School Enrollment Growth Strong in Johnson County, But 325 Students Open-Enrolled out of the District

The Iowa City Community School District is growing in enrollment while many other Iowa school districts face declining enrollment.

Marla Swesey, school board president, commented that she didn't know whether to say at the Iowa Association of School Boards meeting that the ICCSD enrollment is growing when so many other IASB members said their enrollments are declining.

Patti Fields looked at Marla and shook her head as if to say no, she shouldn't tell IASB members that our district's enrollment is growing. Between 2000 and 2010, Iowa City enrollment increased 1% while North Liberty enrollment increased 122%. Coralville enrollment increased 29%. Hills enrollment actually decreased slightly.

On the other hand, 325 students open-enrolled out of the Iowa City Community School District from 2012 to 2013. This number doesn't square with what Tracy Richter, who explained enrollment projections, said. Richter, CEO of DeJong-Richter, said that the number of students open-enrolling out of the district has increased from 235.1 in the 2003-2004 school year to 445 students in the 2012-2013 school year. Either way, the district lost hundreds of students due to open enrollment.

Julie Van Dyke asked, "Why does the ICCSD have one student coming in while 13 are going out?"

"We are losing money when students leave the district. We should find out why they're leaving and which school districts they're going to. We need to know which [ICCSD] schools in particular are losing students." She also asked, "Why is this information hidden?"

In addition, both Van Dyke and Phil Hemingway noted the district's C- rating on the Sunshine Review, a measure of district transparency. Van Dyke thanked Chief Operating Officer David Dude and school board member Jeff McGinness for making sure that information gets up on the district website, information that used to be hidden.

Marisa Kinney, a Penn Elementary School parent in North Liberty, asked why the district is planning to do so little during the summer construction season of 2013. "There are some projects we have a consensus on. Why aren't we working on those?" she asked. "All of the needs throughout the district, and not just in North Liberty, make it imperative that we not lose the summer construction season."

The only construction project that I heard is on-going is the music addition to City High. I hope that's not the only project in progress. It would be a shame to miss the summer construction season, but if planning is still in such flux that meaningful and well planned construction projects aren't shovel ready, my question would be, why?

With enrollment expected to increase by 200-300 students per year, why would construction projects still be so far behind? Not only does the Facilities Management department need to move quickly, it needs to move effectively. There are still questions, despite a change in management, as to how Facilities Management is spending their funds.

Why, Phil Hemingway asked, did the Physical Plant buy two new vehicles? The only explanation from Duane Van Hemert was that the vehicles were "old" and needed to be replaced. With a wink and a smile, Van Hemert hopes to get by with the purchases.

How old is "old"? Calling the vehicles "old" is surely not enough information. Was there anything wrong with the vehicles? The cost for those two vehicles was $75,000.

Board member Sarah Swisher asked if buying $75,000 worth of vehicles didn't violate the spirit of the new superintendent limitations, which are that the superintendent shall not fail to get the board's approval for any contract over $25,000. Splitting bids/contracts to avoid limitation is not acceptable.

David Dude's explanation was to blame the purchase of two vehicles on an underling, a "vehicle mechanic," who bought the vehicles without having been informed of the superintendent limitation. However, the vehicles were purchased with 2012-2013 funds before the superintendent limitations were set in place, so technically, the superintendent limitations weren't violated.

I sure am getting tired of central administrators blaming an underling for their own failure to recognize that there's a new sheriff in town. The physical plant's old ways of buying whatever they want whenever they want is not going to fly any more.

You'd think that since both former CFO Paul Bobek and physical plant director Paul Schultz lost their jobs, physical plant management, at least, would have gotten the message, but apparently, they haven't.

Whatever happened to "the buck stops here"? When blame rolls downhill it's time to take a look at who at the top is dodging their own responsibility. I certainly don't blame the vehicle mechanic for buying the vehicles. Someone up the food chain had to approve those purchases. I just don't see a vehicle mechanic deciding to spend $75,000 on new vehicles without authorization from at least one supervisor.

The one central administrator who has convinced me he's doing a good job and is not ducking his responsibilities is CFO Craig Hansel. He seems to be doing a fine job, and so far he hasn't blamed any of his staff for anything.

Speaking of transparency and accountability, have you noticed that board members who participate in legislative meetings and hold "listening posts" with parents and concerned citizens never report what actually happens in those meetings in any meaningful way?

Reporting "a lively conversation" to the board and the public is not the same as saying what the conversation was about. There's even less content in the board's legislative reports. That's not reporting. That's obfuscation.