“This is wild” Cedar Rapids School Board hears school redesign options

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Another full house faced the Cedar Rapids Community School District Board of Education as school closures and “redesign” decisions loom.

The board did not vote at its Jan. 26, 2026, meeting, but 35 residents — including a number of students — spoke about potential closures.

Board members also heard three options that would redesign the current school structure, as they look to address a $10-$12 million budget deficit. All of those models would involve closing at least six schools.

“I’m really happy we’re not making a decision tonight, because this is wild,” board member David Tominsky said after hearing the three presentations, one of which would eliminate Kennedy High School, to leave just two Cedar Rapids high schools: Washington and Jefferson.

Community members, including parents, teachers and school administrators, helped devise the models.

Citing declining enrollment, including more than 600 students who left the district this school year, the board last week voted on more than $12 million in budget cuts.

No votes were taken at this Monday’s special work session, but an informal decision will be made at its next meeting Feb. 9, and a survey on the redesign options will go to school district families and staff at the end of the week.

Related: Cedar Rapids School Board approves initial budget cuts

The two-high school option would close both Franklin and McKinley middle schools and transition the Kennedy campus to a middle school.

Under the model, students in preschool through fourth grade would attend one of seven elementary schools on the east side and one of six on the west side, most with a capacity of up to 600 students.

Approximately 1,000 students in fifth and sixth grades would attend Harding as an intermediate school on the east side, while Maple Grove Elementary would become an intermediate school for about 600 students and Wilson would accommodate more than 500 students on the west side.

Students in seventh through ninth grades would attend Kennedy on the east side, with a capacity of 1,845 students, and Taft and Roosevelt on the west side, with a capacity of nearly 700 to more than 800 students.

High school students would attend Washington on the east side and Jefferson on the west side.

The two-high school option was the only one of the three to keep open both Johnson School of the Arts and Cedar River Academy at Taylor Elementary, while closing other elementary schools.

A number of Johnson students, along with teachers and parents, pleaded the case to keep the magnet school open.

“Trust erodes when transparency is absent,” Elder Craig Brown of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church told the board, to applause from the nearly 150 people in the audience. “We’re asking for honesty and deliberation. Transparency is not optional.”

Johnson school supporters cited the school for its year-round support with meals programs and the diversity of its students, among other attributes.

With an enrollment of 288 students this year, JSA, as it’s known, is at 64 percent of building capacity.

“Johnson School of the Arts is not just a facility,” neighbor Turé Morrow said, noting that parents who cannot afford a vehicle, and their children, can walk to the school, located in the diverse Wellington Heights neighborhood.

Other options presented by the community coalition members included a fifth-through-eighth grade model, which would close Wright, Taylor, Cleveland, Nixon and Pierce elementary schools, Truman Early Learning Center, and possibly Johnson.

Each elementary school closure is estimated to save $1 million.

The model would keep all six middle schools, but expand from grades 6-8, as they currently are, to fifth through eighth grade, while the three high schools would remain for grades 9-12, as they currently are.

A third, intermediate, model, would offer elementary students through fourth grade; a fifth-sixth grade intermediate school; seventh-through-eighth grade middle school and grades 9-12 for high school.

The current six middle schools would remain as either intermediate or middle school, while one feeder school option would close Wright, Taylor, Cleveland, Nixon, Pierce and Truman, while the other would close the same schools, but add Grant to close, rather than Pierce.

Sarah Hale Keuseman, a community member who supports the 5-8 model, noted that studies show multiple school transitions are associated with lower engagement and attendance and other negative outcomes.

One parent said she was never asked why she pulled her daughter out of the Cedar Rapids School District.

Kim Baldwin, who lives in northeast Cedar Rapids, said her daughter, Rihanna, will be graduating from Empowering Excellence Charter School in Cedar Rapids, after leaving Kennedy High School in 2024.

Rihanna said she felt safe with the online option after being bullied at school.

“It’s not about the voucher money,” Kim Baldwin said, citing what school district officials have said is a factor in enrollment decline. “It’s about what’s best for her.”

The board could vote on school closures in April, but changes would not take effect until the 2027-2028 school year.

Read more: Dozens speak out against school closures in marathon session