Iowa City schools consider hiring consultant

Posted on Aug 12, 2009 by Gregg Hennigan.

The Iowa City school district may hire an outside consultant to help with some of the big issues the district is facing.

Superintendent Lane Plugge made the request of the school board late last night at a work session. My deadline had already passed, so that wasn’t in our coverage, which you can read here.

Earlier in the meeting, administrators told the school board that the district likely could not afford to open a new high school in the fall of 2014, which was the preliminary open date Plugge set last month.

Plugge told the board he’d like a consultant to help him review the timeline for opening a school, look at the financial implications and to consider boundary changes.

Plugge also said he’d like to look at districtwide boundary changes, a hot topic in the district.

The school board gave him the OK to look for a consultant. Plugge said this morning that it may cost $50,000 to $100,000 to hire someone, depending on the scope of the work. The board would still have to approve a contract.

The Ankeny school district hired a company to do a demographic study when it was discussing changing boundaries in preparation for the opening of a second high school. The school board president there told me earlier this summer than the boundary changes were met with little resistance, which he credited to to having an objective demographic report.

Also after I filed my story last night, school board President Toni Cilek said that, barring a major change in the district’s financial outlook, “We’re going to be crowded.”

Board member Tim Krumm, whose term ends next month, said that until the financial assumptions laid out last night change, the district is not going to be able to build another school. That puts an increased emphasis on coming up with a transition plan to handle enrollment in the meantime, he said.