Velcro wall jumping doesn’t usually come to mind when Iowa City School District officials mention redistricting.

But Rob Schwarz said it’s a worthwhile comparison. Schwarz, the principal planner of the district’s hired redistricting firm, RSP & Associates, used the metaphor at a Feb. 25 redistricting committee meeting.

In the party game, a person donning a Velcro suit jumps onto a Velcro wall. Sometimes the suit sticks, sometimes it doesn’t. The same applies with the preliminary drafts of proposals the firm and committee have discussed, Schwarz said.

“That’s the question — will it stick to the wall?” he said. “We’re looking for something that’s palatable.”

Schwarz said the chief goal is to find a solution that will be effective long-term.

Recent events in the Raleigh, N.C., School District highlight the need for a long-term solution. On March 2, the Raleigh School Board voted to stop a plan that had been busing students across the district to ensure ethnic and economic integration. Essentially, it voted to undo the redistricting it had already done.

Implemented by the county in 2000, Raleigh’s busing plan achieved its intent and diversified the student body at district buildings. But all the while, it drew increasing disapproval from parents until the board voted 5-4 on March 2 to begin a systemic revoking of the policy.

Iowa City’s redistricting committee listed demographic considerations as one of four unranked criteria for its boundary changes. After negative feedback from the public, School Board President Patti Fields said, the redistricting committee ranked demographic considerations as the fourth, and therefore least pressing, criterion.

When the redistricting debate opened, district officials said a major concern was capacity and space. The district is growing quickly, they said, and eventually the Iowa City area’s current buildings would not be enough to accommodate the students enrolled.

The Ankeny School District recently had a similar concern. In spring of 2009, the School Board for the rapidly growing district approved a site for its ninth elementary school, and it aims to prepare for a second high school in 2013, according to its website.

RSP & Associates worked with Ankeny before being hired by the Iowa City School District. With the recommendation of Ankeny’s Boundary Steering Committee, Schwarz outlined keeping neighborhood schools intact as a prime criterion. Intact neighborhoods is a criterion for Iowa City’s redistricting as well.

The School District postponed the redistricting committee’s March 4 meeting when about a third of the committee members said they would be unable to attend. Officials rescheduled the meeting for March 24, with an additional possible meeting on March 30, Superintendent Lane Plugge said.

At the School Board’s March 9 meeting, board members postponed their March 30 work session, possibly until late April. During the rescheduled session, the members will review approved scenarios with the redistricting committee’s recommendation.