DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines Public Schools shared details Tuesday of the district’s 10-year “Reimagining Education, Reinvigorating Schools” strategic plan during the State of the Schools address. The plan includes closing schools while consolidating others.

The district hopes to bring world-class education to each Des Moines student and is prioritizing expanding full-day preschool access to four-year-olds. Currently, the district has four pre-K centers and 20 pre-K classrooms in elementary schools. This plan would expand those services to six pre-K centers and 30 pre-K classrooms.

The district is also aiming to have eight signature schools for students’ interests and would repurpose existing buildings. The district also hopes to provide high-quality athletic programming and facilities, including turf fields and three regional stadiums.

The strategic plan also includes school closures, and would cut the number of middle schools in the district by 50%, from 10 to five. These schools will serve seventh and eighth graders, while sixth grade will move to the elementary level.

During the meeting, leaders spoke about the decline of enrollment DMPS has faced over the years that has contributed to the change.

“We’re reimagining education because we can no longer maintain spaces that do not meet the needs of our students, are outdated, inefficient, and do not serve our enrollment patterns … We reimagine education because we have seen an enrollment decline of more than 2,000 since 2017, which obviously impacts our funding,” said Matt Smith, Associate Superintendent with Des Moines Public Schools.

“Our middle schools are one of the areas in where we have lost sleep. Not because amazing things aren’t happening there, we have made a lot of changes … Our middle schools are where we have seen the most significant number of students leave as they transition from fifth to sixth grade,” said Dr. Ian Roberts, Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools.

When asked about the jobs of staff, teachers, and administrators of the proposed closed schools, Roberts said “Public education is under attack. Everybody from the White House to the local state capitol, and it’s incumbent upon me as a Superintendent of my executive cabinet, to make sure that we are essentially serving as the offensive line for every teacher, every staff, and every leader. We have to block the nonsense and the distractions that come their way so that they can be their best selves.”

Additionally, the district is aiming to create three distinct regions of the district: Northwest, Northeast, and South. These regions would be divided by the rivers, each with its own feeder pattern.

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