Parents constantly debate whether CBCSD schools stack up against the Millard or Papillion-La Vista districts that are a short drive away. Are families who choose private school or open-enroll elsewhere betraying the community, or just doing what's best for their kids?
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Add your commentI genuinely want to ask the people defending CBCSD: would YOU send your own kids there right now, today, if you had a free choice? And I mean honestly answer, not the answer that sounds good. Because that question cuts through all the political talking points real fast. I asked it to myself three years ago and that's why my daughters are at St. Albert. I still donate to local school fundraisers. I still vote yes on levies. But I also made the call I had to make for my family.
Born and raised in CB, graduated from Thomas Jefferson in 2003. Back then we were already having this exact conversation. Twenty years later and nothing's changed except the test scores got worse. At some point you have to stop blaming funding gaps and start asking what leadership is actually doing with the money they do have. My sister open-enrolls her kids in Millard and I don't blame her one bit. Call it betrayal if you want, I call it parenting.
Someone needs to fact-check the comment above because those numbers are way off. Nebraska and Iowa fund schools completely differently — you can't just compare dollar figures like that without accounting for how each state calculates per-pupil spending, categorical funding, property tax levies, etc. Apples and oranges. The funding gap is real, yes, but throwing out inflated numbers doesn't help the argument.
I taught in CBCSD for 11 years before I retired and I want to push back on the doom and gloom. We had phenomenal educators in that district. Dedicated, creative people working with genuinely tough circumstances — high poverty rates, a lot of transient families, kids dealing with real instability at home. Comparing us straight-up to Papillion-La Vista without accounting for demographics is intellectually dishonest. I'm proud of what my colleagues accomplished every single day.
Hot take nobody wants to hear: the families fleeing to Papillion or Millard are actually HURTING Council Bluffs long-term. Every kid that leaves takes per-pupil funding with them. So you're not just making a personal choice, you're actively defunding the schools your neighbors' kids still attend. If the people with the most resources and the loudest voices actually stayed and fought, we might get somewhere. Instead they bail and then complain on Facebook about how bad things are. Make it make sense.
Betraying the community?? lol no. I'm not sending my kid to a struggling school so I can feel good about myself at a neighborhood block party. That's not how parenting works. My job is to my child, full stop. Anyone who guilts parents for open-enrolling has clearly never sat in an IEP meeting where the resource teacher is split across four buildings.
can someone explain to me why the district keeps reorganizing grade configurations every few years?? my kids have been through three different school setups in six years. middle school started at 5th grade, then 6th, now I hear they're changing it again. how is ANY consistency supposed to happen when leadership can't make up its mind. this is the stuff that actually matters day to day and nobody talks about it
Millard spends something like $14,000 per student and CBCSD is closer to $9,000. Actually I'm pretty sure it's even higher than that in Millard now, like $18,000 or $19,000. When you have that kind of gap there's literally nothing the teachers can do to close it. This isn't about effort, it's pure math.
just moved here from lincoln 8 months ago and honestly the reputation scared me more than the reality so far. my 4th grader's teacher at Longfellow is incredible, super communicative, clearly cares. I think people paint the whole district with a broad brush based on a couple of bad schools or old data. not saying its perfect but give it a fair shake
Nope. Hard disagree with the whole framing of this debate. Suburban Omaha districts aren't some gold standard. Papillion-La Vista has its own issues — overcrowding, cookie-cutter curriculum, pressure-cooker culture that burns kids out by 8th grade. My cousin's family moved FROM Papio to CB and they're perfectly happy. The grass is always greener.
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