Iowa’s largest school district rolling out big changes

DES MOINES, Iowa — Despite its rich history of educating students for over 100 years Des Moines Public School district leaders are still searching for new ways to enhance learning. Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts says a big addition will take place on the city’s northside at Findley Elementary which begins its first year as the district’s second Montessori school.

“We’ve looked at our Montessori offering the last several years and realized it’s a school that has served its students very well. Highest performing grades six through eight as well as elementary school students and so not only academically, but behaviorally,” said Roberts.

Findley will also be a pilot school for the addition of 6 ^th grade to elementary. Data has shown the district that the majority of students transferring out of the district occur between 5 ^th and 6 ^th grade. Roberts said, “We’ve looked at our retention rate and we have a good sense based on the hypotheses we are considering that our students who remain at Findley we are likely to see more retention of students and families. We are excited to see what the pilot brings and this will inform how we move forward as a district.”

Class start and end times for elementary schools will be five minutes earlier this year and for high schools ten minutes earlier. “It’s twofold, the first is we want to make sure our bus drivers have an opportunity to improve pick up and drop off times and secondly it allows our students to have a lot more engagement around the instructional program,” Roberts said.

For DMPS a student’s mind is more than educational. United Health Group donated $1.5 million to equip Council Bluffs CSD, Cedar Rapids CSD and DMPS with tele-mental health for students in the classroom this year. Roberts said, “As a matter of fact we considered this non-negotiable because while we want all our students to thrive academically but we often think what does it mean to meet their basic needs.”

A noticeable change outside of the classroom is that by the end of the fall, all district school buses will be equipped with free WiFi thanks to 90% funding from the FCC E-rate program. Roberts said, “All the children are well and we are excited about this school year as one of the best that our parents, and students, and teammates will experience. Let’s go Des Moines Public Schools.”

Pleasant Hill Elementary will also see the addition of a preschool class with a Montessori education. Additional grades will be added in the future.

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