What's next for Hills Elementary? Plans to rebuild Iowa City district's smallest school are murky

Although plans to rebuild Hills Elementary have long been discussed, firm details about what's coming next for the more than 50-year-old school have yet to materialize, a point of concern for the growing town in southern Johnson County.

In November, the Iowa City school district asked for voter approval to borrow money against taxpayer dollars to fund several years' worth of facilities projects. When that ballot measure passed, it paved the way for more detailed discussions about "Facilities Master Plan 2.0."

Details about those projects have surfaced sporadically this year at sparsely attended public meetings, including the topic of replacing the old Hills building with a new one.

In March, the school board approved a design contract for a new $20.1 million, two-story Hills Elementary. That's just one step in a series of school board approvals for the project, however. In April, a list of projects approved by the school board included replacing Hills Elementary with a budget of $18 million, beginning with a "discussion" phase.

Complicating matters are questions about where exactly the new school would be built ⁠— on the seven-acre plot of land where it currently sits, or somewhere else in town ⁠— and, if students would be displaced during construction, where they would go to class.

Hills Elementary is the smallest school in the Iowa City district, with an enrollment of 172 in 2021-22, but also earned the distinction last year as one of only five "Blue Ribbon" schools in the state and 325 nationally.

More: How rural Hills Elementary boosted student test scores and became a Blue Ribbon School

In an interview Wednesday, school board President Shawn Eyestone said there are differing opinions among board members about whether redoing the building is something the district should pursue, looking at factors like fiscal responsibility and building efficiency.

The project was first raised for discussion when different people were on the school board.

Making it a bumpier process is the need to sort out details about how and where the school would be constructed, he said.

"All of those things have kind of bubbled up to the point where we're not just jumping both feet in and saying, 'Get it done.' It's more like, 'OK, let's figure out the details so that the current board can decide, OK, as a total package, this is what we want to do or not what we want to do,'" Eyestone said.

Last week, former school district facilities director Duane Van Hemert told the board that he had advised architects for the project to pause their work while he waits for further direction.

The topic will be discussed again at the upcoming school board meeting on Tuesday.

More: Iowa City school district gets OK to spend $8.75 million on ACT building, but not without questions

Pilcher-Hayek raises questions about enrollment; others push back

At the meeting last week, school board member Maka Pilcher-Hayek said she doesn't think there is "good cause to build a school in Hills when there are so few students who live there who attend it."

Of the students currently enrolled at the school, 51 live within the city, according to a statement from the district. Forty-eight are in kindergarten through sixth grade, but the building also houses pre-K classes.

Pilcher-Hayek also raised questions about the cost of busing, and the areas where students are being bused from. Many students who attend the school are bused in from the Cole and Regency mobile home parks.

The school board did make a promise about renovations to Hills in FMP 1.0 and kept it, she said, referencing past work on the building.

"We have also said for years that we needed to see the growth that Hills kept saying they would have, and there isn't that growth," Pilcher-Hayek added.

In 2001, Hills' enrollment was 257 students; that dwindled to a low point of 116 in 2010, according to data from the Iowa Department of Education. Its 2021-22 enrollment of 172 is similar to schools like Shimek (196) and Lincoln (203).

The average enrollment across all 21 elementary schools in the district was about 360 students in 2021-22. The largest was the 548-student Christine Grant Elementary in North Liberty, built in 2019.

"It doesn't really matter that much if we thought we would build a school in Hills. What matters is, before we build it, we know we should," Pilcher-Hayek said. "Because once you build it, you've got to fill it. You've got to staff it. You've got to bus kids to it, and it better be the right decision."

More: Should sixth graders be in elementary school? Not anymore, according to Iowa City district

Hills Mayor Tim Kemp attended the meeting last week. In an interview on Tuesday, he said a promise was made to the Hills community to redo the school. He referenced talk about the FMP 2.0 plans in the November election.

"They sold that vote to the people, saying we're going to build a new Hills Elementary and (listing) several other projects. So I'm not sure why all of the sudden this is an issue; if it was an issue, you would have thought it would've been an issue before the vote," Kemp said.

It's not abnormal for students to live far enough away from school to require busing, he said. Many students who attend Hills would need to be bused regardless of which school they attend.

"We've been very supportive of the school and have kind of waited our turn, so to speak, (while) all of the other schools get built or remodeled or remodeled again after they were built," he said.

At last week's meeting, Eyestone said the current building might not be drawing people to live in Hills. But a brand new school could have the opposite effect, he said, arguing that when a new school is built, people tend to follow. The city's population was 863, according to the 2020 Census, an increase of about 160 people since 2010.

The board has given the indication that rebuilding the school has been the plan, he said at the meeting.

"If that's not the direction we're going, it's going to require a vote, just because the conversations that I've had personally, I would tell you that I would still vote to build the building in Hills," Eyestone said. "I don't know that everybody else here would, but that's me."

The school board formally approved the list of FMP 2.0 projects in April — including the Hills line item — to hold the governing body accountable to future changes, Eyestone said at the time.

"When things change, we have to very publicly talk about it and the reasons for why we need to change it so that we can then vote again (and) move stuff around," he said at that meeting.

Board member Charlie Eastham pointed out last week that, while Hills has the smallest enrollment of any school in the district, it has "unique features." One, it's a neighborhood school for students who live in Hills. Two, it is attended by students from at least two or three mobile home parks, he said.

"It seems to me that folks living in those areas, those neighborhoods, form very close-knit and supportive neighborhood groups together. So even though students may need to ride a bus to get to Hills from a manufactured housing park, to me they are a neighborhood who is attending a school," Eastham said.

Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Plans to rebuild Hills Elementary are on hold, raising concern in town