Debate Heats Up In Waterloo Over Combining High Schools

Waterloo has three high schools, Waterloo East, Waterloo West, and Expo Alternative Learning Center. However, some voters in Waterloo want to combine East and West into one school which would be located near the Central Middle School.

Should this happen, the current Waterloo East and West high schools would be converted into middle schools.

Reasons For... Reasons Against

While the required number of signatures to put the measure to a vote was achieved, it doesn't mean the plan has the full support of Waterloo residents or school board members.

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While the two schools are currently about a 12-minute drive and 30-minute walk from the proposed site of the combined high school, school board rep Jonathan Cox voted against the plan citing how many kids walk to the current school locations.

He pointed out that past busing issues don't inspire confidence in students easily being able to get to the new school. His thought, if students cannot easily get to school, absences will rise and the plan doesn't do enough to take students who need transportation into consideration.

Supporters of the bill to merge the schools cite the cost of maintaining older buildings, and the ease students would have to access the district's career center.

Waterloo Community School District Superintendent Jared Smith supports the effort. He said every teacher currently working for one of the two high schools will keep their job if the schools merge into one.

You can read more about the school merger here. For Cedar Falls, which will be opening its new high school in the fall, the city announced a sale of the old high school to Waterloo Christian for $2.8 million.

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