Corridor elementary schools

How the directory is organized

The list below is organized by district, then by approximate area. For each elementary we note the general attendance area and any distinguishing programs. This is general guidance. The official district address-lookup tool is the authoritative source for any specific property.

ICCSD elementary schools

Iowa City Community School District operates roughly twenty elementary schools across Iowa City, Coralville, eastern North Liberty, and surrounding areas. Below are the schools families most often encounter in the corridor housing market. Some buildings have been renovated, replaced, or renamed over the years; some grade-range and configuration adjustments have been made; verify current details with ICCSD.

East-side Iowa City elementaries

• Longfellow Elementary — established east-side neighborhood school. Walkable from the Longfellow neighborhood and surrounding blocks.
• Lucas Elementary — Lucas Farms / south-east area. Established working-residential neighborhood school.
• Mark Twain Elementary — south Iowa City. Long-standing home of Spanish dual-language immersion programming in ICCSD.
• Hoover Elementary — east-side school. Subject to several capital-project conversations in recent years; check current building and configuration.
• Lemme Elementary — east-side, on the south-east side near Court Hill.
• Shimek Elementary — northeast Iowa City. Walkable from established neighborhoods near Hickory Hill Park.
• Mann Elementary (Horace Mann) — historic Northside Iowa City school in the Goosetown/Northside attendance area.

West-side and central Iowa City elementaries

• Lincoln Elementary — west-side Iowa City, in the Manville Heights attendance area; one of the long-walkable neighborhood schools.
• Roosevelt-area / replacement school — historically a west-side school; replaced/renamed in recent capital projects. Confirm current building.
• Horn Elementary — far west Iowa City, near Walden / Hawkeye Drive area.
• Borlaug Elementary (Norman Borlaug) — far west, opened relatively recently to serve west Iowa City and Coralville-adjacent growth.
• Weber Elementary — west Iowa City / Coralville-adjacent.

Coralville-area ICCSD elementaries

• Kirkwood Elementary — central Coralville.
• Wickham Elementary — eastern/northern Coralville.
• Grant Wood Elementary — south-east Iowa City / Coralville border area.
• Garner Elementary — North Liberty / Coralville border area, in the ICCSD portion of North Liberty.

North Liberty and northern corridor ICCSD elementaries

• Penn Elementary — North Liberty, in the Penn Ridge attendance area. One of the larger ICCSD elementaries given northern corridor growth.
• Van Allen Elementary — northern corridor, named for Iowa-native space scientist James Van Allen.
• Wood Elementary (Grant Wood) — note: building names in this area have been reconfigured over the years; verify.

Southern ICCSD elementaries

• Hills Elementary — town of Hills, south of Iowa City.
• Alexander Elementary — south Iowa City growth area.

This list is approximate — ICCSD has opened, renamed, and reconfigured elementary buildings repeatedly over the past 15 years, and current school names plus grade ranges should be confirmed on the district's official website. The point of the list is to give buyers a general sense of which neighborhoods are paired with which schools, not to substitute for the district's authoritative lookup.

Clear Creek Amana elementary schools

CCA elementaries are concentrated around Tiffin (the district's growth center) with additional locations serving outlying communities:

• Tiffin Elementary — the district's largest elementary, in central Tiffin.
• North Bend Elementary — opened to absorb growth in the Tiffin / west North Liberty area.
• Clear Creek Elementary (Oxford) — Oxford and surrounding rural areas.
• Amana Elementary — historically serving the Amana Colonies area.

CCA has reconfigured elementary buildings in recent years to accommodate rapid Tiffin and west-NL growth. Current configurations should be verified on the district's site.

Neighborhood-to-school general map

Mappings are general guidance only and change as boundaries adjust. The district address-lookup tool is the only authoritative source for a specific property.

What actually matters when picking an elementary

• Walkability and traffic. Older inner-Iowa City elementaries (Longfellow, Lincoln, Mann, Shimek) draw walkable neighborhood communities. Newer subdivisions usually mean a school bus.
• Class size and student-teacher ratio. Varies by building. Available in district data.
• Specialty programs. Spanish dual-language immersion (Twain has been the long-standing example), ELP gifted services, instrumental music starting grade, after-school programming.
• School culture and community. Smaller, longer-tenured buildings tend to have tighter parent communities. Open-house visits are worth the time.
• Stability of boundaries. Some areas are subject to active redistricting conversations. Worth asking before buying.
• Special education services. If you have a child with an IEP or 504, talk to the district about service delivery at the specific building.

Rankings on Niche, Greatschools, and similar sites are noisier at the elementary level than they are at high school — small sample sizes and proficiency-band methodology choices both shift scores around. Treat them as one data point, not a final verdict. See how Iowa ranks schools for the longer methodological discussion.

For corridor buyers with school-age kids

• Decide whether walkability matters to your daily life — that narrows the list quickly.
• Confirm assignment for the actual address, not the general neighborhood, with the district lookup tool.
• Ask whether the school is part of any current or pending boundary review.
• Visit during a regular school day if you can.
• Talk to current parents — show choirs, sports, PTOs, and the carpool world will all tell you more than any ranking.

Related corridor resources

See ICCSD overview and Clear Creek Amana for district context, corridor high schools ranked for the next step up, private schools for non-public elementary options, how Iowa ranks schools for ranking interpretation, and the corridor neighborhood pages: Manville Heights, Longfellow, Windsor Ridge, Forevergreen, Penn Ridge.

Frequently asked