By Mikail Syed

Next year, there will no longer be two high schools in the Iowa City Community School District, ending the near fifty year streak of only two high schools. As fortunate as it is, one of them is not being demolished. Instead, there will be a third high school in the Iowa City Community School District as a result of overpacked students in the other two schools. Because of this, half of the West High School population (excluding seniors) are heading their way towards a new high school, and a new school life in general.

As the 2016-2017 school year progresses, Liberty High has slowly been releasing new information regarding their teachers, whether they are new or transferring from other schools, and designs and sports. The school is set to look more advanced and technological, and “shiny.” The design prototypes include the main hall, which is a large room with signs pointing to where math, science, social studies, auditorium, etc. are, making Liberty High more organized by not throwing rooms at people. The cafeteria is also not its own separate room, going with the hallways as well.

So exactly what types of people are staying at West High this year or going to a new school? Almost all former Northwest students, regardless of elementary school background, are staying at West, aside from requests of changes. The only exception to this are Northwest students who had previously went to Kirkwood. These students are going to Liberty to keep an equal sense of diversity and not keep one race particularly dominant. Former Southeast students have a different story. Depending on where they live, former Southeast people are mixed on where they might go next year. North Central has a sharp contrast to Northwest, however. Former North Central students are almost of no doubt going to Liberty, unless they live relatively closer to West or live outside of North Liberty. Aside from school directory, almost every high school student who lives in North Liberty has to go to Liberty High School.

Liberty High School was originally to have North Central be a feeder school, but this was overturned about a year later, so even some North Central students will remain at West High for the rest of their high school careers.

Liberty High offers the same athletics as the other two schools. This includes basketball, soccer, wrestling, volleyball, etc., with sports teams already created for students going to Liberty High. Because of this, West High had essentially had two teams with different games, similar to teams in middle school, one for Liberty and one for West, in almost every sport that supported teams. For example, West teams might fight City in basketball, while at the same time Liberty goes to Cedar Rapids Washington to play, but they practice in the same giant gym that belongs to West Senior High School.

Of the many people going to Liberty, several say they are excited to go, but have not seen the design yet. Liberty High will be a uniting school that will bring people of different backgrounds together, like City and West have achieved, and many people will meet again, with both familiar and new faces, and enjoy every second at Liberty…including when they take AP and ACT tests. This may explain why Liberty High is a very anticipated school and also creates breathing room for staff. Liberty High thus creates a sense of organization.

Liberty High will be the first high school in the Iowa City Community School District to be located in Coralville. After several high school students living in Coralville had no convenience of going to a school near them, and possibly sleep more, their dream has now officially come true. There is now a school they can reach easily and allows for extra time and curriculars without having anything seriously bad happen.

All in all, Liberty High School will unite people of different backgrounds and elementary school origins, and look appealing to all people in terms of design. It will set the background of several fields, such as any sports students are interested, math, science, or extracurriculars such as debate, and obviously…journalism! Liberty High School is the kind of school that meets all expectations and also remove the problem of overflowing students at school. And for those reasons, Liberty High School is and should be well anticipated to be a great addition to the Iowa City Community School District.

Photo credits: