They aren't ideal, say board members, but Iowa City elementary schools will have new boundaries next year.

The tweaks to the borders don't go as far as board members want them to, but they say the changes are an important first step to reducing the segregation happening on Iowa City's campuses.

The unanimous vote Tuesday night to approve the new boundaries came after a handful of parents who live on the border of the Borlaug Elementary attendance zone urged the board to not change the boundaries. The families expressed concerns about their children having to transition to different schools next year and argued that moving their neighborhood did not advance the board's goal.

► MORE: To see where your home is zoned, go here.

How different will campuses be next year?

The redistricting is meant to reverse a trend in Iowa City schools, where campuses are becoming increasingly segregated.

Throughout the process, board members have said their goal has been to increase the racial and economic diversity at each campus, though in their calculations, the board looked primarily at the percentage of students from lower-income homes — that is, students who qualify for free or reduced lunch prices.

Currently, the percentage of students who qualify for reduced prices varies significantly from campus to campus — from fewer than 10 percent to nearly 80 percent.

Under the new boundaries, the five campuses that are currently home to student populations where more than 70 percent of students come from low-income families are expected to have just under 70 percent of students who qualify for reduced lunch prices.

A few campuses with lower numbers of low-income students will see the biggest changes.

The population of low-income families at Lincoln Elementary is expected to increase by 28 percent, to 37 percent. At Longfellow, the number will increase by 20 percent, to 44 percent. At Garner, the number will increase by 8 percent, to 29 percent.

The boundary adjustments are more like tweaks, but they make a difference, most board members said before casting their votes in favor of the new boundaries.

"I recognize that it does not bring enough change ... I really believe in my heart that both high and low extremes are important for the board to address," board member Lori Roetlin said, adding that changing the culture of the district will take time.

The board is also expected to look next at pairing campuses. The idea is to partner predominantly low-income schools with predominantly high-income schools; students in preschool through second grade in both attendance zones will attend one campus while older students in the same zones attend the other. Board members have said any such shift would not happen in 2019.

The board thanked families who came forward to voice their thoughts throughout the process, including board member Ruthina Malone, who choked up as she thanked the people who "stooped to personal attacks."

Still, board members took issue with the language surrounding the discussion.

Addressing the room, Malone said she wanted to make it clear that the decision wasn't about moving "around poor and black children" — she said her email inbox showed that students from all backgrounds were affected or inconvenienced. Vice President Paul Roesler shared one email in which a parent asked how the board would handle the problem of disproportionate numbers of English language learners between schools — he said low-income students and students who speak a different language are not "problems," but children who deserve an equitable educational experience.

The problem, said board member J.P. Claussen, is not low-income students or English language learners but, he said, the issues come when these populations of students make up the overwhelming majority at a campus — he said it changes the learning environment at a campus.

Board president Janet Godwin described the vote as historic; where previous school boards have come to the consensus that the boundaries need to change, she said this board has taken action.

"We have to change," Godwin said. "Personally, as a board member, I'm not willing to kick the can down the road ... We have students who are silently falling through the cracks."

Last-minute pushback

Ahead of the vote, parents on the border of the current Borlaug attendance area spoke up during the public comment portion of the meeting. Under the new boundaries, their students will attend nearby Weber or Lincoln elementary schools. Students on voluntary school transfers approved for the 2014-2015 school year are considered to be grandfathered into their approved attendance area through completion of 6th grade.

One father passed out a letter from his child, who did not want to be transferred. Another public commenter read aloud a letter she said was written by a third-grader, who did not want to attend Weber Elementary next school year.

“I love to come to school every day and see the dear faces of all my friends,” she read aloud.

Tiffany Olsen,a resident in Walden Hills neighborhood, told the board that she worries that moving her children from Borlaug to Weber would cause them stress without impacting the board's goal of increasing diversity.

As a child in a military family, Olsen said her family moved around a lot. She said her family of seven has outgrown their house, but they have opted not to move — she said she did not want her kids to have to transfer schools as she had to, growing up.

Olsen also expressed frustration about the move happening so soon after the last time her family was moved. She said she her family participated in the rezoning discussion around Borlaug in 2015. She recalls specifically expressing her concern that her neighborhood would be moved back to Weber when the school hit capacity.

“We raised that concern and were assured that that would not happen," she said.

On Dec. 11, the board will reevaluate the policy that outlines which families transfer their students out of their assigned attendance zone.

'The kids will be okay'

On Tuesday, board members seemed to counter parents' concerns with the idea that the schools will only get more segregated if no changes are made.

"Nobody comes in buying a house, thinking, 'I want to live in a segregated neighborhood," Claussen said.

He said his own children attended several schools — not because they necessarily wanted the change, but because their family's income made the moves necessary.

Roesler said he understood that the changes would cause inconvenience to families across the district. Acknowledging that, however, he said he thinks parents may be taking the changes harder than their children will.

“The kids will be okay," he said.