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Iowa City schools revive Unified Sports program with phased start at high schools
Summary
The board heard a presentation on reinstating Unified Sports (a Special Olympics model) across City High, Liberty and West, with building coordinators and coaches planned; administrators said the program has already met four of the 10 national standards toward ‘Unified Champion School’ status and will begin with small, school-specific activities leading to inter-school competitions.
The Iowa City Community School District board on Jan. 13 heard a plan to revive Unified Sports, a model aligned with Special Olympics that pairs students with and without intellectual disabilities to compete on teams.
Director May described a phased approach that will begin with building-level activities chosen to fit each school community and progress toward inter-school competitions and a full Unified Champion School designation. She said building coordinators have been identified at each high school (City High: Christy Johnson; Liberty: Peggy McGuire; West: Tony Rex) and that the district has already met four of the ten national standards simply by launching the program and appointing staff and coaches.
"It's really taking our students with intellectual disabilities and putting them with our students without intellectual disabilities and really what they're doing is competing together," Director May said, describing the goal of providing coaching, practice time and league competition.
Board members and Superintendent Degner praised the proposal, asked whether participation could count toward physical education requirements (Director May: yes), and discussed recruitment versus volunteer participation. Directors asked to be kept informed about activities and upcoming competitions.
Administration said they will coordinate schedules with the new high-school practice facilities and hold follow-up meetings with building coordinators. No action vote was required; the program update was informational and the board encouraged staff to proceed with the phased rollout.
