The rapid growth in Dallas County and This Is Where Your School District Went continues uninterrupted, as revealed in two news stories last week.
First, a second Waukee high school will open in 2021, which sounds like a long time in the future yet is only five school years from now. It will be the third new high school to be created in Iowa in a decade, but only the fourth in 50 years. Ankeny Centennial opened in 2013; Iowa City Liberty is scheduled to open in 2017. No name has been given, but I hope it has a commonality with the other one — say, Waukee North and Waukee South — rather than following Ankeny in giving the new one an unrelated name.
In the past 16 years, Waukee has quadrupled in enrollment, going from the 35th-largest district in Iowa to the eighth-largest, and the largest without multiple high schools. All suburban growth in Dallas County south of 260th Street/Northwest 54th Avenue pours into the Waukee district. West Des Moines has stayed about in place, gaining about 300 students and passing the 9000 mark. It should have split into two high schools in the late 1990s, but didn’t. (Why not? Short answer: Dowling. Long answer: Dowling football.)
Second, the mid-decade special census of Waukee was released, and it gained 4155 people. The formerly 29th-largest city in Iowa added the approximate population equivalent of the 93rd-largest city in Iowa (Forest City, 2010 pop. 4191) to get near the 18,000 mark. Waukee now has more people than 60 counties, leapfrogging 19 including Tama between 2010 and 2015.