Cedar Rapids schools slowing launch of Pathways program

CEDAR RAPIDS — Heeding pushback from parents, the Cedar Rapids school district announced Monday it will slow the launch of a new program aimed at better preparing high school students for careers and further education after they graduate.

The new program was intended to begin this fall with Freshman Academies at Kennedy, Jefferson and Washington high schools, designed to connect students to smaller learning environments where they can explore their career interests. In fall 2026, the program would grow by launching College & Career Pathways at four high schools, including Metro, to capture the upper grades.

But when that plan was announced late last year, it was met with a petition from parents asking the school district to slow down and answer more questions. Even though the petition did not have enough valid signatures to force the issue onto a school board agenda, the district Monday announced a delay that would make the Freshman Academies an elective in the 2025-26 academic year, and not required until the 2026-27 school year.

The upper academies then would be delayed until the 2027-28 academic year, at Jefferson, Washington, Kennedy and Metro.

Cedar Rapids Community School District Superintendent Tawana Grover said in an interview the new timeline will give the district more time to work out the details with parents and teachers.

“So what we're looking to do with the 25-26 school year is just see that as a preparation year. You'll see things being optional. You'll probably see some tweaking, some design,” she said.

“It's our effort to make sure that we're able to be successful and that we have those built-in opportunities for tweaking and adjusting as needed. Then, during the 26-27 school year, that will be the opportunity for the launch,” Grover said.

Under the new timeline, students who are freshmen during the 2025-26 school year won’t enter a career pathway in their sophomore year, even if they opted to join the freshman academy. But they may be able to take some of the classes associated with the pathways when they are introduced.

The first class of students to have the full freshman academy and pathways experience will be the 2026 freshman — or the class of 2030.

Grover said the district still is working to finalize the new plan for the freshman academies with feedback from stakeholders before presenting it Feb. 3 to the school board for approval.

On Monday, the administrators at the three high schools planned for the Freshman Academies met with teachers and faculty to introduce the new plan and gather feedback. After faculty feedback has been received and questions addressed, the plan will be presented to students and families at meetings that will be held at each of the high schools — Jefferson, Washington and Kennedy — from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jan. 30.

“Some of the key areas that we’re hoping to address with our freshman seminar class is around study skills, job ready skills, exposure to the different career pathways and students finding that interest and passion so that they can make a more informed decision about what courses they want to take once they hit that sophomore year,” Grover said. “When you graduate from the Cedar Rapids Community School District, our hope is that our students are graduating with more than a diploma, that they are ready for life.”

Questions remain about some details of the career and college readiness pathways, including if it will be possible for students to opt out of the program and what the process for that would be, which the school district hopes to answer with the help of parents before that part of the new program launches in 2027.

“We’ve spent our time right now really focusing in on the Freshman Academy as being that first initial launch point, but we are excited to continue those conversations,” Grover said. “I'm hopeful that this parent advisory group that we have, that they're in it for the long haul with us, because we're going to continue to need their support as well as their input, along with our staff members.”

Last year, Invision Architects was selected to renovate and build additions to Jefferson and Washington high schools for the program. At Jefferson High School, teachers voted in December to begin construction in March — not later this summer — to expand the school to help accommodate the new Freshman Academy.

Grover said part of the process of gathering more feedback will include determining whether the new timeline affects that decision.

“We are prepared to really support them through this process. We think that we are on pace to move forward with the construction, but we just want to make sure that the construction is aligned with the new current proposal, the change in the timeline, and we’ll just take all that into consideration,” Grover said.

“We do know that we’ll have our construction team, they will come alongside us at the next parent advisory meeting so that they can hear some of the feedback, and we can kind of make sure that our construction timeline is also in alignment with the feedback that we receive from our staff and our families.”

Comments: (319) 398-8328; [email protected]