CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — More impassioned pleas came from students, parents and others from the Cedar Rapids Community School District during the March 9, 2026, Board of Directors meeting, along with a petition to save teaching positions at Washington High School.
Fourteen people addressed the School Board, many of whom asked the board to not cut seven teaching positions at Washington, the most proposed for any school in the district.
Casey Prince, a Washington alumnus with children who have and currently attend the school, presented the board with a petition of more than 1,400 signatures, asking the district to fairly and adequately staff the high school.
More than 1,100 of those signatures were from Cedar Rapids residents, Prince noted, asking the School Board to pause its decision, as enrollment figures would likely be changing.
Dr. Chirantan Ghosh, an oncologist and parent of two Washington High School graduates, noted the achievements of students who participated in an AP program he has supported and funded since 2008.
Medals awarded at Washington High School include those from the AP Scholarship program supported by Dr. Chirantan Ghosh. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
“If Washington would not have offered the AP program, I would never have gotten the job,” one Washington graduate told Ghosh, among other success stories.
Even as the district appeared to be moving towards alternating years of AP classes at Washington, Ghosh offered to continue funding Washington’s AP Scholarship program.
“Washington High School represents the United States,” he said. “Multi-diversity, different economical background, they come to Washington.”
Performing arts programs would have also faced likely cuts under the initial staffing proposal, designed to save $2.8 million by eliminating approximately 33 positions throughout the district.
After nearly an hour of public comment, the board voted unanimously, with board member Laura Zimmerman absent, to instead cut approximately 19 positions, with $1.56 million in savings.
Under the revised model, Washington would retain nearly all of its teaching positions.
Ten of the 12 staff reductions at the elementary level will happen via retirements or resignations, while the district still plans to provide the largest elementary schools — Maple Grove, West Willow, Trailside and Viola Gibson — with more than $1 million in additional funding to “create a blueprint for supporting larger schools moving forward,” even as parents, teachers and students have advocated to save smaller elementary schools that are at risk of closing.
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