HILLS

The demolition of Hills Elementary School began on Monday, Jan. 13, a process that is expected to take a few weeks. The Iowa City Community School District, of which it was a part since 1970, voted unanimously almost a year ago, in March 2024, to close the school at the end of the 2023-2024 school year due to budget cuts. The district estimated the school closure would save $1.6 million.

Students, faculty, and staff transferred to Alexander Elementary School in Iowa City at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year in August.

The building's destruction by MMS Consultant, Inc. of Iowa City has a price tag of $41,850.

Although ideas abounded last year for how the school might be saved, including transferring it to the Lone Tree School District, none came to fruition. Once the loss of the school became a foregone conclusion, thoughts turned to how the Hills community might otherwise use the building.

There was a long list of ideas. It could have become a public library, a food pantry, a daycare. It could have become a STEM center, and ELL center, a preschool. However, “After closing the school, the Iowa City school district and the City of Hills discussed renovating the former school to better serve the community. However, in a press release shared by the school district, Hills found the building does not meet the city’s needs,” the Daily Iowan reported.

Now it appears the Iowa City school district may not be interested in parting with the vacant land. Hills Mayor Tim Kemp wrote in the city's January newsletter that the Iowa City superintendent told him "they may hold onto the land for the time being as Hills was growing as a community and they may need to build a school down here in the future," an idea that he confessed brought "the 'F' word" to mind.

Although the mayor’s incredulity is understandable, the ICCSD’s current position is consistent with district documents from February 2024, where a footnote states, “The administration does recommend that the district retain property in Hills to ensure that it is situated to address any future growth in the Hills area of the district.”

The Hills Elementary story is one of contradictions and reversals, a story of state politics and local budgets.

In March 2022, the Iowa City school district planned a new two-story school for Hills and approved a design contract. The next month they reduced the construction budget, followed by a one-year delay in in construction approved four months later. Then, in March 2024, needing to trim the district’s overall budget by $24.7 million, they decided to simply close Hills Elementary. In August 2024, they decided to demolish the building too.

Hills Elementary had the lowest enrollment of the district’s 21 elementary schools – just 105 students were expected in 2024/2025. It’s cost per student was $7,022, significantly higher than the $5,391 at Alexander Elementary.

Hills Elementary also had the highest minority population in the district, with a 38% Hispanic population, and the highest free and reduced lunch numbers.

In 2021, Hills became a National Blue Ribbon School, one of 325 in the nation that year thanks to an English learning proficiency of 81%, well above the state average.

Now it’s a pile of rubble.

State lawmakers may have played a role in the school’s demise. The Iowa City school district’s budgeting woes were due in part declining and flattening enrollment, inadequate state funding, and a lack of ESSER funds.

The introduction of Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) in 2023 led almost 6,000 Iowa public school students to choose private schools when given the option that year. And State Supplemental Aid (SSA) has fallen to historic lows; once as high as 14% in 1980/1981, the last 20-plus years have seen percentages hover around 4%, falling to 2.5% in 2023-2024.

Is Hills growing at a rate that suggests a new elementary school may become a critical need in the future? The population was 863 in 2020, 889 in 2022, and 924 in 2024; the annual growth rate is 1.54% annually.

With the complication of politics, and the vagaries of human reasoning, the answer is anyone’s guess.