For the past several years, student enrollment in DMPS has been declining. The pandemic caused enrollment to slip further, and our projections indicate that enrollment will continue to drop in the future. While fewer students means less revenue for our district, it also means that facility and space needs will change.

Student enrollment has a significant impact on the operations of a school district. Districts with declining enrollment face challenges such as too much classroom space. The costs of maintaining excess space can take away from priorities like meeting student needs and keeping great teachers and staff.

As part of the year-long process to help envision the best plan for Des Moines, the Reimagining Education committee of students, parents, teachers, staff, and community members met dozens of times.

They intensively studied top school systems, reviewed research about the most effective education programs, visited high-performing schools in similar districts within a day’s drive, and looked at DMPS classrooms in new and old buildings. They analyzed data to determine which DMPS buildings and sites could allow the district to provide the best learning environments for each Des Moines student.

This group focused on making sure each student, across the district, would have access to:

• Immersive multi-cultural learning experiences
  • Celebrating diversity
  • Global connections
  • Language proficiency

• Rigorous academic opportunities
  • Advanced placement courses
  • College and university preparatory courses
  • Critical thinking and problem solving

• World-class career and technical education (CTE)
  • Hands-on, real-world preparation
  • Work-based learning
  • Cutting-edge CTE facilities

• Wrap-around, holistic child development programs and supports
  • Preschool education
  • Whole-child support and guidance counseling
  • Comprehensive development (extracurricular activities)

The Reimagining Education proposal aligns with the new strategic plan DMPS unveiled at the January 14 School Board meeting. Elements of the proposal support each of the top priorities from the strategic plan, and implementing them will help bring these ambitious goals within reach:

• PRIORITY #1
  Cultivating equity and excellence through high-quality teaching and learning
• PRIORITY #2
  Cultivating well-being
• PRIORITY #3
  Cultivating transformative talent
• PRIORITY #4
  Cultivating organizational effectiveness
• PRIORITY #5
  Cultivating community and collaboration

In the meantime, DMPS has been working on these efforts to improve learning outcomes for students:

• Increasing Access to Preschool:
  The data is clear that students who get to experience preschool do better in kindergarten and throughout their educational careers. This is why DMPS is working to increase families’ access to this important opportunity for their children.
  
  This school year, DMPS added new locations for preschool and started piloting a new program to provide transportation for preschool students at selected locations. The hope for these programs is to learn from them and be able to apply those lessons as DMPS continues to expand preschool in the future, with the goal of providing early childhood education for all Des Moines children.
• Piloting a K-6 Elementary School:
  Findley Elementary is the first school in DMPS to try a new grade configuration that goes from kindergarten through sixth grade, starting with the current school year. Research shows that adding sixth grade to the elementary school can lead to academic and social benefits for students.
  
  The district is partnering with the Findley staff to learn from sixth graders and their families about how to best expand this grade configuration to other schools in a way that leads to greater success for students across the district.
• Expanding Access to Montessori Programs:
  According to the American Montessori Society, Montessori education is a child-focused approach that “fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development — cognitive, emotional, social, and physical.”
  
  For years, Cowles Montessori School in DMPS, which is Iowa’s first Montessori school, has educated students from kindergarten through eighth grade with an empowering learning environment centered on collaboration and exploration of the world around them.
  
  Cowles also provides Montessori preschool classrooms, and this year, DMPS expanded its Montessori preschool to include Pleasant Hill Elementary. Now DMPS is looking to expand this popular option to other elementary schools.
  
  This year, Findley Elementary introduced Montessori education for its students from kindergarten through fifth grade, and the lessons that staff learn from this pilot program will help guide future program expansions.
• Developing Diploma Plus:
  DMPS wants to motivate and inspire students from preschool through graduation, while preparing them for success after graduation. That is why district leaders are working hard to develop the Diploma Plus program.
  
  Diploma Plus would give every DMPS student a clear pathway to explore their interests and prepare for career, college or whatever is next for them. The learning would start in preschool with important life skills and build throughout all the grade levels. By the time they graduate, students would have multiple opportunities to help them prepare for the future, resulting in special Diploma Plus distinctions.
  
  Diploma Plus is a key component of Priority One in the new district strategic plan, “Cultivating Equity & Excellence Through High-Quality Teaching & Learning.”

The Reimagining Education proposal is a dynamic new vision for the Des Moines Public Schools, which would create innovative, future-focused schools, programs and facilities that attract and retain families:

• Increasing Access to Full-Day Preschool and to Daycare:
  Access to full-day preschool is a proven path to greater success in future learning. Reimagining Education prioritizes full-day preschool with a model where every student in the district has access to these essential services, creating a solid foundation for the cognitive, social and emotional development of each student.
  
  Reimagining Education would increase access and reduce transportation barriers by providing pre-K services close to each Des Moines family at pre-K centers and at selected elementary schools throughout the district.
  
  In addition to this high-quality early childhood education, DMPS would work with community partners to increase access to daycare options for working families throughout the district.
• Redesigning the Middle School Experience:
  To ease the transition between elementary and middle school, DMPS will reimagine our middle schools as vibrant, tight-knit hubs of hands-on exploration, integrating career and technical education and interest-based learning so students can discover their passions. This kind of learning leads to higher student achievement.
  
  Reimagining Education would build classrooms and change grade configurations to make this possible, with sixth grade moving to the elementary level.
• Developing Interest-Based Signature Schools:
  Signature Schools are innovative programs that DMPS families from any district region can choose for their children, to immerse them in specific topics that get them engaged in their learning. While there is no decision yet about what these might focus on in Des Moines, other districts have Signature Schools that focus on things like health sciences, arts, communications or STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). DMPS would get feedback from students, families, staff and community members when it chooses themes for the Signature Schools.
  
  DMPS’ Cowles Montessori School is one existing example of a Signature School.
  
  Reimagining Education would repurpose existing buildings and build new spaces to make these exciting Signature Schools available to students in each geographic region of the district. This way, although families would be able to choose any of the Signature Schools for their children, all of them would have options closer to their homes.
• Preparing Students for Successful Futures After Graduation:
  As called for in the new DMPS strategic plan, Diploma Plus will provide more opportunities to students and better prepare them for their future. Every DMPS student will have a clear pathway to explore their interests and prepare for career, college or whatever is next for them. The learning will start in preschool with important life skills and build throughout all the grade levels. By the time they graduate, students will have multiple opportunities to prepare for the future, resulting in special Diploma Plus distinctions and certificates.
  
  Reimagining Education includes providing the facilities necessary to ensure each DMPS student, from pre-K through 12th grade, can get these experiences and opportunities.
• Providing High-Quality K-12 Activity and Athletic Programming and Facilities:
  Activities, clubs and athletics increase student interest and engagement in the life of a school, which then improves their academic success.
  
  Reimagining Education would include additions and renovations to make sure each student across the district has access to engaging extracurricular activities in high-quality facilities, including varsity-level competition stadiums, eight-lane competitive running tracks and competition swimming pools. DMPS will prioritize improvements that benefit a wide range of students in a variety of activities.

To make all the exciting Reimagining Education programs possible and to make sure each student has access to high-quality learning environments, DMPS would make changes, build schools and add onto existing buildings, including:

• Starting with more pre-K centers and more pre-K classrooms at elementary schools, and then changing the district’s grade configuration so we have elementary schools serving kindergarten through sixth grade, middle schools serving seventh and eighth grades, high schools serving ninth through 12th grades, and Signature Schools serving different grade configurations from pre-K through 12th grade
• Creating three distinct regions of the district (northwest, northeast and south), divided by the rivers, each with its own feeder pattern, leading to its own comprehensive high school. These regions and feeder patterns would increase neighborhoods’ connections to their schools. The Reimagining Education committee focused on making sure students in each region would have access to high-quality learning spaces and engaging educational programs.
• Creating as many as eight new program locations for Signature Schools, with two or three school options available in each region, repurposing existing buildings and adding new program-specific spaces.
• Adding onto many of DMPS’ existing schools, providing hundreds of needed classrooms and spaces for collaboration and innovation, to make sure each DMPS student can learn in high-quality, effective environments.
• Gradually retiring, or repurposing, some buildings as the district completes construction on its new, more effective learning spaces added onto schools that are accessible to more families. This would allow DMPS to spend resources on better meeting students’ needs and on keeping its excellent teachers and staff instead of on the expensive maintenance of less efficient buildings.