Hills Elementary will close at the end of the school year, the Iowa City CSD board ruled Tuesday night.

Hills Elementary will close at the end of the school year.

The Iowa City Community School Board voted unanimously to close the only school in Hills at its regular meeting on Tuesday, March 26, a move that board members admitted was a “difficult but necessary” cost-cutting measure to save an estimated $1.66 million.

The board blamed the state legislature’s funding actions. Many crowd members vocally rejected the reasoning, and their frequent shouting drew condemnation from board president Ruthina Malone, who insisted the public allow the board discussion to continue and once called for a brief recess to allow the room to calm down.

“I am truly sorry to the students, families and community members for tough decisions we must face that has ramifications for everyone in ICCSD, with every single budget reduction that we did last year, that we will do this year, and that we will do next year,” Malone said. “Unfortunately, that's our future and reality for the next few years.”

More: How Iowa lawmakers' funding delay has hurt school districts' budget planning, union talks

A nearly six-decade footprint in Hills

Hills Elementary is nearly 60 years old.

Located nine miles from the heart of Iowa City at 301 W. Main Street in Hills, the building was designed to hold 200 students. It opened in 1965 with five teachers leading grades 1-8. Hills joined the Iowa City Community School District a year later. An expansion in 1970 added eight classrooms and a media center.

The school board approved plans for a new Hills Elementary in 2022 despite concerns for starting fresh in small community. Construction never started despite an initial target date of 2025.

Board emphasizes 'necessary' budget cuts

Mitch Lingo, the newest Iowa City Community School District board member, said he made his decision based on numbers. He said census data shows that young demographics in the Hills Community are not growing, while he said enrollment numbers are down across the district.

Lingo said the board would need to cut 23 teachers to keep Hills open, something "far beyond anything I'm comfortable with," he said.

Enrollment at Hills Elementary has fluctuated throughout the years. The student body was at 256 in 2001 but plummeted to 116 students a decade later. Enrollment rose to 172 during the 2021-22 school year but is expected to decrease by 26 percent by the next academic year.

Because Hills is the smallest elementary school in the Iowa City Community School District, with an expected enrollment of just 126 students next school year, operating costs were expected to significantly impact the district budget.

The district, citing a financial oversight committee meeting in mid-February, said the cost per student at Hills is beyond $7,000, more than $1,000 above other elementary schools in the district, and more than $2,000 above the average elementary cost per student.

Moving those students to other elementary schools could save the Iowa City Community School District more than $250,000 annually, the district said.

Lisa Williams was the first board member to speak during deliberations. For nearly 15 minutes, Williams outlined the district’s need to cut funding across the board.

She said the board will have made nearly $25 million in budget cuts by the end of next school year, an initiative that began at the start of the 2022-2023 academic year.

Williams said no other significant cuts are planned.

“I hope that number really sinks in because there are no other cuts to be made unless we're willing to start touching student programming,” Williams said. “Things like music, foreign language, our librarians and extracurricular activities. But I consider those programs to be essential to our student experiences, and I will continue to pursue cuts that save us operational dollars before cuts to student experiences.”

The board said they want to keep staffing where it is to best serve students.

Williams attacked the state legislature at length and fiercely rebutted some claims that the district had "misappropriated or misused" its funding.

“I would implore you to wake up because the closure of Hills has absolutely nothing to do with the ICCSD mismanaging its money,” Williams said. “It is the result of chronic and persistent underfunding by the state that has been going on for the past decade.”

She referenced the Des Moines Public Schools, where the district needs to shave $14 million from its budget by next school year.

Williams also said cuts are happening in much smaller communities like the Grinnell-Newberg School District, where the board expects to cut $900,000 from its budget each of the next two years, The Scarlett & Black reported.

More: Iowa lawmakers pass AEA bill, move to increase teacher pay, handing win to Gov. Reynolds

A concerned community

The district confirmed in a timeline included in board documents that the closing materialized in roughly six weeks. Multiple speakers in the large pro-Hills crowd Tuesday said they felt their community had been "left in the dark."

“You say you've talked to numerous landowners,” Hills mayor Tim Kemp said. “Numerous means many. You know you didn't talk to numerous landowners. We know you didn't talk to numerous landowners. We’re a small town. People talk.

“The decision is outstanding," he continued. "Even the closure of Hoover was discussed with multiple meetings and community input. To propose and to vote to close a school in less than a month would never happen if this was an Iowa City school."

Mary Kelly told the board that the closure will “devastate the (Hills) community.” Kelly said her husband worked in the district for more than three decades, and their granddaughter is now a student at Hills Elementary.

“Those children are each other's family,” Kelly said. “They support each other. They take care of each other. They know each other. My first-grade granddaughter plays with kids in second, third, fourth grade. They're important to each other. She can tell you stories about classmates and how she's learning Spanish and she's helping them learn English.”

Emily Hudacheck teaches at Iowa City West High and is a former Hills Elementary student. She also serves on the Hills City Council.

Hudacheck said the speed of the decision was “concerning," which she said continued a long history of Hills students "feeling devalued" by the district. She said as an elementary student, she was taken to Hills in the back of a taxi cab because the district "felt sending a bus was not cost-efficient."

“If you consider the history of Hills and how it got into the position is today, you'll see how many times in the past the community and students have been let down by false commitments and promises,” Hudacheck said. “And then you should to be able to understand the conclusion that community members and the students of Hills are feeling about their value in the district.”

More: Jubilant Kim Reynolds signs Iowa's seismic 'school choice' bill into law. What it means:

Local lawmakers asked for additional per-pupil funding in AEA bill

Members of Iowa City’s State House and Senate delegations defended Hills in Des Moines on Tuesday, March 26, saying Republican lawmakers had not "done enough" to increase per-pupil funding for schools as part of House File 2612.

Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, criticized Republican lawmakers last week for instituting a 2.5% increase in the state’s per-pupil funding for K-12 schools.

“I want to talk about one thing that this bill means for sure,” he said on March 21 during a debate on the House floor. “This bill means the closure of Hills Elementary School, the smallest school in Iowa City Community Schools, a small town in Iowa where people are buying houses, people are building, people are planting roots. They want to live there because there’s a great school. They want to be part of the community. This bill means Hills Elementary closes.”

During Tuesday's Senate floor debate, just hours before the Iowa City CSD vote, Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said Republicans have "consistently increased" school funding below the inflation rate since assuming full control of the legislature more than seven years ago.

“The last several years have taken their toll,” she said. “If the decision is to close (Hills Elementary), it’s because of funding decisions you in this Legislature right here have made since 2017.”

Weiner said it’s "harder and harder" for districts to keep smaller schools open, making consolidation more likely.

“Hills has stayed (open) because though it cost more money, it was the right thing to do for the kids,” she said.

The Register’s Statehouse Reporter Stephen Gruber-Miller contributed reporting from Des Moines.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Hills Elementary will close at the end academic year