By Megan Burns, Iowa City
My name is Megan Burns. I live in Iowa City and am a parent of three kids in the ICCSD, an active member and officer of the Longfellow Elementary Parent Teacher Organization and as of this month, a member of the newly created Board Ad Hoc Attendance Boundary Analysis Committee.
I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the first session held on Thursday, Oct. 15. At this meeting, over 50 parents, students and staff showed up to get to work, to find solutions to the issues at hand and to make the best out of an absolutely terrible situation.
What took place was not productive or useful. While RSP & Associates looks good on paper, in person it was a dog and pony show.
It began with a brief introduction by interim Superintendent Amy Kortemeyer, then was left to RSP CEO Rob Schwarz. Some of the many troubling quotes of the night were, “If we were not here to close schools, we were on the wrong committee” and, “If we left tonight not knowing what to do, we were on the right committee.” Several others were lighter, cheering for a sports team, “Go Jayhawks.”
We were told we are tasked only with the school closure “bucket,” and the board would look at “people and programs,” with no details about what expected savings they hoped to bring from these cuts, or when we would know details of their work.
It felt as though we were being spoken to as if we had no connection to these schools, when in reality they are a second home for our children and an integral part of our lives. These are the schools where we volunteer, fundraise, and build relationships. We are not simply “retiring” a building; we are closing a school that is deeply woven into our community and our families.
The remainder of the time was reviewing the 41-page packet emailed to us at 3:20 p.m., less than three hours before the meeting began, and working at our tables answering basic Mentimeter questions or given simple math problems to determine what numbers of students would bring what number of schools to their desired 85-95% capacity.
Many questions were asked regarding the accuracy of the data presented and the process on how it was calculated. No clarification was given and no questions were answered. Instead, we were directed by RSP to write questions on a Post-It for the “parking lot” and were dismissed when asked when we would get answers to these questions.
What was the most upsetting was that there were no solutions offered, which is obscene, considering the district is paying over $100,000 to a company to bring “meaningful planning to school districts” and develop “data-driven solutions.”
What We Need
To make informed decisions, we need two things: accurate information and complete transparency.
We need accurate general fund data, not draft figures, along with clear decisions from the Board regarding staffing and program reductions, and the completed 2025-26 audit.
We need data that compares our district to other communities that have faced similar challenges, including the solutions they implemented, the options they rejected, the reasons behind those decisions, and the associated financial and non-financial impacts of each.
We need information showing the tradeoffs and expected outcomes of any decisions we are asked to advise on so we understand the full scope of these decisions.
We also need to know how much we are actually saving if we consolidate schools, considering the costs of closing a school and the costs of redistributing the students and staff.
I am hardly the first person to be asking for these things. Our community has been begging you and the school administration to slow down and wait for all information needed and to have full transparency about the people and program cuts, as well as finding other ways to cut expenses, like selling non-school buildings and looking into ways to increase revenue.
Without this critical information, the work we’re being tasked with becomes a guessing game, leaving us to rely on little more than hope we arrive at the correct dollar amount needed to balance the budget.
Respectfully, I am asking the board and school administration to provide this information and transparency so our community can participate in an informed and meaningful way. Together, we can make the best decisions for our children, our schools, and the exceptional teachers and staff who have contributed so much to their success.
Let’s get to work.
