The school students thought their diploma would say might not be the one they graduate from. Liberty High is opening in the fall of 2017, adding a fourth public high school to the community.

“Right now freshmen and sophomores have the option to stay at West if they want,” said Principal Dr. Gregg Shoultz.

This means if you will graduate in 2018 or 2019 and are in the Liberty zone, you will not be forced to attend Liberty. The board in charge of making decisions for  Liberty will send a letter of intent out, mostly likely before Thanksgiving, asking whether you would like to stay at West or go to Liberty.  Current eighth graders, the graduating class of 2020, will go to Liberty after spending their freshmen year at West.

The decision to stay or leave will be different for each person. It may be depend on family members, such as a sibling, or friends.

“I think those are all appropriate reasons to choose [whether to stay or leave]. You [have to] do what’s right for you as a family and individual students,” said Superintendent Stephen Murley.

Whatever school students choose to go to, it will be less packed. The main problem that Liberty is trying to solve is overcrowdedness. According to Murley, West is very over its capacity.  

“The idea is to not have one mega school of 2500, but have two schools of [about] 1300,” Shoultz said.

The class sizes at West will not change with less people, but class offerings might. There will be less of a need for so many periods of one class. Some classes might not be offered, because they don’t fill up. According to Shoultz, It will be harder to schedule people.

Another change at West will be the sports. There will be less people, and therefore less people trying out.  Liberty could possibly affect the competitiveness of West sports. There is a positive side to less people, though, according to Shoultz.

“There will be a lot more people able to participate,” Shoultz said.

More people will be able to play on a team because there are less people trying out, and therefore less people that need to be cut.

It has not yet been decided how sports will be handled at Liberty. The letter of intent will help decide what sports will be available in the first year. The board needs to make sure that there would be enough players for each team. Teams like soccer or football need a lot more students than basketball. The indoor facilities, gyms, will be done by opening year, but the outdoor facilities, fields, will not be done until 2019. The board will work with the city of Coralville and North Liberty to use their facilities or share with West.

Music classes will be impacted in a similar way. A person that was once second chair can now have a chance at first chair.

Some students have been worried about how Liberty will affect music, fearing there would be more competition at musical events. Choir teacher Jeff Knutson resolves these worries.

“It’ll be interesting, I don’t think it will affect judging or fairness, but it will affect how we schedule our season,” said Knutson, “We’ll hopefully try to work together to establish a collaborative relationship.”

The idea is to have similar class options as West. There might be some classes not offered at Liberty, because of fewer students. The board hopes to find a way to still let students take these courses whether that be online, at West, or some other way.

“We don’t want kids [at Liberty] to have fewer opportunities than kids at West and City do,” said Murley.

Right now the building of Liberty is right on schedule. The Liberty Lightnings are going to have a brand new building, but West will also get an upgrade. West will get air conditioning after the transition period is over. The decision to go to West or Liberty will not be binding until registration for the 2017-18 school year.