Dubuque mother says daughter will attend six schools in eight years under realignment plan

A Dubuque mother says her daughter will attend six schools in eight years after the Dubuque Community School District board approved a realignment plan that closes two middle schools, KCRG reported Wednesday. The board voted 6-1 on Monday, Nov. 9, to close Jefferson and Washington middle schools. Beginning in the fall of 2028, Dubuque Senior High School will serve students in grades 10 through 12, Hempstead High School will house eighth and ninth graders and a new career and college readiness center, and Roosevelt Middle School will serve grades 6 and 7. Meg Valentine said her daughter Tempy is in fifth grade at Irving Elementary this year. Next year she will go to Washington Middle School, then to Roosevelt for a year after Washington and Jefferson close, then to Hempstead for two years, before attending Senior High School. Tempy and her sister Helena were among the last students to attend Hoover Elementary School, which has closed. Valentine said one main concern is getting her children to and from school. She said travel time and pickup and dropoff logistics are already difficult, noting the district already struggles to find bus drivers, and that moving larger numbers of students between schools will take significantly longer. "It's not conducive to a quality education. It's just not," Valentine said. "By the time they get used to this new school, she's going to be shipped off to another school, and then another school, and then another school. They don't get any sort of sense of belonging." District officials said the changes will not be the last needed to meet a savings goal of nearly $17 million. The district said it needs to save about $16.8 million over five years because of declining enrollment and state funding increases that have not kept pace with inflation. Superintendent Amy Hawkins said the district tried to avoid the changes by asking voters twice to support bond referendums. "We went for two bond referendums. We reached out to our community and said, 'we need your support to help us with some financial efficiencies' and both times that did not pass," Hawkins said. Valentine voted "no" on the bond in 2025, saying the district did not need new buildings, but said she feels the district needed to be clearer about what a "no" vote meant. "I know it sounds kind of counterproductive that I voted no to the bond referendums, but now I'm opposing the challenges or the changes that they need to make, but if this is what we knew we were looking at to this magnitude, I would have definitely probably voted for them, but it just doesn't feel like there was a whole lot of transparency," Valentine said.