The former Nishna Valley school, two miles east of Hastings at the intersection of US 34 and old 34, has its own sewage lagoon. That makes it the third one I know of in Iowa. It came to my attention because the East Mills district, formed by a merger of Malvern and Nishna Valley, has pondered future plans that may eventually result in that building’s closure. (Naturally, I find out about this after driving through the area.)
First, the standalone elementary in Malvern was closed this summer. The Council Bluffs Nonpareil reported at the time that the building could reopen temporarily later if a PPEL was passed to build additions to the high school on the north side of Malvern that would house all K-12 students. That vote failed, but the elementary still closed.
Because all the students there were moved to the Nishna Valley school, and that increased attendance, the DNR got involved because of potential issues with lagoon capacity. The DNR told the district that it doesn’t have all the required permits on file. And because there are no permits, any certification requires meeting 2010s standards instead of 1960s.
Two weeks ago, the district looked into a new PPEL vote, although the KMA story does not make clear if this is to fix existing issues with the two locations or trying again on creating one location. The district itself may not have that figured out yet. It hired a lagoon engineer to sort that issue out. It would make little sense for the district to spend money on getting the lagoon up to current standards if the building is going to close in the near future. On the other hand, any future owner/user of the building would have the same problem. Its location, away from everything, could raise real concerns about abandonment.