Corey Turner

We made it work.

Allred wore a pink fanny pack with a walkie-talkie so she could respond to a crisis at a moment's notice.

At Cleveland, she runs a district-wide program for kids with disabilities.

And when we reached her office, there was actually a student there, too, who was calming down with an adult after a meltdown.

It's fitting that even Allred's office is a kind of refuge.

I remember thinking this in the moment.

And it's because children with disabilities have federally protected rights to special education in public schools.

But it's a very different story in private schools.

Allred told me she has seen choice schools in Cedar Rapids either reject a disabled student outright or admit them only to push them out when they become too much work.

It's also clear, though, that families who don't need special services, some of them at least, are taking their kids elsewhere and they're not coming back.

Allred told me she has gone from more than 300 kids at Cleveland to about 250.

Another reason the district suddenly announced Cleveland was on the chopping block, which led to a hard talk between Allred and her family.

I mean, she lives it and breathes it.

And also going back to something you said earlier, Aisha, Principal Allred told me

She really worries that school choice, the way it's been built in Iowa, is dividing families into those that have the time and the money and the know-how to seek out these other options and those who don't.

But I do want to be really clear here.

I spoke with a number of parents who could leave, but they don't want to.

They love Cleveland.

They love what it stands for, the staff, the legacy for 75 years.

Parent Antoine Jones has three kids at Cleveland.