Over the last five years, Matt Degner has led Iowa City Community School District not just through a global pandemic, but through added competition for students from a new state private school voucher program, an expansion of full-day preschool and the growth of postsecondary pathways.

And, those K-12 Dive spoke with say, he’s done so with a calm, steady and inclusive approach that has boosted the district’s enrollment and visibility while ensuring that credit for the accolades is shared.

“He truly believes in the team approach, like collaboration and working together to determine what the needs are of our schools, not just delivering directives,” says Kristin Pedersen, the district's executive director of community relations. “It's all about collaborating with the people in our buildings — in our classrooms, leading our schools — to determine what those needs are and what the best approach is.”

Among the accolades for the 14,395-student district: Its three comprehensive high schools — West High School, Liberty High School and City High School — place in the top 20 for Iowa, out of 352, in U.S. News & World Report’s high school rankings. Moreover, West High School ranks No. 1 in the state, a spot that district officials said it has held for four consecutive years. 

The district has spent the last two to three years establishing full-day preschool programs in each of its 20 elementary schools, despite the state only funding half-day pre-K, says Pedersen.

And, in response to growing competition from school choice options — particularly in the wake of Iowa’s 2023 enactment of the Students First Act, a private school voucher program — Degner has led the district to market itself more proactively as the best option for students.

“He will never bear all of those accolades solely on himself,” says Pedersen. “He will always credit the team around him, as it takes all of us to do what we're doing.”

Degner’s ability to recognize others’ skills and align them with roles where they can have the greatest impact has also earned him the trust of the district's board of directors, says Ruthina Malone, the board’s president. 

In one instance where some board members questioned two principal appointments, Malone says, “Matt knew right away, based on his relationship and his ability to build leaders, that these are the right people to place in these buildings at the right time. And again, it's because he's out in our buildings, he's out in our classrooms, he's engaging with teachers and administrative staff on a personal level that I hadn't seen before he started doing that.”

Degner came to the district in summer 2013 as principal of South East Junior High for two school years and then served as director of secondary schools and assistant superintendent until being named superintendent in 2020. The board renewed his contract in June for another three years. His wife, Kate Degner, is a math coach and teacher at the school, which has since been renamed Southeast Middle School with the addition of 6th grade.

Competing with school choice

School choice programs — along with factors like declining birthrates — have created complex challenges for public schools nationwide, as drops in enrollment ultimately threaten funding and lead to tough decisions around closures. In the case of school choice, critics of such programs have said that they draw students — and the per-pupil funding that comes with them — away from public schools, weakening the system overall. 

State law in Iowa has mandated a statewide open enrollment policy for public schools since the 1989-90 school year. As a result, Degner had already been working to market his district’s schools as the best option compared to other nearby public school systems when legislators enacted the private school choice program in 2023. Under that law, all Iowa students became eligible for private school vouchers starting in the 2025-26 school year.

“​​We were losers on the open enrollment end,” says Degner. “We were losing students choosing to go to other school districts. And now, we actually gain on that number, where we have more students coming into our district than leaving.”

Between 2020 and 2024, the district’s enrollment rose 2%, from 14,283 to 14,550, according to Pedersen.

Degner credits those gains to an “aggressive” enrollment campaign that begins with a preschool enrollment push after winter break, focused on the following school year. This initiative includes:

• Short video ads delivered through social media, YouTube, Google and local movie theaters. 
• Targeted social media posts. 
• Direct messages via email and text to families and staff. 
• A dedicated preschool webpage. 
• School newsletter announcements.
• Community flyers.
• Signs at banks.
• Banners at every elementary school.

That’s followed by “similar, scaled” campaigns for kindergarten registration, and then registration for all school-age children and the district’s online program, says Pedersen.

Why focus first on preschool? “We're talking about it through the lens of capturing families and getting a great first experience with our district and then choosing to stay with us,” says Degner.

There's “no more important academic indicator for life outcomes” than a high-quality preschool experience, Degner says. “Students read at grade level sooner, they leave high school with more options, and they have better life outcomes when they have a high-quality preschool experience.” 

He adds that convincing families to stay after a great preschool experience is a much different proposition than convincing them to come back to the district if they’ve left previously or to choose the district at a later grade.

To that end, however, Malone says Degner’s approach to engaging the community has built substantial inroads for families across the five communities it serves in Iowa City, North Liberty, University Heights, Coralville and Hills — particularly when it comes to trust in educational programming and the quality of faculty and staff.

“Matt did a lot of that rebuilding of that community relationship by going out to events, whether that be building-level PTO meetings or communitywide events,” says Malone. “People saw him more and were able to talk to him more about some of the things that he was doing within the district with his staff.”

“Many in the community felt that the administration and particularly the superintendent didn't make an effort to be a part of the community,” says Malone. 

Another issue to be overcome was distrust from families and students receiving special education services. “This was due to lack of public reporting of seclusion and restraints numbers,” says Malone. “Matt worked to build trust with families by ensuring that the board received data at our meetings.”

She also highlighted Degner’s outreach to community groups when he was still interim superintendent during protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. 

“Because of what was occurring related to protests here and nationally, I was targeted with racist messages via email,” says Malone. “This wasn't the first time it had happened but the first time it happened with Matt in this role.”

Degner, she says, denounced the behavior on social media and when news media picked up the story, which “signaled a huge shift of standing firm for those who are working to make our district better and that ICCSD leadership wanted to welcome everyone.”

Social media has served as more than just a tool for Degner to use in crisis response, he also uses it to promote the district.

“We talk a lot about how we share our own story and make sure we tell the narrative about the great things happening in Iowa City Community School District and all the success that we do see,” says Degner.

Expanding postsecondary options

Working with Project Better Together — a collaboration of businesses, government, nonprofits and other stakeholders united on a vision for the region’s future — Degner has also led an expansion of the district's postsecondary pathways.

Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa and a Kirkwood Community College campus. The city is also within a few hours’ drive of Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. But Degner has also looked beyond traditional college degree pathways when it comes to options for students’ futures. 

Working with Kirkwood Community College and regional economic development groups, the district offers 34 career pathways across 16 career clusters that range from the arts and media to finance and health sciences.

Some of this work, Degner says, has involved a partnership with the nonprofit Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa. In January, the district will launch a “Dream Accelerator” program at the district's Center for Innovation — the second such program in the nation, modeled after Junior Achievement's first one, near Denver.

The Iowa program will guide students through an interest inventory to help them identify a pathway or career that they want to pursue. The exploration includes what Degner describes as a “financial responsibility” component showing students how far their money would go in pursuing various pathways. The program also includes in-depth learning around the careers that students have either interest or aptitude for.

“It's kind of a high-tech, high-touch experience, along with some real curriculum that happens in their classrooms that satisfies some of that postsecondary readiness that we're being held accountable to, and that we think we should be held accountable to,” says Degner. 

Of the Dream Accelerator, Malone emphasizes, “That came through Matt’s efforts.”

Last fall, she says, Degner organized a trip to Denver for board members so they could see the program in action. “That's the type of leader he is and how we're able to continually grow when it comes to that work experience that's needed,” says Malone.

Through Junior Achievement, the district’s K-5 students get to hear about potential careers from guest speakers throughout the school year, says Carmen Gwenigale, the district's director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

When it comes to the district’s programs and curriculum in general, board member Lisa Williams says Degner has worked to keep the school community informed about content, standards, opportunities and specific leadership decisions.

This, in turn, has ultimately made the board’s work easier.

“We don't get as many emails as we would if we had bad leadership, and we don't have to deal with as many fires as we could because we don't have bad leadership,” says Williams, who also has children in the district. 

“As a parent, seeing all the opportunities that my kids get because they get to go to these schools is just amazing,” Williams added. “There’s so many choices and options, because that's the type of district that Matt has decided we're going to be. I wouldn't want my kids anywhere else.”