The Fairfield Ledger has a hard paywall, but really, after the headline, and the line below from the Jan. 23 Fairfield school board meeting, what’s left?
Approve reorganizing the district from 3 elementary buildings to 2 by closing Libertyville Elementary. (A)
According to supplemental documents, the district expects “a minimum of $382,563 savings.” Along with early retirements and other budget cuts, the district cut nearly $1 million from its budget at that meeting.
The Libertyville decision means this is the 32nd year of the past 35 that at least one Iowa town has lost its only school building (and three more are pending). I phrase it that way because the two buildings that closed in 2001 that I know of had replacements built in the same towns, and then I have not found any that closed in 1995 or 1996. But otherwise, I have tracked down one — sometimes only one, but at least one — closure annually since 1982-83.