DES MOINES, Iowa — A large decline in students and rising costs are leading the Des Moines Public School District to consider closing schools and altering its boundaries.

The district has lost almost 2,500 students since the 2018-19 school year — a total that’s equivalent to the number of students at six elementary schools.

As a way to address concerns regarding dwindling enrollment and higher costs the district created the ‘Reimagining Education’ Initiative, which explores different avenues the district can take to lower costs and make DMPS more attractive to families and their students.

One idea is to change which grades are in middle school.

“Give some consideration to looking at our current middle school model that has grade six, seven, eight, should we consider probably looking at expanding elementary to K-6 and having our middle schools serve seven and eight,” Dr. Ian Roberts, DMPS Superintendent, said.

The initiative also includes possibly changing the district’s boundaries, adding additions to some buildings, creating new school programs, and even closing some schools.

“Ultimately we will start to have conversations about are there places where we can retire or should retire some buildings as we think about whether or not all of our buildings offered are either functional or have the physical capacity to serve students, but the conversation about school retirement will come a little later down the road, but certainly it’s a part of our consideration,” Roberts said.

A detailed proposal of the ‘Reimagining Education’ plan is expected shortly after the first of the year.

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