November 12, 2008: Lovilia school building (1920) and closeup, below.
Brian McMillin of Iowa Backroads wrote some history of the Lovilia school on his blog. Two State Board of Education documents tell a fuller story about the end of the Lovilia school, which remained open as part of the Albia district until the end of 1998. In a special session after less than 72 hours’ notice (Iowa requires 24) on December 4, 1998, the Albia school board voted for a “temporary” closure of the building after the boiler failed. The state board soon ruled that this was an obvious fig leaf to avoid school-closure guidelines, given that everything was moved out of the building over Christmas break and the boiler was shut down.
Unfortunately, it was a pyrrhic victory. The state board’s decision came in the middle of the spring semester, too late to move the students back, and it gave Albia time to follow the real procedure. After multiple, well-published, well-attended meetings, both Lovilia and Melrose were given the ax on March 9, 1999, and this time there was nothing the state could do about it.
