Little Hawk Staff Editorial
Perception
In Iowa City, the public feels that City High is becoming an obsolete school. This is incorrect. City High has always and will continue to offer top-notch educations to their students
How can an outsider assume that City High is becoming the poorer and worse school when they never have or never will attend it? Parents scream and yell at the prospect of having to send their children to a “ghetto” school, yet last year, West High had approximately 300 suspensions, while City High halved that number with 150.
The truth is, many west side parents know absolutely nothing about City High. They don’t know that City High inducts over one hundred students into the National Honor Society every year. They don’t know that City High offers plenty of advanced classes, taught by teachers who really care for their students. In addition, City High’s music program sends dozens of students to the All-State Music Festival, and has been nationally acclaimed with three Grammy awards. How do these attributes and accomplishments make City High “ghetto”?
It is painful to think that parents are horrified of City High; that some parents even refuse to let their children wear red and white. This is possibly the most selfish and childish act a parent could make. Parents are supposed to set a good example for their children, not fear and hate others.
Due to the raised complaints and the ruckus caused by the unreasonable west side parents, the taxpayers think that City is obsolete as well. Taxes fund the school, so the school district must cater to taxpayers about school decisions. Now, the people think City High needs to be more like West High.
One example of this can be seen in the new P.E. programs for next year, which mimic West’s program. Even if City’s system has worked just fine for years. Other unfairness can be seen in the changes of City’s bell schedule, while West’s remained untouched. When a extremely valued City High official decided to make a stand against the unfairnest, he was removed from his position.
The public needs to realize what a great school City High is. They cannot assume things without stepping into City High for a day. The issue of redistricting cannot be solved without compromise. Hate cannot exist between the schools. Instead, they must unite and work together to solve the daunting problem at hand.
Cost
The Iowa City School District has made the final decision to build a third high school in the North Liberty area, which will be very costly. It is estimated that it will be open around the 2014 school year. However, some of their planning is still flawed.
In order to pay for this project, the district is cutting teachers’ salaries across the board, as well as cutting spending in other departments such as foreign language and sports. As of now, the administration will not take cuts. However, in our opinion the people who run the district, should volunteer to take cuts to help make up the deficits.
The purpose for building the third school is to help ease the overcrowded City and West high schools. Yet, the third school is being designed to only accommodate 800 students, slightly contradictory to the problem. With the continued growth of the district, it is projected that by the time the third school opens, it will already have exceeded capacity. It would have been logical to assume that a group of supposedly well-educated members of the community might have foreseen this issue.
Equality
The gap between City and West is growing as City’s free-and-reduced-lunch (F/R) rate continues to increase as the district changes. So, the logical solution is to change the boundaries to help balance the schools now uneven spread.
Yet according to most of the proposed solutions, The new high school is projected to have 11 percent F/R, while West High would have around 15 percent. Yet, City High would have 29 percent on free and reduced lunch. Additionally, City’s rate is expected to continue to rise as the population does.
So this solution does not solve this problem at all. Apparently, it is still acceptable to send twice the amount of F/R students to City than to West.
People are afraid that City could become a different school after the new boundaries are drawn because of the amount of F/R kids would continue to rise.
The majority of students who have recieved suspensions are F/R students. Additionally, most of them recieve lower than average grades as well. Both of these directly affect how the school works, functions, and looks to the outside world. It is clear that City High now has a bad, yet untrue reputation.
The false accusations of City being a “ghetto” school could become true in the years to come if the problem is not solved.
City High is not a school with dangerous problems. But, unfortunately, these problems could become more realistic if they are not addressed.
The redistricting issue needs to solve more than just the overcrowding problem. It should also address the rift that has been created between the two schools, otherwise that gap will only continue to grow until City High would be completely different. It could no longer be the school that leads.
City High is a fantastic school with excellent results. It has some of the best academics, music, and sports in the country. It would be unfair for students to be unable to recieve an excellent education, just because of the way they live. If these issues are not solved, more and more students will request to go to West High, and the gap will grow even worse yet.
Redistricting needs to keep the population at the schools balanced so the schools remain equal.
