DUBUQUE, Iowa — A Dubuque Community School District task force has recommended the school board close both Jefferson and Washington middle schools after the 2027-28 school year and reconfigure the district’s secondary grades, the task force told the board at its strategic plan session Monday evening, October 26, 2026.

Under the recommended plan — the third of three scenarios the district has weighed since August — Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School would serve all sixth- and seventh-grade students. Hempstead High School would serve eighth and ninth graders along with a new career and college readiness center, and Dubuque Senior High School would serve tenth through twelfth graders.

The district estimates that configuration would save $4.63 million, the most of the three options on the table.

The other two scenarios remain in play. The first would close only Jefferson after the 2027-28 school year, leaving Roosevelt and Washington as sixth- through eighth-grade schools and both high schools serving grades 9-12, saving an estimated $2.14 million. The second would also close Washington, with Roosevelt serving grades 6-7 and eighth graders joining the high schools, saving an estimated $2.64 million.

Jefferson closes in every scenario after the 2027-28 school year; the question before the board is what else closes and how the grades are rearranged.

The recommendation was presented at the board’s strategic plan session Monday evening, October 26, 2026, at the Forum. The board is still weighing the three scenarios, and no board vote was reported Monday night. A board vote has been expected at the regular meeting on Monday, November 9, 2026, though the district has not confirmed that date on a posted agenda.

The financial pressure behind the plan is stark. The district says it must cut $16.8 million over the next four years. The district’s unspent balance stands at about $20 million, and its goal is to keep at least $12 million on hand — roughly one month of expenses — but projections show that balance falling to just $2.5 million by the 2028-29 school year if nothing changes.

The district has already cut about $5.8 million, including the closures of Fulton and Hoover elementary schools, and approved about $30 million in bonds backed by existing SAVE sales-tax revenue in May 2026 to expand and remodel Roosevelt, with construction targeted for spring 2027 through August 2028. That piece hit a snag October 10, 2026, when the Dubuque Zoning Commission denied a landscaping waiver for a planned Roosevelt parking-lot expansion, sending the site design team back to revise that portion.

The recommendation also lands amid an organized push to slow the process. The grassroots group DCSD: Before We Decide, which says it has about 750 petition signers, has urged the board to delay any vote until more financial and transportation details are public. The group has said board member Mike Hoskins told members he is not comfortable proceeding with the third option until his outstanding questions are addressed.

What happens next is the November 9 meeting, where the board is expected to take up the recommendation. Board reaction from Monday night’s session and confirmation of the vote date remain pending.

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Sources: Dubuque Community School District Board of Education strategic plan session (online meeting), October 26, 2026; Dubuque Community School District scenario materials, August 2026; DCSD: Before We Decide email to petition signers, October 2026.