Next week, the Ankeny school district starts the year with two high schools for the first time. Their names will be “Ankeny” — no qualifier, just Ankeny, in a building that was only built a few years ago — and “Ankeny Centennial,” for the north half of the district. The old Ankeny High building is now Northview Middle School, which feeds into Centennial.
This is more complicated than it should have been. I foresee occasional bits of confusion ahead, along with the difficulty of squeezing “Centennial” into headlines (so get ready for lots of “Jaguars”). The simplest thing to do would have been a geographical name split. This itself would have been unique, since we have no urban district with a “South” for its name:
- North: Davenport, Des Moines, Sioux City
- East: Des Moines, Sioux City, Waterloo
- West: Davenport, Iowa City, Sioux City, Waterloo
- South: none
- Central: Davenport, Sioux City (defunct), Waterloo (defunct)
- Presidents: Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, and Lincoln/Hoover in Des Moines
- Other: Dubuque Senior, the original school, and Dubuque
WahlertHempstead; Iowa City High
The two non-conforming districts would be Dubuque and Iowa City, where the original did not become Iowa City East but remained “City High.” The original Davenport High became Davenport Central. Unlike those, however, Ankeny appended no suffix.
After all that shuffling, we’re about to find out how a new school can fare both academically and athletically in a district known for both. (And while I’m at it, here’s a shout-out to Mrs. Lindaman, my former algebra/geometry teacher, who is now Centennial’s first principal.)
EDIT 8/8: Wrong other Dubuque public school.