HILLS

Hills Elementary’s fate lies in the hands of the Iowa City Community School District’s school board when they cast their vote on whether or not to close Hills Elementary on Tuesday, March 26.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at 1725 N. Dodge St. in Iowa City.

The Hills community is working to make a difference in this vote. A petition is circulating through the area to keep Hills Elementary open. Additionally, Hills residents are voicing their opinions at ICCSD school board meetings and the Hills City Council meetings.

On Tuesday, March 12, residents gathered at the Hills Community Center with Open Heartland, a non-profit serving the Latinx immigrant community in Johnson County, to work together, compiling a list to present to the Iowa City school board.

Here were some of the dominant themes.

A negative community impact

Hills Elementary has been a part of Hills since 1965, joining the ICCSD in 1966. This means many families have attended the school for generations.

In 2021, Hills became a National Blue Ribbon School, one of 325 in the nation that year. This was because English learning proficiency grew to be about 81%, 20% higher than the state average at the time. About 27% of the students were in the process of learning English and the school had a 38% Hispanic population, making it the highest minority population in the school district.

This diversity is praised by many residents.

“Hills is the most diverse elementary school in the district and that’s great, we all celebrate that in America,” one resident said. “To close it down [is] not doing our town, our ideals, any kind of justice.”

Some have worried that their diversity, along with being in a small-town community, has made Hills the odd one out when choosing which school to close.

“From my understanding, those numbers make Hills the more vulnerable population because they have a lot of very limited English proficiency families. I think that’s why we’re here and having this conversation,” a representative of Open Heartland said. “Your community has done so much to make sure those kids feel like they belong, and now they’re basically being told, ‘Well, we’ll just kind of divvy you up and send you to other places.’”

Additionally, Hills had the highest free and reduced lunch numbers in the ICCSD.

Yet, in 2022, Hills was promised a new elementary, replacing the old. Less than two years later, the ICCSD moved to close Hills Elementary in an effort to save money – closing the school could save more than $1 million.

This upset a lot of Hills residents.

“If the school district wants to make the right decision, they have to put families first before money, and we know money is always an issue,” one person said.

But the biggest concern from Hills residents is that closing Hills Elementary will negatively impact their community.

One resident cited, “The school is the heart of the community,” with other residents applauding them.

Because of this, many believe community growth is tied to the elementary. They worry that if the school goes, so will the town’s progress.

“I think they should have to do some sort of study on the economic impact of taking the school away from Hills,” one resident said. “I think they should have the answer to that as to what they’re going to do to our town and our economy and our property values.”

Another said, “It sounded like the response I received was kind of lip service; the idea of closing [Hills Elementary] was pretty much a foregone conclusion based on financial issues.”

They continued, “The projected building of new homes in Hills didn’t meet their expectations from 10 years ago. But in the last few years, at least in [our] neighborhood, we’ve seen at least 19 houses and they’re throwing up at least another seven houses.”

Another chimed in to say, “There’s a lot of strollers out there,” further demonstrating the towns subtle growth.

Others used their time to ask questions, ones they knew wouldn’t be answered.

“My question to the district is, why do they think they would still be entitled to our property taxes if they were going to close our school? To me, that’s taxation without any representation. Also, our property values are more than likely going to go down. My question to them is, why do they feel entitled to our money if they’re not giving us a school to be represented?”

But warm sentiment toward the school was a revolving door, always sure to reenter the conversation.

“[The] elementary school is a huge part of our community and losing it will just be disastrous,” one resident said.

ICCSD’s transparency

“Are we even going to positively affect change, or has the school board already made up its mind?” one person asked in regard to the upcoming vote.

Others were concerned about a perceived lack of communication from the district.

“I think a legitimate concern is the lack of transparency and the lack of communication from the district. There are people who found out on social media the day before a school board meeting two weeks ago. [There was] a meeting with school staff just a day before. That is problematic,” one resident said. “That is terrible communication, not just with school staff, but with the community and city officials.”

Others were worried that Iowa City would close Hills Elementary only to open another Iowa City elementary in the near future.

This comes after the ICCSD purchased 18.68 acres of land south of Rohret Road in Iowa City.

The land cost the district $607,100, spent from their SAVE account.

They have yet to disclose plans for this land.

“Do not expect me to vote for another bond issue for a brand-new school on the southeast side. And that’s what’s going to happen,” one resident said.

Another issue came up when discussing where the new Hills Elementary would’ve been built. According to some residents, the district said they reached out to landowners to purchase land for a new school, yet these land owners say they were never contacted.

“It’d be nice if they could give us the names of the landowners [contacted]. I suppose there are several people contacted [but] nobody in the community seems to know anything about this,” they said.

Another person asked: “How do we know if they’ve even contacted anyone?”

Emotions continued to flare for a community that clearly loves the elementary situated at the entrance to downtown Hills. Most plan on attending the ICCSD’s school board meeting on Tuesday, March 26, where the board plans to cast a final vote.

The News reached out to all members of the Iowa City Community School District’s school board but received no comment.