The Harmony school district is about to face the music.
At the end of August, the Harmony and Van Buren school boards met to start petitions for consolidation of the two districts. (Story: KTVO) The “new” name would be Van Buren County Community School District, “county” being the change. (That means North Tama and South Tama would get some company on the official name convention.) Since the vast majority of the district is in Van Buren County, it makes sense. Harmony extends about three miles east of the county line, including Hillsboro. The vote would be in February.
Neither the story nor the petition mention anything about grade allocations or buildings, but I wouldn’t be surprised if either the Harmony building or Douds Elementary are closed. The next question is what happens to the shuttered Bonaparte building.
The petition lists the land area to be reorganized, by township, and check out the old-school measurements:
Van Buren Township (Township 66-67 North, Range 7W)
Section 3- Part of the S1/2 bounded by a line beginning at the NW corner of the SW1/4; thence S 120 rods, thence East 160 rods to the Quarter section line, thence S 4 rods, thence E 65.1 rods to the Center of the public road; thence along the center of the road northwesterly to a point on the quarter section line directly East of the POB, thence West to the POB.