Jan. 27, 2011: Closeup of the design of the 1914 Prescott school.
The town of Prescott marked the 100th anniversary of its school building the second weekend of September. There was an all-school reunion, tours of the building, and a community-wide celebration. The following Monday, Prescott’s superintendent was talking to neighboring Creston about consolidation.
What a difference four days makes.
Adams County is the least densely populated in Iowa. It has two census tracts. The one containing three-quarters of the county — everything north and east of Corning, including Prescott — has a population density of 5.1 people per square mile. By at least one federal definition — the HHS, for rural health services — that census tract would qualify as frontier because it has fewer than six people per square mile.
Prescott has no sixth-graders this year, reports the Creston News-Advertiser. Grades 7-12 already go elsewhere. If and when Prescott closes, Corning will have the only school in Adams County.