The Alta and Aurelia school districts — one mostly in Buena Vista County, the other mostly in Cherokee County — extended their whole-grade-sharing agreement last year. Last month, however, they dove into full reorganization, effective next year. Story: Cherokee Chronicle-Times.
The school board of the consolidated district will start as a transitional board, with technically three active boards at once in the next school year, and it will eventually be whittled down to one five-member at-large board. (Chronicle-Times, again) The new state law combining city and school elections had no effect on this decision, but it will be interesting to see if districts change to an at-large plan because of it.
The Alta and Aurelia districts combined have lost 25% of their students since 2000.