July 6, 2011: Woden-Crystal Lake-Titonka High School in Crystal Lake.
First, the good news: The old WCLT school building in Crystal Lake was sold to a private owner after WCL merged with Forest City, and the owners want to have the building open for community events. The building, not including the gym, is only 20 years old, so it’s good to be reused. The Sioux City Journal has another success story in Sutherland.
Then, the bad news: The century-old building in Corwith is not likely to be as lucky. The building in Wesley was sold a while ago, but one CWL board member quoted in the Register article regrets not demolishing that one.
The piece I wrote in April 2013, “Kossuth County Area Schools and Rural Iowa’s Population Collapse“, still captures the situation pretty well. I haven’t decided whether to take subsequent developments into account or leave it as is.