Walnut school closing regardless of merger vote

The Walnut school district, which is currently sending its higher grades to AHST, will send everyone to Avoca even if a September merger vote fails, according to the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil.

Walnut lost a quarter of its enrollment in this decade. Should the consolidation vote fail, all the students will be sent to AHST (renamed AHSTW) in 2016 anyway, and Walnut would become a zombie district.

AHST is building an addition to its now-sole campus in Avoca, after having closed Avoca Elementary and the building in Shelby. I am not entirely sure when Shelby closed. The AHST board voted to close it in 2005, but a bond issue later that year to build a single campus barely made a supermajority and a lawsuit lasted two years before the Iowa Supreme Court ruled the petitioners did not fulfill requirements in a timely manner.

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