Walnut students have been participating in AHST athletics for years, but they just started in grade-sharing this school year. The districts are likely headed toward consolidation and Walnut’s near century and a half of independence will end.
However, while it’s the obvious answer, “AHSTW” apparently isn’t an option for the merged district’s name going forward.
Both districts “agreed that AHSTW is something they don’t want to go with,” Green Hills AEA administrator Lane Plugge told KMA at the end of October. Last week, in an Omaha World-Herald article about expansion of the school in Avoca, AHST’s superintendent said there would be a name given in the coming weeks.
The history of the AHST name has something rare (if not unique) in Iowa: A town’s name was added back in. When the Avo-Ha district merged with Shelby (officially in 1996), the town of Tennant was included in the new acronym.
If they’re not going with the acronym, specific geographic options are hard to come by. The combined district would be in south Shelby and northeast Pottawattamie counties. The “Nishnabotna” name is taken, at least for a while. I-80 runs right through the middle of the district, so AHSTW could be like I-35 of Truro, which has the perfectly matching nickname of Roadrunners.