visible to the public.

So we're on track to get a result that may be entirely justified and defensible but also potentially damaged because of the process used to get it. One citizen last night urged the board to conduct a process that, no matter what the outcome, everyone could walk away feeling like they had a say. I'm not sure that's going to happen in this process, which seems designed more to avoid discomfort and confrontation than to give citizens a real voice in the debate.