If I believed all the misinformation being put forward about the “Save Hoover” group, I would not recognize myself.
We are not a “small group” of malcontents lately formed to promote a “single issue.” We are several hundred members of the community distributed everywhere in the ICCSD. We organized in 2013 when the school board chose to disregard the community’s expressed priority in maintaining neighborhood schools and, as with Roosevelt Elementary, voted to target Hoover School.
The community’s “hard work” that led to the Facilities Master Plan did not cast that plan in stone. The FMP is a work in progress, for preserving and improving our neighborhood schools.
Programming at all the area high schools should be equitable, but “equity” does not mean acreage. City High does not need Hoover School’s site so that its lawn can match that of West High. Celebrate the unique environments of the different schools.
Growth on Iowa City’s east side justifies building a new elementary school, and that school should certainly be built with a plan for the future. Use the millions of dollars that would be spent in tearing down a thriving elementary school to build a new school with capacity for future growth.
Chris Liebig, Brian Richman, Phil Hemingway and Tom Yates are candidates for the School Board who have offered a vision for the future, a respect for the vitality of our neighborhoods, transparency in action and decision-making and solid financial sense.
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