These articles from the Le Mars Sentinel and Sioux City Journal point to the same difficulty: The Remsen-Union and Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn boards could not agree on which town would get (and who would lose) the high school. Both articles also say the MMC elementary in Cleghorn will close, which likely would have happened regardless. Both districts are facing steep and practically immediate budget cuts as a result.
The inability to come to a mutual decision is neither unexpected nor petty. Remsen doesn’t want to be one of the highest-population non-suburbs in Iowa without a high school, which was the way the wind was blowing. Cases like this, where each district has a decently-sized (for Iowa) population center, are bound to occur more and more often.