Dubuque school board weighs task forces' one-high-school recommendation

REAL DUBUQUE NEWS (RDN) DUBUQUE: The Dubuque Community School District's internal and external facilities task forces recommended a one-high-school model to the school board on Oct. 26, as the district targets roughly $17 million in operating savings by 2030-31. The board has not voted on the recommendation. The Telegraph Herald reports the board is expected to consider it next month, and the board was previously scheduled to vote Nov. 9. The scenarios: Scenario 1 keeps two middle schools for grades 6-8 and two high schools for grades 9-12, closing Jefferson only. Scenario 2 closes Jefferson and Washington, with one middle school for grades 6-7 and two high schools for grades 8-12. Scenario 3, which both the district staff group and the task force leaned toward and which the task forces recommended to the board Oct. 26, closes Jefferson and Washington, turns Roosevelt into a 6th- and 7th-grade center, puts grades 8-9 at Hempstead with dedicated career and college-readiness space, and puts grades 10-12 at Senior. How the district builds the numbers: facility costs are square-foot precedent pricing through INVISION Architecture, $225 per square foot for renovation and $400 for new addition, plus 5 percent per year inflation to the midpoint of construction, with higher contingencies for older buildings and owner costs included. The district describes these as broad estimates and assumptions, not engineered costs. Enrollment is projected by moving whole grade-level cohorts forward from certified Oct. 1 enrollment counts; the method does not account for open enrollment or family choice during the year. The district's published grades 6-8 table adds up exactly and peaks in 2027-28, the year Jefferson is slated to close, at 2,219 students, before falling to 2,023 by 2029-30. There is no standard school capacity calculation in Iowa, in the district's words; Washington's physical capacity is estimated at 800, tied to maintaining class sizes of 24 to 28. The target middle-school size moved with the data, from 1,250 students in the 2022 task force to 1,000 to 1,100 in the 2025 task force. Two cost questions are still open. KCRG's August coverage lists scenario savings of $2.14 million (Scenario 1), $2.64 million (Scenario 2), and $4.63 million (Scenario 3), without stating whether those figures are annual, one-time, or cumulative. If the $4.63 million is annual at full run rate, three full years after the 2027-28 closure would total $13.89 million, which is $3.11 million short of $17 million by 2030-31; four years would total $18.52 million. What period the figure covers, when it starts, and what else stacks to $17 million is not in the published material. The Telegraph Herald's Oct. 26 coverage reports the $4.63 million figure as annual operating expenses, and reports advisers put the needed reduction at $16.8 million by 2030. Separately, state per-pupil growth was 1.75 percent for the year beginning July 1, 2026. What has happened since: on Oct. 10, Dubuque's Zoning Board denied the district's landscaping waiver for the Roosevelt parking expansion. The district said the site design team will review its next steps for the final design as planning continues. The $30 million Roosevelt project, funded by SAVE sales-tax bonds approved in May 2026 after a $70 million general-obligation bond failed in November 2025, is slated for construction from spring 2027 to August 2028. On Oct. 12, parents urged the board to pause until detailed financial, transportation, and student-impact analyses are published, citing a petition of 691 names. The grassroots group DCSD: Before We Decide, founded by Nicole Powers, is asking for that pause; another parent spoke in favor of Scenario 3 at the same meeting, arguing it would improve programming and student supports while conceding the timeline feels rushed. Ahead of the Oct. 26 meeting, board member Mike Hoskins had said he is not comfortable proceeding with Option 3 until his outstanding questions are addressed, according to an email from the Before We Decide group to petition signers. The group puts its petition at 750 names, up from the 691 cited Oct. 12. On Oct. 26, the district's internal and external facilities task forces presented their formal recommendation to the board at the Strategic Plan Update Session, according to KCRG and the Telegraph Herald. The recommendation is the one-high-school model: close Jefferson and Washington middle schools after the 2027-28 school year, with Roosevelt serving grades 6-7, Hempstead serving grades 8-9 with a dedicated career and college-readiness space, and Senior serving grades 10-12, according to both outlets. The Telegraph Herald reports the model would take effect in fall 2028 if approved, and that the board is expected to consider the recommendation next month. KCRG reports the recommended scenario would save $4.63 million, the most among the scenarios. No board vote, board action, or board member position on the recommendation, including from Hoskins, was reported in either outlet's Oct. 26 coverage. No recommendation document or detailed financial breakdown was linked in either article, and the district's posted agenda item for the formal recommendation carried no attached document at check time.