Every year, the city of North Liberty has been growing. From the year 2000 to 2010, North Liberty was the second fastest-growing city in Iowa. Within the past how many school years school years, North Liberty has seen a huge growth in students, each class larger than the last. 

Benjamin Brenneman (he/him), one of North Central Junior High’s  guidance counselor, states, “North Liberty has expanded significantly in the past few years as Liberty High School opened, and new businesses have come to town… It also happens to be in a great location to get to Tiffin, Iowa City/Coralville, [and] Cedar Rapids.”

Two years ago, the Iowa City Community School District proposed to move sixth graders to North Central Junior High School, which had only seventh and eighth graders in previous years, through building additions that would add classrooms and a cafeteria. The site plan was unanimously approved at a North Liberty Planning & Zoning Commission meeting on Aug. 2.

The plan called for construction of classrooms on the west side and a cafeteria addition on the east side of the school, as well as a reconfiguration of the parking lot. This project supports the addition for approximately 400 students. The roadway, parking and athletic areas will also be evaluated and updated accordingly, as well as the kitchen & cafeteria.

Before this year, the school had around 550 students in the building.

This school year has started with the building incomplete, and the sixth graders attending. While this has been presumed as a major conflict in the school year, Brenneman states, “With the rate that North Liberty has grown in recent years and the addition of many families with students to the community, it was important to make the expansion now, before we fell behind in terms of ‘spaces available.’ This will allow more families to continue to come to the North Liberty area and hopefully continue to grow our schools as well.”

Because of the construction going on during the day and not enough room inside the school to fit all of the students, North Central is using temporaries for some of their classrooms. 

“It seems like the students and staff are adapting well to adding more students within North Central. Everyone is handling the bigger lunches well, along with adding more classes and sizes. A lot of staff are excited about the new addition to our building, and the students seem to enjoy having more electives to choose from.”

This is a very big change, the district hasn’t gone through a transition like this in years. 

“I do think it will help with understanding some of the classes coming in at an earlier rate, as we have an extra year with those students where we can understand what supports they need going into high school.”

Because of the increase in the student body, some clubs, sports, activities and classes have slightly changed to allow all students to participate in more activities of their choosing.

“North Central Middle School added more electives, clubs, intramural type activities for 6th graders to participate in, more staff and have preached the PBIS framework that we live by that goes into the culture we promote by being ready to learn, lead and succeed.”

While there are many positives to this project, there are also many concerns within the school, both physically and fundamentally.

“I look at it as something exciting but also something of a challenge, as it adds more students with all different types of support that are needed and it sometimes can stretch us thin with not being able to get to everyone that you would like to that day,” Brennamen adds. 

Jannessa Mosley (she/her), a senior at Liberty, has a younger sister in sixth grade, currently attending North Central. She says there are some obvious complications with this school year. Mosley says, “Some of the rooms have holes in them still and are very loud and dusty due to ongoing construction that often interrupts [the students] or makes it hard to learn.” 

Even though North Central has added more teachers to take on the extra kids, the school is still adjusting to having almost triple the amount of kids. “Because of the incomplete structure, the students are in temporaries, which means less supervision, leading to kids leaving when they go outside. Sixth graders also are without lockers,” Mosley adds. 

Because school just started, North Central is still continuing to figure out the new environment. Although there is no going back, the community will see by the end of the year if the construction and move were worth it.